This is not the first time I make the following comment: lately, I feel that OKRs – Objectives and Key Results – have increasingly become a kind of ‘fad.’ Companies claim to have the tool and use it in their daily processes, but I wonder internally if they are doing it correctly.
Some of these companies, after using the tool for a while, end up adopting the opposite approach: abandoning OKRs because ‘they don’t work.’ Many people have come to me and commented that you can’t talk about OKRs in certain organizations because consultant X implemented them and it went wrong, and the CEO, owner, or team now have an aversion to them.
Believe me, the situation I described above has happened quite a few times. Do OKRs really not work, or is it you and your team who didn’t know how to use them or brought in someone to support you who only had slide-deck experience? After all, let’s be honest, with a flawed implementation, it’s practically impossible to use OKRs and get the most out of them.
Recently, I’ve seen managers claiming that the tool seems like a good solution at first but later turns out to be a trap that distracts focus and attention, making the team generally unproductive. Analyzing these cases made me concerned about how OKRs were being applied, since one of their premises is to provide greater clarity for needs, direction, and actions to be taken, which leads to better results.
The truth is that to use this methodology in your company, you need to keep in mind that OKRs are not some magical formula and won’t transform the organization overnight. The tool requires a shift in organizational culture to succeed, and management must be extremely aligned with the team, involving everyone in setting goals and defining objectives.
With this in mind, I decided to list the three ways NOT to do OKRs, as a warning for managers implementing the tool incorrectly and as guidance for those looking to start using them:
Third way: thinking it’s simple and easy to implement after reading a book like ‘Measure What Matters.’
First way: assigning responsibility to third parties—whether a consultant or project leader—because otherwise, the change won’t happen, and the responsibility for such a project lies with leadership.
Second way: rushing through everything. Believe me, this doesn’t help, because cultural change doesn’t happen overnight.
