In this conversation with OKR pioneer and best-selling author Christina Wodtke, we suspect that OKRs are in fact being overused. It's best to have very few OKRs that focus the whole organization on giant efforts. Instead, what's happening in many cases is that there's a feeling that every function, and sometimes every person, needs OKRs in order to align with strategy and feel like "one of the cool kids." To do that is to miss the arguably greater importance of "business as usual," what Christina calls "heartbeat work." Also, we talk about the inseparability of team climate for OKR success, and the importance of effective feedback and performance coaching. As Christina says, "Most problems are people problems."
The Agile Strategies Podcast: Intelligence, Strategy, and OKRs