Measure What Matters: How Google, Bono, and the Gates Foundation Rock the World with OKRs

With OKR transparency, everyone’s goals—from the CEO down—are openly shared. Individuals link their objectives to the company’s game plan, identify cross-dependencies, and coordinate with other teams.

OKRs. Short for Objectives and Key Results. It is a collaborative goal-setting protocol for companies, teams, and individuals. Now, OKRs are not a silver bullet. They cannot substitute for sound judgment, strong leadership, or a creative workplace culture. But if those fundamentals are in place, OKRs can guide you to the mountaintop.

My objective that day, I told the band of young Googlers, was to build a planning model for their company, as measured by three key results: KR #1: I would finish my presentation on time. KR #2: We’d create a sample set of quarterly Google OKRs. KR #3: I’d gain management agreement for a three-month OKR trial.