Measure What Matters

by John Doerr

In 2015, we made an initial try to implement OKRs. As an ex-Googler, I was sold on the power of objectives and key results. But I underestimated what it took to introduce them, much less to execute them effectively. You need to build your goal muscle gradually, incrementally. As I know too well from my own private wellness OKR to run a marathon: Doing too much too soon will definitely end in pain. We created quarterly OKRs and annual OKRs, and rolled them out to everybody at Nuna from day one. We were tiny then, around twenty people—not such a big lift, you might think. But the process didn’t take. Some people never set their individual OKRs; others set them, but stuck them in a drawer. With hindsight, I would have started with our leadership team of five. For structured goal setting to prosper, as our company learned the hard way, executives need to commit to the process. It may take a quarter or two to overcome your managers’ resistance and get them acclimated to OKRs—to view them not as a necessary evil, or some perfunctory exercise, but as a practical tool to fulfill your organization’s top priorities.