Measure What Matters: How Google, Bono, and the Gates Foundation Rock the World with OKRs

Goals may cause systematic problems in organizations due to narrowed focus, unethical behavior, increased risk taking, decreased cooperation, and decreased motivation.

First, said Edwin Locke, “hard goals” drive performance more effectively than easy goals. Second, specific hard goals “produce a higher level of output” than vaguely worded ones.

He and Sergey were determined to change the world, and I believed they had a shot.

If you don’t know where you’re going, you might not get there.

May everyone have a Bill Campbell in their lives—or even strive to make themselves be a bit more like the Coach!

good ideas with great execution

Ideas are easy. Execution is everything.

goals “can inspire employees and improve performance.”

, said Edwin Locke, “hard goals” drive performance more effectively than easy goals. Second, specific hard goals “produce a higher level of output” than vaguely worded ones.

KEY RESULTS benchmark and monitor HOW we get to the objective. Effective KRs are specific and time-bound, aggressive yet realistic. Most of all, they are measurable and verifiable. ( As prize pupil Marissa Mayer would say, “It’s not a key result unless it has a number.”) You either meet a key result’s requirements or you don’t; there is no gray area, no room for doubt. At the end of the designated period, typically a quarter, we declare the key result fulfilled or not.