When "OKRs Don't Work"

Are you ready to create big, bold goals for Q2 and beyond, and achieve remarkable results?

In this Thinkydoers Short, I'm sharing a slew of resources to help you get ready for Q2 -- whether you have a budget or not, and whether you are excited to get visionary and curious and plan your Q2, or are hoping to spend as little time as humanly possible, so you can get right to achieving your goals!

Show Topics:

1. It's OKR Quarterly Reset Time: Q1 performance review and Q2 goal-setting are upon us. Tune in to our LinkedIn Live sessions for my creative and generative approach to quarterly retrospectives.

2. No-BS OKRs Workshop: Our popular workshop is now available in a hybrid format. Join anytime, learn at your own pace, and get your OKRs written in just one week. 

3. The Evolutionary OKRs Playbook:

   • No-BS OKRs Workbook: A 50-page download with essential OKR basics and valuable cheat sheets, available later this March!
   • No-BS OKRs Playbook: The "big book," covering deeper explanations and tackling OKR challenges, is scheduled for release in September.

4. Stay Connected: Shoot me an email at sara@redcurrantco.com if you have questions about anything mentioned here -- and I appreciate your shares on this episode!

Links mentioned in this episode:

• FREE LinkedIn Live Webinars: Get ready for Q2!
  • RSVP on LinkedIn
  • Follow Sara on LinkedIn for updates about additional Live opportunities!
• No-BS OKRs Workshop: Asynchronous, self-paced learning
  • Find more info at http://findrc.co/nobsokrs
  • Or, register at https://www.thinkydoers.com/nobsokrs1
• No-BS OKRs Workbook Excerpt: WTF Are OKRs?
  • Download at: http://findrc.co/wtfokrs
• Evolutionary OKRs Playbook and Workbook updates:
  • Join the pre-launch list at http://findrc.co/evokrpb

Let’s set your Q2 goals up for inspiration, progress, and success! Tune in, subscribe, share with a friend or colleague, and let’s keep the conversation going! 🚀

Reach out if you have any questions: hello@redcurrantco.com.

The long-term stress sustained during and since the COVID-19 pandemic continues to have a serious impact on our collective wellbeing. The American Psychological Association’s annual “Stress in America” report this year shared that “APA psychologists widely agreed there is mounting evidence that our society is experiencing the psychological impacts of a collective trauma.”  

In our personal and professional lives – especially for those of us who possess an “overthinky” brain -- we’re experiencing high levels of stress, overwhelm, and burnout. To help us understand these issues (and what we can do to resolve them), we’re joined by Dat Tran, an inspiring leadership coach and speaker (and fellow Thinkydoer). After more than a decade in the consulting and global strategy world, Dat discovered that the path to realizing his purpose focuses on inclusion and resilience. Today, he empowers leaders and organizations to reach their peak potential with well-being as a central focus. Since taking the stage for the first time in 2022, he has delivered over 50 keynotes and workshops, reaching thousands of people at leading companies and organizations worldwide. In this episode, Dat offers insight into the relationship between stress and resilience, provides us with a practical framework for managing stress, and shares some easy-to-understand examples to help us understand the risks of burying or processing stress without releasing it. To transform how you manage stress in your everyday life, become more resilient, and propel yourself toward higher performance and wellness, tune in today.

Key Points From This Episode:

•   Insight into Dat’s vision and the role of inclusively and resiliency in his practice.
•   His experience of stress and burnout on the path to becoming a life coach.
•   Ways that neurodivergent people may excel at simplifying complex information.
•   An understanding of the relationship between stress and resilience.
•   What Gabor Maté teaches us about trauma and healing.
•   Bury, release, process: three options for managing stress.
•   Surprisingly simple ways to release stress mentally, emotionally, and physically.
•   Why there is no “perfect” way to release; get creative!
•   Risks of processing stress without release, particularly for over-thinkers.
•   The significance of play, sleep, passion, and community.
•   How to intentionally design your life to release and process stress.
•   Dat’s advice for knowing when and how to speak and show up.

One of the first jobs to be done when implementing (or rebooting) OKRs is to identify how they fit into an organization’s existing planning “stack” and get clear about what job they’re being hired to do.

This episode is based on chapter three of Sara Lobkovich’s upcoming book, The Evolutionary OKRs Playbook, which focuses on what is possible with Evolutionary OKRs®.

You’ll be introduced to the first of three models that Sara uses every day in her work with organizations implementing OKRs: the Connected Strategic® Implementation Stack. You’ll learn about each layer of this stack, how it applies to individual projects and initiatives, why some organizations may struggle with OKRs, and why you don’t necessarily need to have every element in the stack present to be successful.

Today’s episode offers you a chance to reflect on your organization's Strategic Stack, what elements might be most important to prioritize to increase shared meaning and understanding, and what elements you might want to consider adding to increase your organization’s strategic alignment and impact.

Be sure to stay tuned for future episodes on the other two models: Connected Strategy on a Page and OKR Maturity! 

Key Points From This Episode:

•   Why it’s important to identify how OKRs fit into an organization’s existing planning stack.
•   Three models to consider, starting with the Connected Strategic Implementation Stack.
•   Unpacking each layer of the stack: strategic input, North Star Metrics, and more.
•   Some of the typical sources of aversion to OKRs that Sara sees in organizations.
•   Defining mandatory commits, health watch measures, and stretch goals.
•   How delivery fits into the Connected Strategic Implementation Stack.
•   Why you don’t need to tick every box in this stack in order to be successful.
•   Stay tuned for more on the Connected Strategy on a Page and OKR Maturity models!

Also: don't miss out -- No BS OKRs Annual Reset Edition registration closes on November 5th, so if you'd like help with your 2023 retrospective and 2024 OKR creation, join us for this practical, applied, OKR creation workshop: http://findrc.co/nobsokrs

We're excited to share Chapter Two of our work-in-progress Evolutionary OKRs Playbook with you. This chapter re-introduces Objectives and Key Results for people who may be less familiar with traditional approaches, and then shifts into the unique elements of the Evolutionary OKR model (which we've developed specifically to aid innovative and transformative organizations and teams in setting and achieving bigger, bolder goals). 

I also share a bit more about what we mean when we talk about the Evolutionary Organization. 

I share the actual definition that I use for the terms "Objective" and "Key Result," and I cut to the chase and provide the most essential question each of those terms answers in our businesses, and the building-block-formulas I use to help make sure we're creating useful, usable Objectives AND Key Results every time.

If you'd like to receive each chapter before it goes live on the podcast, join our email list: http://redcurrantco.com/newsletter

Key Points from this Episode:

• Objectives and Key Results are introduced as a method for collaborative goal setting and alignment. 

• OKRs bridge the gap between high-level strategy and tactical implementation, ensuring alignment with important outcomes. 

• OKRs were popularized by John Doerr's book "Measure What Matters" and were influenced by Peter Drucker's "Management by Objectives." 

• Over 127 different OKR management software platforms have caused some confusion in OKR methodology. 

• Sara introduces the Evolutionary OKR model, which is her approach to OKRs, especially suited for high-change, innovation-oriented organizations. 

• Evolutionary OKRs are about achieving growth, transformation, and innovation by aligning with important measures of success. 

• Evolutionary organizations align on their theory of success and progress before planning activities, fostering continuous learning. 

• Objectives are directional, purpose statements describing what to pursue and why; they provide focus on essential improvement directions. 

• Key Results are objectively measurable targets describing essential measures of progress and success towards an objective. 

• Key Results should not describe activities but outcomes; they need to be creatively measurable and focused. 

• Evolutionary OKRs encourage outcome-based goals as key results, recognizing the importance of influence and aspiration. 

• Key Results are experiments in quantifying improvement, focusing on the most important measures of progress and success. 

After years of writing alone and then sharing my work on the Evolutionary OKRs Playbook with (wonderful, patient) beta readers, with this rewrite I’m doing something different.

It’s time to write (and read) in public. 

Certain chapters of the book are being shared via our email newsletter first; then after a week or two, some will be shared via the Red Currant Collective Blog, via Medium, and here, as Thinkydoers podcast episodes.

As terrifying as this is for me personally, it’s time. The final rewrite is buzzing along, I’ve got a target date for the v1 eBook release if I keep up at this writing and editing pace, and it’s necessary to get this thing out so it can help the people who need it.

So here in this episode, I’m sharing the first full chapter, Chapter One: Objectives and Key Results: How did we get here?

And if you don't want to wait for the public release of each chapter, you can get the early peek by joining our newsletter at http://findrc.co/newsletter.

Show notes are available at thinkydoers.com and you can read the first chapter via the Evolutionary OKRs Blog on redcurrantco.com.

Key Points From This Episode:

•  My excitement to bring you chapter one of Sara’s Evolutionary OKRs Playbook.

•   The resources that we’re planning on offering for the rest of the year and in 2024.

•   How many of us stumble into OKRs 

•   Why I'm an emphatic OKR activist. 

•   A sneak peek for next week: why should you adopt a glossary of OKR terms at the very beginning of implementation. 

Quotes:

“Incoherence is my kryptonite.” — @saralobkovich [08:22]

“The transparency with which I'll share my approaches, tools, and tactics, as well as the why behind them in this book may just put my consulting business out of business.” — @saralobkovich [10:16]

“I hope that at some point you take a step back from the day-to-day labor of your work and think a bit about what changed world you'd like to see someday. What difference would you like to make? How would you like to leave your community, career, or self better than you find it now?” — @saralobkovich [10:37]

Fun fact: While I am an OKR activist, I'm not an OKR dogmatist.

If OKRs "aren't working" in your organization, I'll be the first to support your decision to change course to an approach that works better for your organization.

Frequently, though, I see organizations reach a stage where they're frustrated with their OKR implementation -- and the time of year I see the "OKRs aren't working" phase kick in is at mid-year, when we're looking at our annual company strategic plans or OKRs that may have been set six or seven months ago and questioning: "What's the value of OKRs, if they've become this off course?"

I'm having these conversations with a number of clients right now, so if you're a client and you think this episode is about you, what you're experiencing may be part of what inspired this episode, but this episode is not about you -- it's about a lot of you. 😂

Many teams reach this stage and then overfocus on what's not working in our OKR operations: with tracking, reporting, and our OKR software or systems. What's most valuable when your organization reaches this stage is to take advantage of having six months worth of data for us to assess our progress thanks to our Objectives and Key Results, AND, examine and apply our half-year of learnings during our mid-year reset, to improve our Objectives and Key Results, our OKR behaviors, AND our OKR operations instead of abandoning them.

If the job we've hired OKRs to do is to increase our clarity and objectivity about what shared progress and success mean -- which is the highest and best use of OKRs -- then when organizations reach the "OKRs aren't working" phase, we have a chance to take a good hard look at our OKRs themselves, and, our behaviors. One of the most common issues I see in this phase is that teams are not yet letting OKRs do that job they were hired to do: they may still be stuck in task & activity quicksand, and have not yet taken the step into aligning on actual objective measures of progress and success. If that's the case, it's not that your OKRs aren't working: it's that you're not yet using OKRs!

This episode is timely: many of us are navigating our mid-year resets and struggling with frustration; here, I share a few areas of focus you can consider to infuse your OKR reset with new energy and optimism, to help you refresh your Objectives and Key Results to help your organization finish the year strong!

Full show notes and links are available at http://thinkydoers.com and http://redcurrantco.com. 

Does this spark questions or thoughts? I'd love to hear from you. Contact me via http://thinkydoers.com !

What's the difference between a KPI and an OKR? And specifically, what's the difference between a KPI and a Key Result? Here's a simple answer, with examples, to help make this concept easy to understand.

You’ll find out what defines KPIs, KRs, stretch goals, and commits, what they mean, how they impact businesses, and how they overlap. We discuss the problems caused by confusing these terms, which can lead to damaged trust, safety, and a reduction in employee engagement. We even use Sara’s personal health and well-being KPIs and KRs as an example to help you understand the differences! So, to hear all about KPIs and KRs and to be reminded of the importance of using clear language, tune in today!

Key Points From This Episode:

• What a Key Performance Indicator (KPI) is and what it means. 
• What Key Results (KR) are and what job we hire them to do. 
• When might a KPI become a KR?
• An example of the differences between KPIs and KRs, using health and well-being measures as an analogy.
• What’s different about when we miss our goals on commits vs. Key Results (and why – in our definition – a KPI is never “missed,” but may be headed in the wrong direction)
• Some organizational issues that can arise when language is not used clearly.
•   What “Commits” are and why there should be few of them in our aligned goal models.
• Some things you should ask yourself as we approach our mid-year reset.

For more information on any of the above, find me at http://redcurrantco.com or email hello@redcurrantco.com. 

Show notes and transcript are available at http://thinkydoers.com .

Today, we take a step back and answer the obvious question: what are Evolutionary Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) and why are they important?

OKRs are a method for setting collaborative, objectively measurable goals made popular by the book Measure What Matters, which creates enormous excitement about the potential of OKRs, but leaves many teams and leaders frustrating trying to figure out how to implement them.

This episode introduces the Red Currant Collective brand of OKRs: Evolutionary OKRs. Evolutionary OKRs are designed to create meaningful change and help organizations transform and actually do better. Tuning in, you’ll hear about how OKRs started and how they became widely used before we break down the differences between Evolutionary OKRs and other forms of planning. You’ll learn more about the characteristics of great OKRs and how they can benefit both corporate performance and individuals. We further discuss the differences between Objectives and Key Results, the qualities of strong Objectives, what we consider "Textbook Key Results," and examples of both. If you would like an introduction to OKRs to share with your colleagues, your leaders, and other stakeholders, or even just a reminder of the basics for yourself, this episode is for you!

Key Points From This Episode:

• An introduction to what OKRs are and how they became widely used. 
• The benefits of OKRs for individuals. 
• Differences between OKRs and other forms of planning.
• Characteristics of great OKRs, starting with why they should fit on a page.
• Why objectives are directional and key results are measurable. 
• An example OKR cadence for an organization.
• Defining objectives, the qualities of strong objectives, and some examples.
• What “watermelon metrics” are and how measurable key results can help us avoid them. 
• A definition of key results.
• What “textbook key results” are, why we aim for them, and a few examples.
• How you can find out more about Evolutionary OKRs. 

Tweetables:

“In addition to being a collaborative goal-setting methodology, we think of OKRs as a thinking, deciding, and learning practice that helps us achieve greater growth, transformation and innovation by aligning on our most important measures of progress and success.” — @saralobkovich [0:05:36]

“Evolutionary OKRs mean thinking deeply about what's important and what might be possible. Identifying which measures of progress and success help us make better decisions in our work and organizations.” — @saralobkovich [0:05:54]

“OKRs let us define our own success and progress measures even when external expectations aren’t clear. They help us focus on what's most important, not only what's urgent.” — @saralobkovich [0:06:27]

“Think of objectives like strategic or visionary pillars. Added together, they describe what's most important for us to make progress on so that we are moving toward achieving our strategic priorities.” — @saralobkovich [0:12:48]

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

• Red Currant Collective Waitlists
• Achieve change with No-BS OKRs
• Sara Lobkovich Email
• Red Currant Collective
• Sign up for the RedCurrant Newsletter
• Red Currant Collective on Instagram
• Thinkydoers
• Sara Lobkovich
• Sara Lobkovich on Instagram

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We talk a lot around here about Objectives and Key Results (OKRs), and in this episode, we dive into an adjacent topic: the role that goal setting can play in making a case for and achieving important change in our organizations. The audio for this episode is from a LinkedIn Live that I hosted recently (if you'd like to hear about our every-other Wednesday Live gatherings, join our email list). Those Live sessions are geared toward changemaker leaders and strategic implementors within organizations who are hungry for ways to increase change effectiveness, increase employee engagement, and spend more time focused on achievement of their most important priorities. 

In this episode, we look at:

• A few of the factors that make change hard for people and teams;
• Separating myth from fact about goal setting for change;
• The importance of shifting how we think about goals from a win-lose mindset to a win-learn mindset;
• I share some important tips for changemakers to increase their effectiveness at making the case for and achieving change in their work;
• And share a set of key questions you can use to unblock change.

I also share some updates about opportunities to work with me this month to help set your 2023 up for success:

1. Join us for the week-long No BS OKRs series focused on achieving change, which kicks off next week (asynchronously on Dec 12, first workshop on Dec 13);
2. We have two very rare individual coaching slots available in our monthly membership 1:1 coaching schedule; and
3. I'm in the early stages of planning a cohort of our deep-dive Leading the Connected Strategic Organization learning series specifically for people who are neurodivergent.

This course is for people leaders (and aspiring people leaders) who want to improve their skills with communicating expectations clearly; leading through conflict; and leading their teams for growth and high performance. This class and what we practice in it are helpful for all leaders, but we're hearing especially positive feedback from autistic participants,  leaders with ADHD, and people who have cognitive impacts from trauma. The approaches we learn and practice give leaders a toolkit they can adapt to their work (and fills in a lot of blanks for many of us who have struggled to develop effective leadership and management mechanics) to reduce the cognitive overhead of leading people and help us refocus on goal achievement and leading our teams for growth. 

For more information on any of the above, find me at http://redcurrantco.com or email hello@redcurrantco.com. 

Show notes and transcript are slightly delayed, but will follow tomorrow (Friday) at http://thinkydoers.com .

We're closing enrollment on Friday for next week's Coaching Evolutionary OKRs course, so if you're looking for OKR Coach training before the end of the year, act quickly (or drop me a note, and I'll let you know when we plan our next cohort). And if a short course is more your style, that's coming this November!

After years of focusing on deep-dive training for leaders & teams in goal-oriented organizations, I'm VERY excited to be launching a short course on efficient Objective and Key Result (OKR) creation next month!

In this one week, three session (60-90 min each) cohort-based course, you'll learn our intuitive approach to creating useful, impactful OKRs quickly and efficiently, so you can get to the work of achieving them as rapidly as possible!

This quick episode gives a few more details about that class (as well as some other ways to work with me to get ready for your 2023 reset). If you'd like to join the no-obligation waitlist for No BS OKRs, you can find more information here:

http://findrc.co/nobsokrs