Getting The Most From OKRs: Guide & Template
OKRs, which is an abbreviation of 'Objectives and Key Results', is a management goal-setting methodology that's become commonplace amongst today's high-performing businesses across sectors, sizes, and geographies. In this post, I offer a quick guide to OKRs: what they are, what benefits they provide, and where to start. I've also created an OKR Template for you to download and use. This provides a framework for constructing your OKRs in the context of your 'Big Picture' thinking, and with an appreciation and understanding of any potential enablers and blockers. The OKR Template encourages you to focus your thinking so you can get everything onto one page, thereby offering a concise, accessible and consumable reference that you and your team can use on an ongoing basis to guide your planning, actions, and business.
The original development of OKRs is attributed to Andy Grove, the legendary co-founder of Intel, who first introduced the approach during the early 1970's and later documented in his 1983 book: 'High Output Management'. He explained the concept of OKRs accordingly: "The key result has to be measurable. But at the end you can look, and without any arguments: did I do that or did I not do it? Yes? No? Simple. No judgments in it."
In 1975, John Doerr, a salesperson at Intel at the time, attended a course taught by Grove where he was introduced to OKRs. In 1999 Doerr, who had gone on to work for the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, presented the idea of OKRs to one of their startup investments - a company called Google. The idea took hold, and OKRs quickly became central to Google's culture and way of operating.
Seeing their success at Google, and with employees leaving to join new startups and other businesses, the OKRs model has spread throughout Silicon Valley and beyond to organisations including Oracle, Twitter, LinkedIn, Amazon, Dell, Facebook, Adobe, Uber, and many more. They've also extended outside of the tech space to companies such as Anheuser-Busch, Gap, and Sears.
To learn more about OKRs and what they can do for you read the Guide and get your OKRs Template at Get2Growth.