Why Your OKRs Aren't Working with Roger Martin

About this episode

Tiffani Bova and Roger Martin discuss the effectiveness of OKRs and the importance of strategy in achieving goals.

Welcome to the What's Next! Podcast with Tiffani Bova. I'm thrilled to welcome you back to a series I did with my dear friend, Roger Martin. He's the author of the amazing book, Playing to Win. In this episode, we discuss whether OKRs, or Objectives and Key Results, actually help you win or whether they're masquerading as strategy. THIS EPISODE IS PERFECT FOR…leaders and operators who are frustrated with OKRs, unclear metrics, or goals that feel disconnected from reality and want a smarter way to connect strategy to execution. TODAY'S MAIN MESSAGE…we often treat OKRs like a magic solution, but according to Roger, they're only as good as the strategy behind them. Too many organizations jump straight from setting big goals (the "O") to measuring results (the "KR") without doing the hard work in between. That missing middle—where to play, how to win, and what capabilities are required—is what actually makes goals achievable. KEY TAKEAWAYS… OKRs fail when there's no strategy connecting the objective to the results. Measurement helps but not everything that matters can be measured. The "middle three boxes" (where to play, how to win, capabilities) determine success. Many OKRs are…

People in this episode

Host: Tiffani Bova

Guest: Roger Martin

Topics covered

• OKRs
• strategy
• leadership
• performance measurement
• goal setting

Keywords

• OKRs
• Objectives and Key Results
• strategy
• goals
• performance
• leadership
• measurement

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Playing to Win

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