What Are OKRs?
Objectives & Key Results (OKRs) help you navigate change. In simple terms, the framework is a map you draw before you travel, and the terrain that reveals itself as you go.
The Map
Objectives & Key Results
The destination. Where you’re going and why it matters. A story that orients your people and the metrics that measure your progress.
The Terrain
Your OKRs Cycle
The reality of what happens as you move. The evidence of progress, or lack of it. Your outcomes and behaviours measured over time.
The map is a hypothesis. The terrain is the evidence. The map is a model of the terrain. As you travel, you track what you see. When they don’t match, you decide. Do you redraw the map, adjust the route, or push through because you trust the hypothesis?
Two Modes of Navigation
OKRs require two different disciplines. Modes you shift between. One draws the map, the other reads the signs. The discipline is knowing which mode the moment requires.
The Cartographer
Drawing the Map
Crafting a story that’s memorable and aligned to a larger vision. Simple enough to remember, concrete enough to picture. A model of the future and what you think it’s going to be like when you get there.
The Tracker
Reading the Signs
Interpreting behaviour, not just measuring activity. The terrain reveals itself through what actually changes over time. Have our expectations been realised, or has something gotten in the way?
What Working OKRs Enable
When the map is shared and the terrain is read honestly, three things become possible.
Alignment
When people have a shared map, they can make their own priority calls. They know where they’re going and how their work aligns with your mission.
Autonomy
With a shared map, decisions happen without escalation. People don’t need to check before acting. They can navigate because they know the destination.
Orientation
The terrain tells you where you actually are. As you read the signs over time, you reorient. Moving, stalling, or drifting? The evidence shapes the next move.
What You Get
- Decisions without escalation: Teams that know what matters can act without checking. Priorities are clear and shared.
- Progress you can actually see: Not activity metrics but evidence of movement toward your agreed destination.
- Internal capability, not dependency: People in your organisation who can run your OKR cycles.
- A navigation system that’s yours: Not a framework you have to translate, but one built for how you actually work.
- Alignment that compounds: When everyone knows where you’re going, effort adds up instead of cancelling out.
Is This The Right Fit?
When this works well:
- You have a destination: a vision or strategy to align around
- Leadership is prepared to sustain the long-term commitment required
- You want to build internal capability, not extenal dependency
- You’re willing to reorientate when the terrain doesn’t match the map
- You want alignment, not just goal-setting
This isn’t the right fit when:
- You don’t have a destination: no long-term vision or strategy to align with
- You aren’t prepared to sustain the long-term commitment required
- You want an external consultant to do this for you, not build capability
- You want to prove the hypothesis right, not test it
Ready to draw a shared map?
Book a 20-minute call and we’ll work out if this is the right approach for your organisation.
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OKRs: A Framework for Transformational Change
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