Hi Jimmy, you are right about the team dependencies. The OKRs should be only finalized in a live session where each team that needs to support an OKR agrees that they have time and resources to do it. It would be really unproductive to commit to an OKR that is being blocked by another team. We still see that it occasionally happens in many companies but over time, you should be able to improve company-wide alignment and make sure everyone is on board with the priorities once they have been properly explained. It comes back to the discussion process in the beginning of the quarter. We have a great template and discussion structure in our Learning Center. If you have a Weekdone account (even a free one), you can access the workflow suggestions here: weekdone.com/learning/manager/okr-theory/implement-okrs/okr-review-process and you can download a slide deck with brainstorming suggestions in the article called Actionable Objectives: weekdone.com/learning/manager/okr-theory/write-good-okrs/4-rules-for-writing-actionable-goals-with-okrs

Hi Jimmy, what a team is measuring with KRs depends on what the team can control. So if you have a team that owns driving up the number of pre-orders of a new product, then this team can measure how much money they are bringing with these pre-orders. It depends on the Objective too. So if the Objective is to launch a new product successfully, then a KR like this would make total sense. However, revenue targets are company-wide KPIs and it makes no sense to repeat them in team KRs. KPIs are what we want to impact, OKRs are HOW we are going to do it. Repeating numeric targets will not make the team hit them any faster. Does this address your question?

Hi Amitesh! We have these slides available in Weekdone Learning Center. You can access the link within your Weekdone account (if you don't have one, you can create it for free - Weekdone is free for 1-3 users). Here is where to find the slide deck: weekdone.com/learning/manager/okr-theory/getting-started#h-2-writing-company-os-and-team-okrs

Thank you! It means a lot to get this feedback!

Hi Aditia! On the Company level, you should have overarching Objectives, Teams will have OKRs, and individuals will have initiatives/plans/deliverables to complete. So each level of goal-setting has its own purpose. To make sure that individuals understand how their effort contributes to the bigger picture, the goal-setting process has clear stages. We cover them in detail in this article: blog.weekdone.com/reflex-media-okr-writing-process/ Below is the breakdown of what those stages are. Leadership takes care of Stage 1 and 2, and then the Team Managers with their teams take care of the rest. Stage 1: figure out the high-level consequence we want Stage 2: choose HOW we are going to achieve that consequence (there may be hundreds of possibilities - so leaders need to choose the hypothesis they believe in the most) Stage 3: Team Managers work with their team to answer the questions - what is slowing us down? what can we change or improve to have better results? what is our role in driving the Company Objective forward? Stage 4: Teams agree internally on a set of outcomes they will achieve within a quarter. What can we measure to understand that we are successful? What will show us whether things are on track or off track? Stage 5: Team members prioritize their weekly plans based on their impact on the OKRs. The team has weekly OKR check-ins to analyze what is working and what can be done better. We hope this clarifies things a little!

You're clearly doing it right! :)

It feels amazing to know we shed clarity on this topic! Thank you for the feedback!

Thanks, Deepak!

Is an "inspiring and purposeful" objective doesn't seem accurate to me. All of these objectives are to "move the company forward" but why does that only take the firm of increasing sales and advertising metrics? Why would "pleasure taken in the company's employment" not be an example? Take for instance, the promotion message of the OKR "system." It is promoted as being something that is valuable in ways other than merely increasing revenue, market share, and popularity. So why does the okr system seek to differentiate itself from goals rather than contributing to the perfectly clear and vast information reservoir of the goal making / achieving system in common use since the 70s in corporate America?

Try Atlassian. Jira.

Glad to hear that you find it valuable!

Hi Miguel, sorry for the late reply, we somehow missed your comment. Interview 5 candidates is indeed a KR and not an Objective. Sorry for the bad example, it's a bit of an old video and definitely could be updated with a better example. We all live and learn :) Here's a newer and much better video on how a good OKR could look like - kzbin.info/www/bejne/omfXe32tpKZkfrs

Hi! It's a good question. OKRs can have a negative value when they are not done correctly. For example, a lot of companies who start using OKRs never really learn the right principles and do not follow the best practice process. What happens as a result of that is they do not set any real or good OKRs and people are very confused around what and why should they do. It can bring conflicts and demotivated people. For example, one wrong use of OKRs is forcing every employee to set their own OKRs while they should actually be set on the team level. Individual OKRs can drive individualism, micromanaging, and demotivation, people can hate the OKRs eventually. So OKR implementation can be negative if companies do not put in the right effort to learn and use best practices. It's not only the problem of OKRs, every organizational change needs thought through preparation and leading. Let us know if you have any other questions!

Hi! It's a good question. OKRs can have a negative value when they are not done correctly. For example, a lot of companies who start using OKRs never really learn the right principles and do not follow the best practice process. What happens as a result of that is they do not set any real or good OKRs and people are very confused around what and why should they do. It can bring conflicts and demotivated people. For example, one wrong use of OKRs is forcing every employee to set their own OKRs while they should actually be set on the team level. Individual OKRs can drive individualism, micromanaging, and demotivation, people can hate the OKRs eventually. So OKR implementation can be negative if companies do not put in the right effort to learn and use best practices. It's not only the problem of OKRs, every organizational change needs thought through preparation and leading. Let us know if you have any other questions!