Category Archives: Leadership

Do’s and Don’ts working with OKR’s

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OKR stands for Objectives Key Results and is a tool set to streamline an organization towards the most important goals for a given time period (e.g. a quarter). Google Venture’s OKR-expert Ken Norton talks about some of his observations on organizations implementing OKR’s in this interview “Are you doing OKR’s right?”.

Ken Norton gained his expertise working with 300+ companies from the GV’s portfolio. OKR’s are one great tool to align an organization to work toward the most important goal at the time. Here’s a bullet list of my key learnings:

  • Communicate OKR’s clearly
  • OKR’s are the CEO’s tool to set the direction for the organization
  • Very, very few in numbers
  • OKR’s are measurable – you know when you’re there
  • OKR’s keep the organization ambitious
  • An organization of less than 100 people doesn’t need more than the organization’s OKR’s
  • OKR’s do only work if the culture of the company allows for them
  • They’re most effective if a combination of top-down and bottom-up
  • OKR setting surfaces organizational problems – deal with them

Clear your mind using “The Thinking Day”

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John Donahoe, at this time CEO & President at eBay, published a great post on his way to clear his mind, step back and rethink what’s important. He described three ways to focus and rethink. I found the most impressive one being “The Thinking Day”.

The Thinking Day

The thinking days are pre-scheduled, non-interrupted times with the intention to step away from daily business with the pure purpose of focus and rethink what’s most important right now.

Move away from your office, book a meeting room just for yourself and some paper. Start mapping out what’s going on around your company and identify the most pressing topics and issues in your organization. Think about what you need to focus on, where you need to put your attention, what you need to change.

Write your findings onto the papers and keep them as guiding principles for the coming period. Allign your daily calendar to focus on these principles.

To allow your direct reports to be able to follow your re-allignment, it’s worthwile sharing your findings with your mates. That’s the only way to work efficiently and effectively into the right direction – with a clear and shared goal.