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I suppose the author is - in business language - describing the problem that data driven goal setting makes an organisation chase local maxima. I definitely ag

by fhd2 5y ago

I suppose the author is - in business language - describing the problem that data driven goal setting makes an organisation chase local maxima. I definitely agree! Seen more than one company go down from this. I guess part of the issue is that established companies have a tendency of being too risk averse to dare chasing the global maximum.

bitwize 5y ago
It's more like companies lose sight of the what/how distinction. It's like this: Objective: End the war with the Machines Key Result: Neo is delivered to the Source so he can set us all free Q. What's missing? A. Strategy: 1) Rescue the Keymaker from the Merovingian 2) Blow up the power station and the emergency backup to disable the alarms 3) Infiltrate the building and have the Keymaker unlock the right door 4) Etc. And without that third bit you're lost. It's good to have a goal, it's good to have things you can check to see how far along you are, but you need to map out what must be done to achieve forward progress also. A lot of companies confuse the journey for the destination and set OKRs without mapping out how that may be done. Or maybe they leave the how to lower levels, who I guess set OKRs of their own and delegate the how to their subordinates, etc.? I dunno.
potamic 5y ago
I think they are saying a little more than that. From what I gather, they are trying to distinguish the concept of an objective from strategy. An objective is something that is desired to be achieved, something that indicates the business is running well. It is merely a target and does not specify how that target can be achieved. Strategy is what gives direction as to how a target can be reached and sort of a framework under which they can operate. I think what they are arguing is that businesses sometimes define objectives without having a strategy. In such a situation there will be a hundred different ways how the objective can be achieved but no direction on which way to pick and each pulling the business in different directions. I agree that it is quite business language heavy. My understanding could be wrong, take it as a non-business guy's interpretation.

by fhd2 5y ago

bitwize 5y ago

It's more like companies lose sight of the what/how distinction. It's like this: Objective: End the war with the Machines Key Result: Neo is delivered to the Source so he can set us all free Q. What's missing? A. Strategy: 1) Rescue the Keymaker from the Merovingian 2) Blow up the power station and the emergency backup to disable the alarms 3) Infiltrate the building and have the Keymaker unlock the right door 4) Etc. And without that third bit you're lost. It's good to have a goal, it's good to have things you can check to see how far along you are, but you need to map out what must be done to achieve forward progress also. A lot of companies confuse the journey for the destination and set OKRs without mapping out how that may be done. Or maybe they leave the how to lower levels, who I guess set OKRs of their own and delegate the how to their subordinates, etc.? I dunno.

potamic 5y ago

I think they are saying a little more than that. From what I gather, they are trying to distinguish the concept of an objective from strategy. An objective is something that is desired to be achieved, something that indicates the business is running well. It is merely a target and does not specify how that target can be achieved. Strategy is what gives direction as to how a target can be reached and sort of a framework under which they can operate. I think what they are arguing is that businesses sometimes define objectives without having a strategy. In such a situation there will be a hundred different ways how the objective can be achieved but no direction on which way to pick and each pulling the business in different directions. I agree that it is quite business language heavy. My understanding could be wrong, take it as a non-business guy's interpretation.