At What Level Should We Set OKRs?

Today, I’m going to answer the first question from this list of 10 questions every manager must ask and answer before deploying OKRs.

Let’s dig in.

Question: At what level will we set OKRs?

When I introduced OKRs to my organisation in 2017, I made a classic mistake: I tried to follow the organisational chart.

• Company OKRs.

• Divisional OKRs.

• Departmental OKRs (are you feeling my frustration yet?)

• Team OKRs (WTF! and if no-one stops Harry from HR, ...)

• Individual OKRs (holy cow!!!).

There's no chance in hell such an OKR setup will do anything other than suck out people's passion, energy and good will.

Why it (number of levels) matters.

The more the levels of OKRs

• the more tedious the OKR-setting process.

• the lower the quality of OKRs at the bottom are.

• the lower the probability of accomplishing any with excellence.

The additional work that goes into coordinating multiple levels of OKRs isn’t worth it at the start, and it sucks out people passion, depletes their energy and drains good will.

Answer: Maximum 2 OKR levels.

• Company OKR + team OKRs

• Divisional OKR + team OKRs

OKRs are a team sport ... they're most potent when used at the level where work actually happens i.e. frontline teams (functional, product or cross-functional).

When I’m working with a company where the leadership has a clear strategy, I usually recommend they skip company level OKRs and go straight to team OKRs.

What it means for frontline managers.

Unless you the frontline manager buy-in to OKRs, they won't survive past five quarters. So if you want to set yourself and your team apart, deploy OKRs and do it well.

• Even if your company doesn't do OKRs.

• Even if your boss doesn't do OKRs.

Yes you can, with the 12week step-by-step OKR deployment playbook. And by the quality of results that your team produces, you might inspire your company to implement OKRs.

Until next time ... be BRILLIANT! 💎

Mukom | @perfexcellent

P/S Here’re the questions I’ll cover in this series.

PPS: If you know a manager who needs to level up their OKRs for Q3, help them do it well with this OKR playbook (and grab one for yourself).