Exponential Organizations: Why new organizations are ten times better, faster, and cheaper than yours (and what to do about it)

by Salim Ismail

Some characteristics of OKRs: KPIs are determined top-down, while OKRs are determined bottom-up. Objectives are the dream; Key Results are the success criteria (i.e., a way to measure incremental progress towards the objective). Objectives are qualitative and Key Results are quantitative. OKRs are not the same as employee evaluations. OKRs are about the company’s goals and how each employee contributes to those goals. Performance evaluations—which are entirely about evaluating how an employee performed in a given period—are independent of OKRs. Objectives are ambitious and should feel uncomfortable. [In general, up to five objectives and four key results per initiative are optimal, and key results should see an achievement rate of 60 to 70 percent; if they don’t, the bar has been set too low.]