Why implementing individual goals is the wrong decision for top-performing teams
Organizations new to the OKR process can easily get mired in complexity by trying to do too much at once. For that reason and more, Koan recommends against implementing individual goals. Instead, focus on the company, departmental and team goals. Below we’ll dig into why individual OKRs are the wrong choice for high-performing teams.
Setting Objectives and Key Results can be an overwhelming process if not managed carefully. In particular, it’s easy to end up with too many goals. Even when you do manage to avoid the “too many goals” trap, there are still important questions to ask that can make the planning process complex:
Individual OKRs multiply the number of conversations that need to be had, and make sorting out conflicts or resourcing challenges even more challenging.
Post-planning, individual OKRs create a heap more goals than we would have otherwise. Now the process of checking in on progress is more complex; partly due to the scale of the problem and partly because reviewing goals at the team level has a natural place in staff meetings while individual goals don’t have that same natural forum. Finally, there’s the pragmatic reality that meaningful initiatives are rarely driven by individuals. We succeed or fail as teams, and modeling our goals that way is much more natural.
One important note: naming an individual to lead each team goal (with a corresponding set of contributors) is a best practice and fosters accountability in a positive way, without all the downsides of Individual OKRs.
One of the primary values of OKRs is how they drive alignment throughout an organization. Individual OKRs can harm alignment in the following ways:
We all do our best work when we feel intrinsically motivated. Daniel Pink writes in his book Drive about what modern research has shown about increasing performance and satisfaction: that the “carrot and stick” approach fails and that the best way to manage employees is by fostering autonomy, mastery and purpose. OKRs can be an amazing tool to help unlock intrinsic motivation and help teams work with purpose. Unfortunately, linking Individual OKRs to performance management practices can cause the opposite:
Though every organization is different, practical experience and research bears out that Individual OKRs most often do more harm than good. You’ll get the most value out of forgoing them in favor of focusing on team, departmental and company goals.
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