More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
John Doerr
Read between
July 10 - August 1, 2022
Most deadly of all, MBOs were commonly tied to salaries and bonuses. If risk taking might be penalized, why chance it? By the 1990s, the system was falling from vogue. Even Drucker soured on it. MBOs, he said, were “just another tool” and “not the great cure for management inefficiency.”
MBOs are different than iMBOs (Intel Management by Objectives), which are really OKRs.
At Intel, Andy recruited “aggressive introverts” in his own image, people who solved problems quickly, objectively, systematically, and permanently. Following his lead, they were skilled at confronting a problem without attacking the person.
Hope this is still the case. Is constructive confrontation still alive?
The mid-1970s marked the birth of the personal computer industry, a yeasty time for fresh ideas and upstart entrepreneurs. I was low on the totem pole, a first-year product manager, but Grove and I had a relationship. One spring day I grabbed him and drove up to the first West Coast Computer Faire at the San Francisco Civic Auditorium. We found a former Intel executive demonstrating the Apple II, the state of the art for graphical display. I said, “Andy, we’ve already got the operating system. We make the microchip. We’ve got the compilers; we’ve licensed BASIC. Intel should make a personal
...more
Interesting note, but is this relevant to OKRs? Or is the author lamenting on a missed opportunity for Intel?
Transparency seeds collaboration. Say Employee A is struggling to reach a quarterly objective. Because she has publicly tracked her progress, colleagues can see she needs help. They jump in, posting comments and offering support. The work improves. Equally important, work relationships are deepened, even transformed.
An optimal OKR system frees contributors to set at least some of their own objectives and most or all of their key results. People are led to stretch above and beyond, to set more ambitious targets and achieve more of those they set: “The higher the goals, the higher the performance.” People who choose their destination will own a deeper awareness of what it takes to get there.
Intrinsic motivation at work
Leaders must ask themselves: What type of company do we need to be in the coming year? Agile and daring, to crack a new market—or more conservative and operational, to firm up our existing position? Are we in survival mode, or is there cash on hand to bet big for a big reward? What does our business require, right now?
Good questions to always think about!
Unsuccessful companies scale beyond the leadership team’s capacity, and they die. Successful companies scale beyond the team’s abilities and the team gets replaced.
From the beginning, the process forced us to clarify who’s in charge of what.
Duplication becomes apparent with OKRs
I like to start with three questions: What makes you very happy? What saps your energy? How would you describe your dream job?
Good agenda fof a 1:1!
We needed John to remind us, “If everything’s at green, you failed.” That was counterintuitive for a lot of people, especially now that we’re financed up and have the best and the brightest working here. But John kept saying, “More red!” He was right. We needed more big ambitions because that’s what we’re good at. We’re less good at the incremental stuff.
Bono got this right!
He did it in his characteristic style, one part Zen and one part Bud Light. Bill gave little direction. He’d ask a very few questions, invariably the right ones. But mostly he listened. He knew that most times in business there were several right answers, and the leader’s job was to pick one. “Just make a decision,” he’d say.
just make a decision to move forward
“Be better every day.” There is nothing more challenging—or more fulfilling—than that.
Say this before logging on every morning
