Objectives And Key Results

One of the most popular ways for businesses to align on their priorities and measure their performance is by establishing objectives and key results. Although the theory was initially created by a man named Andy Grove, it was one of his pupils John Doerr who really used these ideas to help companies like Google, leaders like Bono, and nonprofits like The Bill And Melinda Gates Foundation to succeed at the highest levels.

Objectives and key results serve as a roadmap to success. They are a mechanism to give you specific orders around what you want to achieve (objective) and what needs to happen to achieve it (key results). 

Going one layer deeper, objectives are more of an aspirational intention. They’re the mission at hand, the change you want to see in the world, that serves as a motivating rally cry for those who are working toward it. The key results are the specific, measurable milestones where you believe that in successfully hitting them, you fulfill the objective. 

The value to outlining it this way is that you get to define the game you’re playing. You get to make the rules and determine what success looks like.

An example used in John Doerr’s book “Measure What Matters” - If The Bill And Melinda Gates Foundations wants to reduce childhood mortality in developing countries (objective), then they need to Increase vaccination coverage from 80% to 90% in target regions, decrease the incidence of malaria by 30% in the next two years, and provide clean drinking water to 5 million more people (key results).

This mirrors the framework I learned from Jim Bunch that I like to use called “Goals, Strategies, and Tactics”. The goal is the overarching inspiring objective and the strategies are the key results. 

Now what’s important to mention is how in both cases, the strategy and key results are meant to orient your actions. It becomes a filter for you to pick the tactics that you think will most likely produce the key results you’re after. It keeps you focused on doing what will actually move the needle in making progress toward the change you want to see in the world.

That’s why you put all of this extra work in beforehand, it streamlines efficiency for everything else that’s to come. It’s taking carefully aligned action that really moves the world forward.