Connecting Strategy to Action - Anti-Patterns in OKRs cover image
Agile Leadership

Connecting Strategy to Action - Anti-Patterns in OKRs

Lessons learned over the years about what not to do when deploying OKRs in your organization.

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Andrew Blain, Paul Fitzmaurice
Nov 05, 2021 • 6 min read
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OKRs
Goals
Key Results
Learning
Management by Objectives (MBO)
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Summary

Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) have been popularly considered as one of the viable mechanisms for agile teams for converting strategies into deliveries. Most teams leverage them through the delivery cycle to turn strategies into actions that lead to better organizational outcomes. However, as you use OKRs to achieve your organizational goals, what are some of the anti-patterns that you need to learn for the process to be effective? The article outlines these anti-patterns and details WHY teams should have an eye on them when deploying OKRs.

Takeaways

  • A good OKR process recognizes complexity, such that if the complexity of the objectives changes, so must the decomposition process. Therefore, the OKR process is not as linear as mostly perceived.
  • OKRs are not meant to be a control mechanism for leaders to have traceability/visibility of all the work that is going on in an organization.
  • OKRs work really well in value-aligned operating models that are built around cross-functional teams who can deliver in a largely autonomous fashion.

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