Measure What Matters

Today’s workers “want to be ‘empowered’ and ‘inspired,’ not told what to do. They want to provide feedback to their managers, not wait for a year to receive feedback from their managers.

Replace “Employee of the Month” with “Achievement of the Month.”

OKRs are a superb training tool for executives and managers. They teach you how to manage your business within existing limits.

Your people may not like you very much through the adoption curve, which can take up to a year. But it’s worth it.

Early on in your career, when you’re an individual contributor, you’re graded on the volume and quality of your work. Then one day, all of a sudden, you’re a manager. Let’s assume you do well and move up to manage more and more people. Now you’re no longer paid for the amount of work you do; you’re paid for the quality of decisions you make. But no one tells you the rules have changed. When you hit a wall, you think, I’ll just work harder—that’s what got me here.

Early on in your career, when you’re an individual contributor, you’re graded on the volume and quality of your work. Then one day, all of a sudden, you’re a manager. Let’s assume you do well and move up to manage more and more people. Now you’re no longer paid for the amount of work you do; you’re paid for the quality of decisions you make. But no one tells you the rules have changed. When you hit a wall, you think, I’ll just work harder—that’s what got me here. What you should do is more counterintuitive: Stop for a moment and shut out the noise. Close your eyes to really see what’s in front of you, and then pick the best way forward for you and your team, relative to the organization’s needs.

In another life, Mike might have called out the manufacturing lead: “What the hell, can you hurry up and get this done? I’ve been waiting forever!” When you say instead, “My KR is at risk,” it’s less charged and more constructive.

The agenda is you, the individual, and what you are trying to accomplish personally over the next two to three years, and how you’re breaking that into a two-week plan. I like to start with three questions: What makes you very happy? What saps your energy? How would

The agenda is you, the individual, and what you are trying to accomplish personally over the next two to three years, and how you’re breaking that into a two-week plan. I like to start with three questions: What makes you very happy? What saps your energy? How would you describe your dream job?

In talking about people’s pursuit of personal goals, you end up learning a lot about what moves them forward—or holds them back—in their careers.

if you measure something, you’re telling people that it matters.”

first you need to get “the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and the right people in the right seats.” Only then do you turn the wheel and step on the gas.

It’s no different plunging into OKRs. Once you start having honest, vulnerable, two-way conversations with your direct reports, you begin to see what makes them tick.

It’s no different plunging into OKRs. Once you start having honest, vulnerable, two-way conversations with your direct reports, you begin to see what makes them tick. You feel their yearning to connect to things bigger than themselves. You hear their need for recognition that what they’re doing matters.

They began to realize there was no shame in trying your hardest and failing, not when OKRs help you fail smart and fail fast.

The reviews run for three hours, with a dozen senior executives taking their turn. Little time is spent on people’s greens. Instead, they “sell” their reds. The team votes on the most important at-risk OKRs for the company as a whole, then brainstorms together as long as it takes to get the objectives back on track. In the spirit of cross-departmental solidarity, individuals volunteer to “buy” their colleagues’ reds. As Art says, “We’re all here to help. We’re all in the same bathwater.”

Be careful if you think you know what we want. Because we know what we want. You’re not African, and this messiah complex hasn’t always turned out so

Be careful if you think you know what we want. Because we know what we want. You’re not African, and this messiah complex hasn’t always turned out so well.

I’m always scared that we’re going to go corporate and try to beat every quarterly goal. We needed John to remind us, “If everything’s at green, you failed.” That was counterintuitive for a lot of people, especially now that we’re financed up and have the best and the brightest working here. But John kept saying, “More red!” He was right. We needed more big ambitions because that’s what we’re good at. We’re less good at the incremental stuff.

The OKR framework cultivates the madness, the chemistry contained inside it. It gives us an environment for risk, for trust, where failing is not a fireable offense—you know, a safe place to be yourself. And