Goal Posts

Okay, it's the New Year, and usually the first resolution that goes has already flown:  The exercise regime.  Well, that's good, because most people who vow to improve their outsides as a resolution have picked the worst possible time to do it.  After all, who wants to even go outside when it's 7F, let alone go somewhere to get wet and get a quick freeze on the way home?  Be proud and go forward to improve your inner self, by putting a few goal posts on the playing field.

Goals have been around my work world for a long time, and I know I'm not alone there.  You may have heard of S.M.A.R.T. goals; not just a clever acronym but also simple enough to use in just about any work area.  They're a great way to get started, but there are improvements being made every day.

This morning I read in +Business Insider about a method Google has been using for some time, which has some distinct benefits:  Objectives and Key Results, or OKRs.

OKRs came originally from Intel, and Google's been using them from Day One.  But there is no reason any operation large or small, or for that matter any one of us, can't use OKRs to help us achieve a little more.

Now, I don't want to repeat what is a pretty well-written article, and recognize a "TL/DR" crowd when I see it so allow me please to summarize what's different and why it works so well. 

1. Each Objective has several key results, all of which can/should fit the SMART guidelines.  That is, the package's contents should all be clear, identifying success points, not impossible, useful, and not open-ended.  This is what many have come to expect.
2. The difference is the measurement of the outcome.  As shown above left, each result is reviewed and its completeness measured, using a 0.0 to 1.0 scale.  Summed and averaged, you have the overall outcome for the objective.

This may seem like a very small difference!  Returning numeric achievement values provides a level of transparency to the review process that can be quite valuable to worker and manager.  For example,  there's less room for consistently good or poor performance to be over or understated.  As a worker progresses to other teams and groups, this scoring may also be used to help quickly identify areas of aptitude to new leaders.

If you have the time to read I hope you also watch the +Google Ventures video embedded on the page to get some deeper context.  It's worthwhile, especially if you're managing a team of people who see SMART objectives as the check-boxes they can become.