ASPIRATIONAL OKRs

One of the first questions I get during OKR implementations is whether we should write aspirational goals. My answer is: we need to determine how aspirational the company wants to be, versus what we will actually be able to deliver within the given time frame (Annual, Quarterly, Monthly, etc.).

Many times, we try to put dreams in the wording of the objective, but we hardly manage to achieve it because it is far from reality, generating questions about when it will actually happen. Example: “To be the most loved company in the X segment”. Will this happen within the same period? What does it mean to "be the most loved"?

When John Doerr introduced OKRs in his Ted Talk and in his book “Evaluate What Matters,” he cites the challenge of the aspirational goal as something to be achieved while inspiring people. However, a pitfall of this path is: being too aspirational in an organizational culture that is not prepared for this vision can have the opposite effect, similar to end-of-year promises.

Has it ever happened to you?

Ted Talk – John Doerr

WHAT HAPPENS TO YEAR-END PROMISES?

End-of-year promises are very motivating, especially when we are at the climax of the New Year's Eve party or dominated by feelings of hope that next year will be different. Generally, we make promises thinking about our idealized “I”, different from the imperfect human being we are today.

What happens when we draw these promises is that they are very far from our reality. Consequently, our daily effort to achieve them is too great and does not move the needle as we would like. We spend days changing routines, sweating it out trying to get there, but nothing happens big in the short term. After a while, our brain comes in and starts to doubt whether the promise is really worth so much effort.

in your book “Unlearn”, Barry O’Reilly suggests breaking our long-term promises into small short-term results, because as we reach small milestones along the way, we acquire a sense of success, even if small.

Barry even sets the example of trying to finish a 21km half marathon. How can someone go from 0 km to 21 km without giving up? If we only focus on the 21 km, the goal is too far away and we will give up for lack of the feeling of success and a lot of effort. What we should do is start small, be consistent and think big, starting the first steps by walking around the 500 meter block day after day. After a while, increase to 1 km day after day, and again increase to 2 km until suddenly you will get there. These small successes stimulate our brain to want to achieve more and more.

DOES IT WORK WITH OKRs?

We're talking about giving the feeling of success along the way, so that people are motivated and challenged to take it to the next level. It has to do with working the part of our brain that drives us to go further and further, even if they are small results, the consistency of this dynamic does the rest.

In OKRs, when we are realistic and “down to earth” when setting an objective and creating KRs within our current context, we already enter with a different motivation than when we receive such aspirational OKRs thinking about the long term. He doubts? Reflect with me: when you have received an ambitious goal or objective in your company, the first thing that comes to mind is “This is for gringo to see!”, “They're crazy, we'll never get there in such a short time”, “It's not you What are you going to do, right?”

Year-end pledges are great for exercising where we want to go in the future in an ambitious way. “Thinking big and thinking small takes the same work” as Jorge Paulo Leman said, which is true, but trying to execute in that same mindset is frustrating for the simple fact that the dream doesn't come true so soon. I prefer Barry O’Reilly’s phrase “Think big, start small and be consistent”.

OKRs ARE FOR SHORT-TERM EXECUTION
Design OKRs that are realistic, action-oriented, and that feel successful in a short period of time. If you don't want to lose sight of your year-end pledge, write one and declare it as a mission, whether for your squad, department, company, personal life, etc. In this way, you will have the long-term vision combined with the short-term execution, guaranteeing the steps one at a time, like a grand staircase, step by step, until we reach the top.

I hope this article will help you chart your end-of-year commitments in a different way, as well as plan your more realistic OKRs to take one step at a time.

Author: Luiz Corandin