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I kind of reject the premise of this Professor's argument. I use OKRs extensively up, down and across my business and at no point have I felt they masquerade f

I kind of reject the premise of this Professor's argument. I use OKRs extensively up, down and across my business and at no point have I felt they masquerade for strategy. You set a destination for the business through the creation of a vision and then create OKRs and KPIs to measure progress towards it and perhaps more importantly provide transparency. It's simple, it just works, and I think this guy is just trying to be contrary for the sake of it.

majormajor 5y ago
I've worked for a couple different places now that did not "set a destination through a vision." They picked a destination as a number ("more money" or "more users" or similar) and then built OKRs from that number. There was no real strategy, just local maximization. But then what does it mean if you didn't hit your numbers? Was your progress along the right path? Are you closer to being able to hit targets next year? Those execs couldn't tell you. Hell, even if you did hit your numbers, it was hard to get any sort of answer about how that tied in to what the company wanted to do next.
WJW 5y ago
Let me just inject some cynism into this: no executive ever thinks their strategic initiatives are anything other than the purest form of willpower given articulate form. At all the companies I've consulted for, OKRs inevitably run into either: - Non-SMART formulated key results anywhere in the chain allow opportunistic employees and/or managers to spin tales about how they're doing great regardless of actual results. - The executive team does not publish company-wide objectives in time for downstream teams to build their own objectives upon them, so the downstream teams just do what they've been wanting to do anyway and then spin a yarn about how it fits into the company-wide objectives when (and if) they arrive. - Lack of responsibility, nothing happens if you fail to meet your KRs. Also nothing happens if you beat your stretch goals btw. - Reorganizations every six months make a year-long planning cycle meaningless in the first place. - The whole company failed the planned OKRs for the year so badly that the executive team just decided to not mention them ever again "for morale reasons". (True story) - And many more. Don't get me wrong, OKRs can be a powerful tool in small enough teams where the Principal-Agent problem is not yet rearing its head in force. But to say that it "just works" and has no problems is simply false.
- tomnipotent 5y ago
  > But to say that it "just works" and has no problems is simply false. It's also become a bit like "Agile". Take ten companies doing some sort of OKR process, and I bet most of the overlap is in name only.
  - steveBK123 5y ago
    Precisely. I'm at an organization that tried to push OKRs but also doesn't even have quarterly objectives at a firm, org or department level most of the time. If we cannot simply set goals for the next 3 months with any diligence, what business do we have setting pie-in-the-sky 5 year plans?
    - tomnipotent 5y ago
      It's been my experience that most companies that try their hand at an OKR process are actually executives trying to answer "what the hell is everyone working on?" This is pretty common in growth companies and new leaders that are still finding their rhythm for managing an executive team. Sometimes there's absolutely value in the OKR process even if it's abandoned mid-game, such that it forces people into a mode of thinking and organization that helps them coalesce their ideas into more manageable and actionable plans.
Jare 5y ago
My short take: your vision is the what, and your OKRs/KPIs are the if/when. The strategy is the how.

majormajor 5y ago

I've worked for a couple different places now that did not "set a destination through a vision." They picked a destination as a number ("more money" or "more users" or similar) and then built OKRs from that number. There was no real strategy, just local maximization. But then what does it mean if you didn't hit your numbers? Was your progress along the right path? Are you closer to being able to hit targets next year? Those execs couldn't tell you. Hell, even if you did hit your numbers, it was hard to get any sort of answer about how that tied in to what the company wanted to do next.

WJW 5y ago

Let me just inject some cynism into this: no executive ever thinks their strategic initiatives are anything other than the purest form of willpower given articulate form. At all the companies I've consulted for, OKRs inevitably run into either: - Non-SMART formulated key results anywhere in the chain allow opportunistic employees and/or managers to spin tales about how they're doing great regardless of actual results. - The executive team does not publish company-wide objectives in time for downstream teams to build their own objectives upon them, so the downstream teams just do what they've been wanting to do anyway and then spin a yarn about how it fits into the company-wide objectives when (and if) they arrive. - Lack of responsibility, nothing happens if you fail to meet your KRs. Also nothing happens if you beat your stretch goals btw. - Reorganizations every six months make a year-long planning cycle meaningless in the first place. - The whole company failed the planned OKRs for the year so badly that the executive team just decided to not mention them ever again "for morale reasons". (True story) - And many more. Don't get me wrong, OKRs can be a powerful tool in small enough teams where the Principal-Agent problem is not yet rearing its head in force. But to say that it "just works" and has no problems is simply false.

tomnipotent 5y ago
> But to say that it "just works" and has no problems is simply false. It's also become a bit like "Agile". Take ten companies doing some sort of OKR process, and I bet most of the overlap is in name only.
- steveBK123 5y ago
  Precisely. I'm at an organization that tried to push OKRs but also doesn't even have quarterly objectives at a firm, org or department level most of the time. If we cannot simply set goals for the next 3 months with any diligence, what business do we have setting pie-in-the-sky 5 year plans?
  - tomnipotent 5y ago
    It's been my experience that most companies that try their hand at an OKR process are actually executives trying to answer "what the hell is everyone working on?" This is pretty common in growth companies and new leaders that are still finding their rhythm for managing an executive team. Sometimes there's absolutely value in the OKR process even if it's abandoned mid-game, such that it forces people into a mode of thinking and organization that helps them coalesce their ideas into more manageable and actionable plans.

Jare 5y ago

My short take: your vision is the what, and your OKRs/KPIs are the if/when. The strategy is the how.