Working with OKRs forces a new, uncomfortable conversation to surface in the workplace. The decades (if not centuries) old tradition of an overconfident boss dictating their will to their employees begins to fade. In its place rises a discussion of data, facts, experience and expertise. In its most effective form it’s a debate based on what the team knows right now and where they’d like to be in a pre-determined and relatively near-term future. The core value of this type of conversation is transparency – an honest review and reflection of reality and its impact on our strongly held opinions. Often, transparency invalidates our opinions. It’s this very specific realization that threatens the success of an OKR implementation.
How do OKRs drive transparency?
The OKR conversation doesn’t focus on solutions initially. It focuses on the reasons behind doing any work and then objective criteria for determining if that work actually achieved our goals. Inevitably our original ideas will have to be adjusted. The data reveals where our decisions were wrong. It doesn’t care whose idea it was. It’s evidence. OKRs coupled with short test-and-learn cycles shine a clarifying light on whether our choices have made a meaningful difference to our customers. The transparency into our progress is fast and brutally honest. We know much sooner than ever whether or not we’re headed down the right path. We don’t have to wait for the full product launch before iterating and adjusting course.
Why is transparency terrifying?
Transparency reveals all of the flaws in our work. It can make us feel “dumb” or that we “look bad” in front of our teams, bosses and peers. In work environments where leaders are expected to “just know” how to achieve certain goals – i.e., to predict the future with confidence – transparency provides an alternative narrative. In most cases that narrative will contradict the one put forward originally – often by leaders. Being wrong is not considered a positive thing in many organizations. In fact, in some companies, being demonstrably wrong about previous decisions can be cause for dismissal, especially at the upper levels of management. Transparency can get you fired!
How do we get comfortable with OKR-driven transparency?
Despite its career-making-or-breaking qualities, transparency is the goal of a strong OKR implementation. We want to know, fast, if we’re on the right track. Should we be working on this is one of the most important questions teams need to consistently ask themselves. OKRs provide the insight to confidently answer that question on a regular basis. We have to make transparency comfortable and common. Here are a couple of ways to do that:
- Reduce the time it takes to learn from your customers – teams that talk to their costumes on a regular basis, put lightweight tests into market and review the evidence from these activities quickly reduce the time they spend on wrong ideas. The sooner a team learns they’re focused on something that won’t achieve their key results, they can begin to pivot. Less time spent on a bad idea is less investment in that bad idea. Less investment makes course correction far more attractive. Think about it. It’s a lot easier to come to your boss with a course correction after 6 days than it is after 6 weeks. Gaining that transparency faster makes it more useful.
- Celebrate the impact of transparency – Instead of hiding the fact that you were wrong, embrace it. Make it public. Share it broadly and discuss both the impact of what you learned and how you’ll use that insight to change course. The more we can model this behavior, the more likely others in our organization will make similar pivots based on evidence. Transparency doesn’t just become common, it’s welcomed.
“The Emperor has no clothes” is indeed a terrifying prospect for many people. In business, and especially in digitally-driven business, we can’t afford to assume we’re always right. We need objectivity to point out that we can choose a better path to making our customers successful. That objectivity comes from continuous transparency. It’s a terrifying prospect but if we can reduce the impact of it with shorter cycles and show others in the company the benefits of seeing the real impact of our work we can reduce the tyranny of transparency.