Chapter Six: Common OKR mistakes

Too many Objectives or Key Results

OKRs are not for everything you do in the organization. Routine everyday tasks should not be included in the OKRs. They are about the most important focus where the extra effort is needed. Too many Objectives or Key Results does not allow to focus and make it hard to align.

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Key Results as tasks

Key results are about measuring how far you’re from your destination, from your Objective. Key Result should be a metric. They should not be treated as tasks or To-Do list. Even though Key Results might include some activity-based tasks (e. g. conduct a speech at the conference), but this is rather an exception than a rule.

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Creating OKRs in silos or top-down

OKRs should be created bi-directionally, to leverage personal accountability. Don’t set them silently behind the closed door. Set them together and communicate openly.

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Setting and forgetting OKRs

It’s a very common mistake. Review and update OKRs regularly, to monitor if the team progress is on track. Without getting back to OKRs it’s easy to lose focus.

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Performance review based on OKRs

OKRs can be one of the sources of information for performance reviews, but they should not be the main or only source for evaluation. If you’ll directly connect OKR results with compensation, the team members would just set less ambitious goals to make sure to achieve them. Team performance would suffer significantly from such an approach.

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