OKR vs. KPI: How they compare and how they work together cover image
Agile Leadership

OKR vs. KPI: How they compare and how they work together

Differentiating activity-driven from results-driven organizations, and how they achieve desired outcomes.

Profile image of Henrik-jan Van Der Pol
Henrik-jan Van Der Pol
May 24, 2021 • 6 min read
4.50 (12)
OKRs
Goals
Performance Management
Roles & Responsibilities
Objectives, Metrics and Targets
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Summary

An article and video content by Henrik-Jan van der Pol well-describing the similarities and differences between KPIs and OKRs and the roles they play in achieving the organizational ultimate goal. Henry states that activity-driven organizations only execute the process and initiatives with less focus on the company's ambition but results-driven organizations leverage KPIs and OKRs to measure the company's performance and progress when executing these processes and initiatives.

Takeaways

  • An activity-driven organization executes processes and initiatives without revisiting if those are the right things to do or if they help realize the ambition. At the same time, results-driven businesses focus on what the daily processes and initiatives are supposed to deliver. They use KPI and OKR to measure how the company is performing and if progress is being made respectively.
  • KPIs and OKRs are value-driven goals, they create and measure the outcome that the processes and initiatives are trying to deliver.
  • Organizations are groups of people. Just like people, they have ambition as reflected in the organization's ultimate goal.
  • Organizations have processes that they execute on an ongoing basis to maintain the status quo.

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