What keeps me going is goals.
—Muhammad Ali
Ideas are easy; execution is everything.
If you have read this far, you’ve seen how OKRs and CFRs help organizations of all stripes and sizes move mountains. You’ve heard firsthand accounts of how they inspire workers, develop leaders, and unify teams to do great things. By measuring what matters, objectives and key results are helping Bono and the Gates Foundation mobilize against poverty and disease in Africa. They’re driving Google in its audacious 10x quest to make the world’s information freely accessible to all. They’re empowering the pizza savants at Zume to deliver a robotically assembled artisanal pie, hot and fresh, to your door.
And here’s what’s exciting: I think we’re just getting started.
OKRs may be called a tool, or a protocol, or a process. But my image of choice is a launch pad, a point of liftoff for the next wave of entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs. My dream is to see Andy Grove’s brainchild transform every walk of life. I believe it can have a huge impact on GDP growth, health care outcomes, school success, government performance, business results, and social progress. We’re getting glimpses of that future through forward thinkers like Orly Friedman, who has introduced OKRs to every elementary schoolchild at the Khan Lab School in Mountain View, California. (Imagine you are five or six years old and setting your own goals for learning—your own objectives and key results!—as you learn to reason and read.)
I’m convinced that if structured goal setting and continuous communication were to be widely deployed, with rigor and imagination, we could see exponentially greater productivity and innovation throughout society.
OKRs have such enormous potential because they are so adaptable. There is no dogma, no one right way to use them. Different organizations have fluctuating needs at various phases of their life cycle. For some, the simple act of making goals open and transparent is a big leap forward. For others, a quarterly planning cadence will change the game. It’s up to you to find your points of emphasis and to make the tool your own.
This book tells a handful of behind-the-scenes stories of OKRs and CFRs. Thousands more are just getting started or have yet to be told. Moving forward, we’re going to continue this conversation at whatmatters.com. Come see us there. And you can join the discussion by emailing me at john@whatmatters.com.
My ultimate stretch OKR is to empower people to achieve the seemingly impossible together. To create durable cultures for success and significance. And to prime the pump of inspiration for all the goals—especially your goals—that matter most.