I hate OKRs. Let me explain... I believe strongly in having a goal-setting process. The purpose of goal setting in my mind is to ensure that everyone is aligned on what success looks like for the next period of time and how we know if we got there. A good goal setting process is important for two reasons: 1) it creates clarity so that your team knows what to prioritize and can make aligned choices day-to-day and 2) it is an essential learning process for discovering how to govern and run your business.
Really love this post, Molly. I especially agree with your advice to start simpler than OKRs. Really pairs nicely with your more recent post on minimum viable process.
(Consider the politics of your situation when you're asked to set goals, plan for half the time you have, reconcile your goals with sister orgs, don't use goal frameworks to run projects, make your goals fluid > keep the goals constant so you can evaluate how you did, consider 2-up instead of OKRs, messy is fine)
I hate OKRs... and other thoughts about goal setting
Really love this post, Molly. I especially agree with your advice to start simpler than OKRs. Really pairs nicely with your more recent post on minimum viable process.
I wrote up some of my own advice about OKRs here: https://www.rubick.com/advice-for-using-goal-frameworks/
(Consider the politics of your situation when you're asked to set goals, plan for half the time you have, reconcile your goals with sister orgs, don't use goal frameworks to run projects, make your goals fluid > keep the goals constant so you can evaluate how you did, consider 2-up instead of OKRs, messy is fine)
Thanks for writing this, I am in complete agreement! Just today I wrote a post about an alternative to OKRs that worked well for our 30-person team: https://elezea.com/2023/03/okr-alternatives-empowered-teams-w-planning-eos/