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OKRs seem a brilliant way to silo your teams and shut down any cross team collaboration. OKRs become a shield to deflect any external request that doesn't prec

OKRs seem a brilliant way to silo your teams and shut down any cross team collaboration. OKRs become a shield to deflect any external request that doesn't precisely align with a measure. Not a fan.

GauntletWizard 6y ago
I'm certain you've got experience to back up this view of them, but you should consider that it's not a failure of OKRs, but of management setting OKRs, that what your teams OKRs weren't aligned with other teams. I've had similar experiences, but I've also had explicitly cross-team OKRs and OKRS that were broadly set on "Respond to needs of customer teams X, Y, and Z" that were among the most successful that I or others on my team picked up. Collaboration should be a goal. A management structure that doesn't explicitly make it one is at fault, and they would have failed regardless of the organizational methodology they chose.
- Marazan 6y ago
  In my experience that still just pushes off the problem one layer. Now you've defined who the team can and can't interact with to an even greater degree than not having anything and it totally kills 'spontaneous' collaboration. I am absolutely no rejecting the notion that maybe my company is very bad at doing OKRs but for me they have always resulted in "working to the metric" and have totally inhibit team autonomy - you become ruler by the KRs. EDIT: the first time my company tried OKRs a company culture of collaboration and experimentation was brought to a shuddering halt as everyone stopped trying to do what was best for the business and started trying to hit their OKRs instead.
jpadkins 6y ago
So you believe collaboration is good, even when it comes at the cost of measurable results? I feel the opposite. There is too much cross team collaboration that "feels good, doesn't do good". OKRs cuts through the BS, and makes you evaluate if your collaboration is actually doing anything measurable. Focus typically has this effect.
- Marazan 6y ago
  No, I believe OKRs kill collaboration - nothing more nothing less. But furthermore I think your comment is suggestive of the "You can't manage what you can't measure" fallacy that underpins OKRs.
  - pensatoio 6y ago
    It’s tough to collaborate when nobody has a plan.

OKRs seem a brilliant way to silo your teams and shut down any cross team collaboration. OKRs become a shield to deflect any external request that doesn't precisely align with a measure. Not a fan.

GauntletWizard 6y ago

I'm certain you've got experience to back up this view of them, but you should consider that it's not a failure of OKRs, but of management setting OKRs, that what your teams OKRs weren't aligned with other teams. I've had similar experiences, but I've also had explicitly cross-team OKRs and OKRS that were broadly set on "Respond to needs of customer teams X, Y, and Z" that were among the most successful that I or others on my team picked up. Collaboration should be a goal. A management structure that doesn't explicitly make it one is at fault, and they would have failed regardless of the organizational methodology they chose.

Marazan 6y ago
In my experience that still just pushes off the problem one layer. Now you've defined who the team can and can't interact with to an even greater degree than not having anything and it totally kills 'spontaneous' collaboration. I am absolutely no rejecting the notion that maybe my company is very bad at doing OKRs but for me they have always resulted in "working to the metric" and have totally inhibit team autonomy - you become ruler by the KRs. EDIT: the first time my company tried OKRs a company culture of collaboration and experimentation was brought to a shuddering halt as everyone stopped trying to do what was best for the business and started trying to hit their OKRs instead.

jpadkins 6y ago

So you believe collaboration is good, even when it comes at the cost of measurable results? I feel the opposite. There is too much cross team collaboration that "feels good, doesn't do good". OKRs cuts through the BS, and makes you evaluate if your collaboration is actually doing anything measurable. Focus typically has this effect.

Marazan 6y ago
No, I believe OKRs kill collaboration - nothing more nothing less. But furthermore I think your comment is suggestive of the "You can't manage what you can't measure" fallacy that underpins OKRs.
- pensatoio 6y ago
  It’s tough to collaborate when nobody has a plan.