13 Nov 2019 in okrs,
The way I thought about these OKRs is informed obviously by the OKR framework described in ‘Measure what matters’ (a book I still have to finish). But also it’s informed by the 4 disciplines of execution. In the 4 disciplines they discuss lagging and leading measurements. I think that is generally a really useful way to think about it. e.g. weightloss is a lagging measurement, while eating healthy and doing regular excercise are leading–since you won’t see your weightloss till only later, after you’ve been doing those healthy habits for a while. Measuring the habits makes it much easier to be successful, when you then (finally) start seeing your lagging measurments (you actual objectives) go up, you can truly see how the two are connected and get even more motivated. I thus do believe that setting goals in this matter will help you and your company be successful.
Combining that with OKRs leads to a system where the key results need to be the leading measurements, while the objectives can be lagging. The point here is that your objective generally can be a bit more audacious, you can dream of the future that you want to see. Your Key Results however make that future tangible, and if with the KRs you can also focus on leading measurements, you’ve got a higher chance of success.
My current objective is to have my dream-job/opportunity that I can start on in January 2020. For that objective the main lagging measurement is the number of offers/opportunities on the table that I can choose from.
I can actually break that objective down to even more concrete in-between measurements (this is relatively unique in this process, though if you’re working with a funnel, something similar should be possible).
However, I’m not truly in control of any of those, and are all lagging measurements of habits/activities I do. That’s why I’d like to focus on the following leading measurements.