Chapter: OKRs were born at microchip giant Intel, where the author worked in the 1970s.

yes or no

“win” ten designs for the Intel 8085 microprocessor – a win being every time the microprocessor was used in products designed by other companies.

Chapter: OKRs allow organizations to stay focused on reaching their goals.

between three and five KRs are needed per objective

Every three months

see whether OKRs have been achieved

objective during that quarter was to increase teacher engagement

“repeated message”

handful of organization-wide OKRs at any one time

setting OKRs every quarter

Chapter: Having a transparent, aligned OKR system helps organizations move forward efficiently – and collaboratively.

overarching goals

alignment between individual departments

20 percent time

allows engineers to spend one day’s worth of time every week (20 percent of their workweek) on projects that they feel would contribute to Google’s overarching top-level OKRs

transparent to everyone in your organization

increases motivation

fellow workers could view their progress

This means that employees’ individual OKRs must align with the company’s vision, as set out in the top-level OKRs.

hybrid approach

both top-down and bottom-up

one day’s worth of time every week

on projects that they feel would contribute to Google’s overarching top-level OKRs.

Chapter: By constantly tracking OKRs, organizations can make sure that they’re heading in the right direction.

0-1.0 color-coded scale

500 samples

470, which resulted in a KR score of 0.9

0.0 to 0.3 (red) means no progress

0.4 to 0.6 (yellow) means progress has been made

0.7-1.0 (green) is a sign of the key result having been successfully

continue, update, start and stop

Chapter: Implementing stretch goals allows organizations to truly excel.

two distinct categories: stretch objectives and committed objectives.

high-risk stretch OKR fails

committed objectives

Chapter: Coupling OKRs with continuous performance management will help bring about a transparent, healthy workplace culture.

Is the objective you’re working toward realistic?

Is it even the right objective to be working on?

And is it motivating?

CFR-esque system called “check-ins,”