Why OKRs?

OKRs claim to do a lot of things. During my work with Genomics England we narrowed the benefits down to these big three:

Outcomes – OKRs keep us focused on measurable impact – rather than simple outputs. Objectives remind us why we’re doing things and Key Results make it clear how we’ll measure success.

Transparency – Through their concision and precision, OKRs make it easy to share our plans and achievements with everyone in the company, especially those outside our domain.

Alignment – OKRs help us make smart investments. They facilitate conversations within a team, and across multiple teams about what to do next and what NOT to do, steering both daily activities and large initiatives alike. They enable us to see how work in each team contributes to wider organisational goals.

They help us cut through the noise helping us to identify & pursue the measurable, observable outcomes most critical to success and most critical to helping us make better decisions.

OKRs are a powerful navigation system giving us clear, nuanced feedback and enabling us to precisely and continuously adjust our behaviour.

What do you love about OKRs? Let me know!