The OKRs Field Book: A Step-by-Step Guide for Objectives and Key Results Coaches

by Ben Lamorte

you should be familiar with books such as Radical Focus, by Christina Wodtke; Objectives and Key Results, a book I co‐authored with Paul Niven; and Measure What Matters, by John Doerr.

Why does our team exist? What is the most important objective for our team to focus on this quarter? How will we know we've achieved the objective?

Why is this objective so important now? How will you know you've achieved the objective by the end of the quarter? What is the intended outcome of the task?

“Objective descriptions” are replaced with “Why now?” Back in 2016, we recommended including an “objective description” after each objective.8 This confused our clients, and not everyone adopted the recommendation. By mid‐2018, all of our clients adopted “Why now?” in place of objective descriptions. They align on three to five sentences that explain why the objective is so important right now. The emphasis on “Why now?” tends to educate and motivate the workforce. This step ensures alignment on the essence of the objective before taking on the time‐consuming process of drafting key results. Beginning with “Why now?” is an excellent opportunity to add value as a coach. Several of our clients report that getting clear about why each objective is so important right now is the biggest benefit of their OKRs program. Leaders often announce OKRs by presenting the objective and the analysis of “Why now?” on a full slide before presenting key results.

The International Coaching Federation defines coaching as “partnering with clients in a thought‐provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential.”

An OKRs coach does not focus on providing answers; an OKRs coach focuses on clarifying and providing the questions that help their client find their own answers.

OKRs deployment coaching: a structured series of discussions in which the OKRs coach guides a client to (1) align on the answers to the critical questions that define their OKRs program and (2) define the roles and resources that will support the program.

OKRs coaching: Partnering with clients in a thought‐provoking, creative, and structured process over three phases. Phase 1: Deployment coaching to align on the answers to the questions that define an OKRs program and define the roles and resources that will support the OKRs program. Phase 2: Training to ensure a shared understanding of OKRs. Phase 3: Cycle coaching, inquiry that enables a client to critically reflect throughout the three steps of an OKRs cycle to (1) align on where and why to focus effort to make measurable improvement, (2) communicate and monitor progress, and (3) document and apply learnings to the next OKRs cycle.

When in doubt, go back to fundamental OKRs coaching questions such as: Fundamental key result question: How will we know we've achieved the objective? Fundamental task‐to‐key‐result question: What is the intended outcome of the task?

Coaching Takeaways Cross‐team alignment. Mary took time to define her key result in such a way that others outside her team, such as Sumit, could understand. Encourage teams to present key results to dependent teams for feedback before finalizing. Less is more. Defining a small set of OKRs improves communication. People seem to pay more attention when there is less content to absorb.

guide your client through a three‐step OKRs cycle: (1) set and align OKRs, (2) check in and monitor progress, and (3) reflect and reset. Cycle coaching sessions typically include the entire leadership team for top‐level OKRs or several members of a given team for team‐level OKRs.

Responsibilities of external OKRs coaches include:4 Deployment coaching. Facilitate definitions of deployment parameters and align on the roles and resources to support the OKRs program. Training. Lead training workshops to create a shared understanding of OKRs. Cycle coaching. Ensure completion of OKRs cycle and capture learnings to apply to the next cycle.

Responsibilities of executive sponsors include: Communicate why the organization is adopting OKRs. Confirm deployment parameters as recommended by project leads. Help gather objectives for the top‐level OKRs drafting workshop. Participate in top‐level OKRs workshops. Meet with team leads to confirm team‐level OKRs are aligned with the organization's strategy. Bring energy and life to the OKRs program (e.g., secure resources, make opening remarks at OKRs trainings, present top‐level OKRs at companywide meetings).

Responsibilities of OKRs project leads include: Attend all deployment coaching sessions. Present recommendations to leadership (e.g., how to score key results). Work with external OKRs coach to agree on an OKRs tracker tool. Attend some, but not all, OKRs cycle coaching sessions. Facilitate OKRs training workshops (e.g., send workshop invites and compile objectives to be used at training workshops). Coordinate and schedule OKRs coaching sessions.*

Responsibilities of OKRs coordinators include: Coordinate and schedule OKRs coaching sessions. Send email reminders to ensure OKRs cycle stays on track such as: Step 1: Send email a week or two into the cycle with a link to the OKRs tracker to ensure everyone posts their OKRs to a single location by a target date. Step 2: Send email reminders to identify key results to be shared at mid‐cycle check‐ins. Step 3: Remind each team to publish their learnings at the end of the OKRs cycle.

Responsibilities of HR leads include: Provide input to help define deployment parameters. Assess how to relate OKRs with performance management. Involve project leads outside of HR to ensure OKRs does not become “an HR thing.”

Responsibilities of team leads include: Participate in OKRs training. Facilitate OKRs development with their team. Complete an OKRs cycle; attend cycle coaching sessions. Document and apply learnings to next cycle.

Responsibilities of team members include: Participate in drafting team‐level OKRs. Help refine key results at the team level, especially when aligning on prescoring (i.e., stretch, target, or commit).8 Apply OKRs critical thinking to connect work to the bigger picture.

Responsibilities of key result champions include: Update progress and confidence scores throughout the cycle. Serve as point person for questions related to the key result. Welcome ideas for how best to move the key result forward. Communicate and ensure alignment on work related to the key result. For example, ensure teams do not perform redundant tasks or work on conflicting projects. Apply learnings from the key result to the next cycle. Whether or not the key result is achieved, champions communicate final scores, assess impact, capture learnings, and recommend whether to keep, modify, or remove key results.

Responsibilities of internal OKRs coaches include: Attend OKRs training sessions. Ensure their team completes the OKRs cycle by asking questions to help refine OKRs, prepping for the mid‐cycle check‐in, and facilitating reflect and reset sessions at the end of each cycle. Lead workshops to train other internal OKRs coaches.

Coaching Takeaways Structure OKRs engagements to support your client through two cycles (8–12 months). Create work plans based on the phases in an OKRs coaching engagement: (1) deployment coaching, (2) training, and (3) cycle coaching. Help your client identify the right people to play the various roles required to launch and sustain their OKRs program. To ensure an OKRs program is not viewed as “an HR thing,” include at least one OKRs project lead outside of the HR function.

Coaching Takeaways Interview executives and OKRs project leads to confirm why your client is implementing OKRs. The more clarity you and your client have about why they are rolling out OKRs, the easier it will be to align on deployment parameters.

Coaching Takeaways Begin by identifying your client's top‐level OKRs as context for lower levels. Advise your client to first succeed with a small group of pilot teams before scaling their OKRs program. If your client defines OKRs at the individual level, advise them to make this practice optional. Individual contributors engage with OKRs by taking on roles such as team member, internal OKRs coach, and key result champion. Managers should work with each team member to ensure that daily work activities support moving OKRs forward and/or maintaining health metrics.

Questions to ask your client as you help them define how many and what types of objectives to define include: If you could only set one objective, would it be internal or external? Would it be useful to draft an internal and an external objective? Is it acceptable for a team to have only an internal objective even if the top‐level OKRs are all external?12

Coaching Takeaways Less is more. Limit the number of OKRs when getting started to at most three objectives with four key results per objective. Consider starting with a single OKR per team. While unusual, certain teams may benefit by defining up to five objectives with up to five key results per objective. These teams define OKRs that reflect nearly all their work to manage expectations about what they will, and will not, deliver in the near term. Help your client to distinguish between external and internal OKRs.

As a coach you should be familiar with the three most common scoring systems used in the field: Radical Focus. Key results are set at a 50% confidence level; key results are achieved or not. Measure What Matters. Key results are classified as “commit” or “aspirational.” Key results are scored on a 0–1 scale. Commit key results are expected to be fully achieved with a score of 1.0. The target score for aspirational key results is 0.7. Stretch Target Commit. Key results are defined by: (1) a stretch with 10% confidence of achievement, (2) a target with 50% confidence, and (3) a commit with 90% confidence.

Coaching Takeaways It is not the purpose of scoring key results to evaluate employee performance. It is to (1) communicate targets, (2) manage expectations, and (3) enable learning. Select a single system for scoring key results when getting started. Consider adding a “quality” dimension using colors or happy/sad emojis to promote check‐in conversations that go beyond the numbers. We recommend the Stretch Target Commit system to align on achievement levels and manage expectations before publishing key results.

Coaching Takeaways Align on a single cycle time for the first OKRs cycle. While organizations often define a three‐month cycle time, explore a four‐month cycle with clients seeking to avoid holiday delays and the quarterly crunch. Large organizations with several levels of OKRs tend to define shorter cycle times at lower levels.

Coaching Takeaways Metrics. Help your client define mostly metric key results (i.e., move metric A from X to Y). Baselines. If your client is not already measuring the right metric to capture progress on an objective, consider defining a baseline key result. In other words, “Find X” so your client can define a metric key result to improve from X to Y in the future. Milestones. Not all milestone key results are bad! Ask questions to help move your client further down the value chain to translate tasks and work output into outcomes. Use scoring to convert output milestones to outcome milestones or metrics. As inspiration, use the hypothetical coaching conversation that translated the output milestone, “Develop a demo,” into the metric key result, “Three customers sign an agreement to purchase product X after viewing the new product X demo.”

Coaching Takeaways Provide your client with an OKRs drafting template. Be flexible when drafting OKRs; use whatever is easiest for your client (e.g., Microsoft Word, Google Docs, or even a whiteboard). Publish all OKRs in one place, the OKRs tracker. Establish an OKRs process for at least one cycle before shopping for software to automate and scale that process.

How should OKRs be related with performance? Begin by interviewing your client to learn about their existing performance management system if such a system is in place. Next, consider the following two principles that resonate with all organizations that take time to define how OKRs relate to performance reviews and incentive compensation: OKRs should be included in performance review discussions via structured questions to position managers as coaches. Scores on key results should not be used to calculate bonuses.

Principle 1: OKRs Should Be Included in Performance Review Discussions via Structured Questions to Position Managers as Coaches

Principle 2: Scores on Key Results Should Not Be Used to Calculate Incentive Compensation

Coaching Takeaways DO… Assess existing approach. Have a conversation with your client's HR lead to learn about the existing performance review system if such a system is in place. Connect OKRs with performance management. In addition to OKRs project leads, include the HR lead and executive sponsor to align on how your client will connect OKRs with performance management. Bring OKRs into performance reviews. If your client has a performance system in place, advise your client to consider incorporating structured OKRs questions into their performance review process. DO NOT… Use key result scores to calculate bonus. Using key result scores as the basis for calculating incentive compensation discourages stretch thinking. Roll out both systems together. Rolling out OKRs and a new performance management system at the same time creates confusion and even anxiety. Begin with individual‐level OKRs. Starting with individual‐level OKRs blurs the distinction between OKRs and performance evaluation.

Coaching Takeaways OKRs and KPIs work together; they are not conflicting systems. Unlike key results, KPIs do not have a standard definition. A KPI is considered a key result when it is the focus for near‐term improvement. A KPI that is not the focus for near‐term improvement is a health metric. Use Figure 3.5 as inspiration to create training materials that help your clients distinguish between KPIs and key results.

Coaching Takeaways DO… Use higher‐level OKRs as context for creating lower‐level OKRs. Encourage your client to specify how lower‐level objectives connect to top‐level goals as part of the “Why now?” analysis of each objective. Discuss lower‐level OKRs with leadership to confirm alignment. DO NOT… Use the direct cascade approach to define OKRs. Turn a key result into a lower‐level team's objective. Copy and paste higher‐level OKRs to define lower‐level OKRs.

Coaching Takeaways Team leads define most objectives. Team members provide input to help define most key results. When teams draft OKRs, team leads set the stage by introducing each objective, as well as why each objective is so important right now. Consider starting completely top‐down to ensure leadership gets comfortable with OKRs with the plan of introducing a more bottom‐up approach in the second cycle.

Remind your client that organizations often define additional parameters to reflect their unique culture and approach to OKRs. It might help to provide a few examples to your client to get them thinking. Some other parameters are: How can we ensure our key results balance quantity with quality? How do we balance leading and lagging indicators? At what level in the organization will OKRs be made visible? How will we deal with dependencies on India? Shall we specify where we are choosing to not allocate resources?

Here are seven questions that coaches often ask when preparing for workshops: (1) What are the types of OKRs training workshops? (2) Can you share an actual agenda from an onsite training workshop? (3) How can I best deliver remote training? (4) Who should attend? (5) What interactive exercises work best, and how do I facilitate them? (6) What prereading or homework do I advise my client to complete in advance? (7) What materials do I need to create and deliver to my client?

Sample Email with Prework for a Top‐Level Workshop Here is an actual email that an OKRs project lead sent to leadership to prepare for an upcoming top‐level OKRs workshop. Use this sample as inspiration. From: OKRs Project Lead To: All Top‐Level OKRs Workshop Participants When: 1 week prior to workshop [send reminder 1‐2 days before workshop] Email Subject: Prep for OKRs Workshop [Email Body] Team, Here is the required material to review ahead of our upcoming workshop on [date]: Pre‐read: Objectives and Key Results, by Niven & Lamorte6 Pre‐watch: Christina Wodtke's Executioner's Tale7 Workshop Goal: Learn about the OKRs methodology and draft company‐level OKRs in a workshop facilitated by [YOUR NAME], who is an expert on OKRs. Preparation: Please submit an objective that you think is critical to focus on this year. Include a few sentences to explain why you feel the objective is important now. Company‐level objectives should… Reflect overall business goals (not just your team). Begin with a verb (improve, increase, etc.). Be qualitative (no numbers). Here are sample objectives as inspiration:8 Objective: Win Belgium market! Why Now? Competitor X just closed three major accounts in Belgium, and while we continue to be the leader in the Netherlands, we are at risk of losing traction in Belgium. Belgium is a critical region for us to dominate, as it is home to many fashion trendsetters and key influencers. Objective: Successfully launch add‐on product ABC. Why Now? With mo...

Coaching Takeaways for Top‐Level OKRs Workshops Solicit objectives prior to top‐level workshops. Conduct a workshop preview with your executive sponsor when feasible. Be flexible! If your client is having an important conversation, forget about the agenda and let them drive. In the ACME Homes case, the CEO took charge and got everyone thinking about what it means to be an “A‐player.” As key results emerge, revisit the objective. In the ACME Homes case study, drafting key results helped refine the objective from a broad concept around “people” to a more focused objective around becoming a “sales machine.” Less is more: One fully baked OKR is often better than several half‐baked ones.

Coaching Takeaways for OKRs Expert Workshops Offer this workshop to organizations looking to develop internal OKRs coaches. Define three roles for breakouts: (1) coach, (2) coachee, and (3) observer. Design breakout groups with three to four participants from distinct teams.

Coaching Takeaways for Team‐Level Workshops Schedule team‐level workshops after defining OKRs teams. Include members from multiple functional teams to foster cross‐functional alignment. Begin with an overview of top‐level OKRs to create context.

freewriting exercise, he provided simple instructions: write down whatever is on your mind while keeping your pencil moving for 10 minutes.

STEP 1: SET AND ALIGN OKRs Pitfalls Defining too many OKRs Writing key results as a list of tasks, measuring output not outcomes Failing to define why the objective is important now Creating OKRs in silos, ignoring dependencies Solutions Focus on one to three objectives per team. Distinguish between key results, health metrics, and tasks. Align on why each objective is important prior to drafting key results. Involve key stakeholders outside your team when drafting OKRs.

Here is a simple equation to connect OKRs to a longer‐term mission: M + OKRs = MOKRs where “M” stands for “mission.”1 Most organizations define company‐level missions. If your client does not have a company‐level mission in place, put the OKRs program on hold and complete a mission exercise with your client's leadership team right away. A company‐level mission is the foundation upon which to build OKRs.2 As most organizations do not define missions at the team level, you have an opportunity to add value right away.

Three Questions to Ask: In one sentence, how would you describe your team's purpose? Whom do we serve? What service do we offer? Tips Confirm a companywide mission is in place as context for all OKRs. Encourage each team to create their own mission; revisit it each year. Provide your client with a simple mission exercise like the one in