Part 1 – Using OKRs to drive strategic growth

As businesses navigate the complexities of digital transformation, many are turning to Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) as a framework for aligning their teams and driving strategic progress. But the true power of OKRs lies not just in setting annual goals, but in leveraging short-term milestones to test assumptions and stay on track.

I learned this the hard way. As a former middle-distance runner, failure in my performances shaped my perspective on effective goal setting. After a disappointing performance at the Scottish Nationals, I was determined to come back the following year and redeem myself.

But my coach, Mark Rowland, had a different plan.

He said I was good enough to be coached by an Olympic medallist, but I wasn’t fit enough to race. This made no sense to me as he had agreed to coach me after my performances at a weekend development team training. Rather than focusing on the end goal, Mark zeroed in on a series of short-term objectives – reducing resting heart rate, dropping weight and overhauling my training regimen – and nothing to do with time, the obsession of any track runner.

I was asked to complete a tough base period where I wasn’t allowed to do any competitions, with the only goal being that I had to start taking middle-distance running seriously. Wasn’t I already serious?

His feedback was, “If you can’t achieve this first milestone, then chasing your annual goal is a waste of time”.

I embraced the challenge, although confused, making significant lifestyle changes to meet my coach’s benchmarks. A year later, I returned to the Scottish nationals and won – a testament to the power of breaking down big goals into measurable, actionable steps.

This experience shaped my approach to using OKRs in a business context. When tasked with driving a strategic shift in an organisation’s ways of working, I knew that an offsite where we set annual objectives only to forget them in a week was never enough.

By focusing on those early milestones, you can create an opportunity to test the organisation’s appetite for change, identify key stakeholders and lay the groundwork for more ambitious long-term goals. Accepting that the process won’t always be comfortable, we will need to unlearn some of our strengths to make space for change and movement towards our emerging future.

Setting an OKR should make you feel nervous. That’s the whole point of the idea of learning and change! If we can agree that strategy is complex by nature and the future cannot be predetermined, then the only thing that’s left is to figure out how quickly we can have a tested experience to work with.

For me, the true power of OKRs lies in their ability to cut through the noise and keep us focused on what truly matters. By setting clear, measurable objectives and regularly assessing progress, teams can adapt their strategies, reframe their strengths and drive meaningful change – whether on the track or in the boardroom.

If a CEO can’t understand it, then what’s the point? And if a team member can’t understand it, then what’s the point? The whole idea is to have a shared understanding. To have a shared understanding you have to use common language, not acronyms and buzzwords that make strategy a sport of linguistic gymnastics.

So as leaders navigate the challenges of digital transformation or whatever your next horizon is, design a short-term tangible milestone to assess against. By embracing the discomfort of short-term testing and staying attuned to new information, you can chart a course towards lasting, strategic growth.

In the next blog in this series, we will look at how improvements in flow metrics can be used as tangible milestones to show progress towards longer-term strategic outcomes.