> That said, the company was new to them and in the process of learning. Perhaps we did them wrong, or perhaps I missed the point.
Hard to say, but I used to do this for a living as a consultant and FWIW much of what you are describing sounds like a poor selection of OKRs of the kind we were often fixing.
> So the OKRs were all just sorta "OK, finish this thing we're already working on."
Case in point. My engagement manager once joked that if I proposed a "% complete" metric like that I'd be removed from a project. I _think_ he was joking.
> And I found those ratings (0, .4, .7, 1.0 for hitting a stretch goal) just a sort of weird self delusion
That's another symptom of poor goal selection. If you can miss a goal and somehow receive partial credit it was a poor goal. If you can exceed a goal and get extra credit it was a poor goal. Targets should be selected because they need to be hit, not just to give you something to aim at.
>That's another symptom of poor goal selection. If you can miss a goal and somehow receive partial credit it was a poor goal. If you can exceed a goal and get extra credit it was a poor goal. Targets should be selected because they need to be hit, not just to give you something to aim at.
Do I understand what you are saying? OKRs should not be roofshots or moonshots, but just commitments? If so, that's not what the majority of literature I've read on OKRs says. Hmmm....
Granted most of my time was with balanced scorecards, but, I mean just reading the wikipedia[0] page here I don't see anything about OKRs being moonshots?
Hard to say, but I used to do this for a living as a consultant and FWIW much of what you are describing sounds like a poor selection of OKRs of the kind we were often fixing.
> So the OKRs were all just sorta "OK, finish this thing we're already working on."
Case in point. My engagement manager once joked that if I proposed a "% complete" metric like that I'd be removed from a project. I _think_ he was joking.
> And I found those ratings (0, .4, .7, 1.0 for hitting a stretch goal) just a sort of weird self delusion
That's another symptom of poor goal selection. If you can miss a goal and somehow receive partial credit it was a poor goal. If you can exceed a goal and get extra credit it was a poor goal. Targets should be selected because they need to be hit, not just to give you something to aim at.