Measure What Matters - Book Review

Most books are boring. Some of them entertain. A few inform. Rare books change your life.

Measure What Matters is one book that changed my life.

In India, we often hear this 'takiya kalam' (Oft repeated phrase) "What's in a book?" So don't talk bookish knowledge" or "kitaabi baaton mein kuch nahin rakhaa hai..." (There is nothing worthy in book talk).

This book SHATTERED all such notions the moment I read it.

WHY?

- I first heard about OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) in a Google conference where I was a mentor and was given my own set of OKRs to execute This was the first time I was accountable, even as a speaker The method of tracking my contribution (and making me accountable) just blew my mind.

• I quickly researched and found out the genesis of OKRs - this book transformed the destiny of hundreds of top-notch companies and how they work (Google, Amazon, Spotify etc. (google search 'which companies use OKRs?'))
• Once I understood the concept (as of now, my knowledge is 30%), I threw out the old "KRA/KPI" concepts in my company?Games2win India Pvt Ltd?and established OKRs It's worked well for the past seven years though I have to deepen the practice and its implementation.
• My understanding of goal setting and measuring performance has changed forever This book did it for me.

The sheer simplicity, small book size :), fascinating trivia, titbits and the YouTube story inside are irresistible:

• As the eighteenth search engine to arrive on the web, Google was way late to the party.
• Ideas are easy Execution is everything.

Marissa Mayer would say, "It's not a key result unless it has a number.

• In 2009, the Harvard Business School published a paper titled "Goals Gone Wild." It led with a catalog of examples of "destructive goal pursuit": exploding Ford Pinto fuel tanks, wholesale gouging by Sears auto repair centers, Enron's recklessly inflated sales targets, the 1996 Mount Everest disaster that left eight climbers dead Goals, the authors cautioned, were "a prescription-strength medication that requires careful dosing … and close supervision." They even posted a warning label: "Goals may cause systematic problems in organizations due to narrowed focus, unethical behavior, increased risk taking, decreased cooperation, and decreased motivation." The dark side of goal setting could swamp any benefits, or so their argument went.
• A two-year Deloitte study found that no single factor has more impact than "clearly defined goals that are written down and shared freely …. Goals create alignment, clarity, and job satisfaction."

The objective is the direction: "We want to dominate the mid-range microcomputer component business." That's an objective. That's where we're going to go. Key results for this quarter: "Win ten new designs for the 8085" is one key result. It's a milestone.

• Andy Grove ( CEO of Intel) was hard on everybody, most of all himself A proudly self-made man, he could be arrogant He did not suffer fools, or meandering meetings, or ill-formed proposals (He kept a set of rubber stamps on his desk, including one engraved BULLSHIT.) The best way to solve a management problem, he believed, was through "creative confrontation"—by facing people "bluntly, directly, and unapologetically."
• To quote the late, great Bill Campbell, the Intuit CEO who later coached the Google executive team: "When you're the CEO or the founder of a company … you've got to say 'This is what we're doing,' and then you have to model it Because if you don't model it, no one's going to do it."

Bad companies," Andy wrote, "are destroyed by crisis. Good companies survive them. Great companies are improved by them."

• As Steve Jobs understood, "Innovation means saying no to one thousand things."
• Jim Collins: "What can you be the best at in the world?"

Read the highlights of this book here -?https://bit.ly/dkb-okr

Get it and transform your work and life.

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