[Blog] Getting Started with a Vision for OKRs

When people about implementing OKRs, they often put it off because it’s hard. They don’t have the time to write down what it is they want to achieve. So I tell people, write your vision haphazardly.

Do it badly. A tiny bit at a time. I mean it! You can do that! A bad first draft is more valuable than no draft at all.  

In my spare time I quite like reading philosophy, Carl Jung is one of my favorites. He has this notion that the fool precedes the savior. Why? Because you’re a fool when you start something new, and if you’re not willing to start anything new you can’t move forward, and if you’re not moving forward, you’re moving backward – so the willingness to be a fool/fail is the precursor to transformation. And that’s humility. 

You will get smarter as you move forward. You will become more informed by the results of your errors.  

You don’t want to wander around in status – there are companies like that – if you want something new you have to give up something old. 

Think of your first OKR as a light, a dim light in the dark, and you’re going to take some stumbling steps towards it. Then after you take those steps what you’ll realize is the light has moved and you didn’t get it right. The light, your vision for OKRs is constantly moving. 

You move, and it moves away. It directs you. And you grow. And it directs you. And you grow.  And you ask yourself is what I’m following paradise? No, you couldn’t 

HERE IS WHERE IT BECOMES REALLY COOL > Each of those zigs and zags is a catastrophe. I hit a wall and I felt like I could die with the stress but I kept going. It’s painful and tiring!! But you’ve progressed! And progressing means you haven’t stood still. You can’t stand still. The world moves away from you if you stand still. And so the more you go through each pan, the lessen the impact each zig and zag takes. You build up a tolerance. The less pain you have to withstand. And the more informed you are, the stronger and more powerful you become.  

The Matthew principle – to those you have everything, more will be given. To those you have nothing, more will be taken. The truth and insight being this, do not stay in one place. Do not wait to transform your organization into an OKR organization.