Answers
The three questions every planning cycle turns on.
Whether a measure belongs in an OKR or on a dashboard, whether a key result will settle cleanly on the last day of the quarter, and what cascading a goal actually means once more than one team owns part of it. Each answered in the first paragraph, with the worked examples behind it.
3 questions
Every answer, in one place
The short answer is on this page. The page behind it carries the test, the ways teams get it wrong, and examples across operations, sales, finance and people.
What is the difference between OKRs and KPIs?
A KPI monitors something you want to hold in a good range. An OKR commits you to changing something by a date. Most organisations need both, and most OKR programmes fail because they put their existing KPIs into OKR format.
Read the full answerHow do you write a key result?
So that on the last day of the quarter it settles true or false without anyone arguing. Most key results fail that test because they are tasks wearing a number, and a task can be finished without anything changing.
Read the full answerHow do you cascade goals across teams and sites?
By cascading the question, not the objective. Copying the company goal into every team plan is the common failure. Each level answers two things instead: given that, which part is ours, and how will we know we did it.
Read the full answerWhy these three
Each one is where a planning cycle quietly fails
Not the questions people ask first, but the three that decide whether a quarter produces commitments or a list of activities nobody can settle.
- Confusing the two kinds of measure. A team puts its existing KPIs into OKR format, and now every objective is a dashboard it was already watching. Nothing changes, and the method gets the blame.
- A key result that cannot be settled. If two reasonable people can disagree on the last day of the quarter about whether it was met, it was a task with a number attached, and the review turns into a negotiation.
- Cascading by copying. The company objective is pasted into eight team plans, so eight teams own the same words and none owns a part of it. Each level should be answering what its own contribution is, not restating the level above.
GPS does not require you to run any one of these methods. OKRs, Rocks and a balanced scorecard all sit on the same plan, which is why these pages explain the method rather than sell it.
Once the goals are written
The part that decides whether they get hit
A well-written key result still needs somebody to own it, a weekly hour that ends in decisions, and a report the board can read without anyone building it.
Goals and KPIs
Every measure tracked against the pace it needs, not just percent complete.
See goals and KPIsMeetings and check-ins
The weekly hour that ends in decisions rather than status updates.
See the rhythmBoard reporting
The pack written from live data, in minutes rather than a fortnight.
See board reportingOr take the walkthrough and see the whole cycle on real screens.
See it on your own plan
Fifteen minutes, with your objectives on the screen rather than a demo workspace.