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Setting up personal OKR (objectives and key-results)

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Re: Setting up personal OKR (objectives and key-results)

#3
What I like about OKRs is that it really focuses on providing ways to clearly specify your goals and measure whether you are achieving them. This is also its biggest weakness, since "Key Results" that cannot be expressed as continuous, clearly measurable values will suffer. This leads to cold-seeming Initiatives like the "Connect to the girlfriend for at least six hour-long sessions." from the blog post. Well meaning no doubt, but relationship quality just doesn't lend itself to quantisation like that.

That said, I'm actually a fan of OKRs for achieving personal goals as long as you can be honest to yourself about what your Objectives actually are. (ie, if you don't really value being fit but put it on the list because you feel it is compulsory then no framework is going to provide enough motivation) In corporate settings, the incentives are typically not aligned at all and that tends to break implementation very badly. But for personal settings where you are both goal-setter and implementer it can work quite well.

Re: Setting up personal OKR (objectives and key-results)

#4
I really like this but some of your objectives don't have a timeline attached. For example, "Write 10 reviews on twitter". I would have liked to see a parenthetical "(1 per week for 10 straight weeks)" or "(within 60 days)". Without this its hard to put concrete tasks on a calendar.

BTW I like your goals, too. They seem quite wholesome and achievable, and reasonable (granted I don't know your BMI now, for example, but waking up before 8:30am is a good one.)

Re: Setting up personal OKR (objectives and key-results)

#5
post #4

I really like this but some of your objectives don't have a timeline attached. For example, "Write 10 reviews on twitter". I would have liked to see a parenthetical "(1 per week for 10 straight weeks)" or "(within 60 days)". Without this its hard to put concrete tasks on a calendar. BTW I like your goals, too. They seem quite wholesome and achievable, and reasonable (granted I don't know your BMI now, for example, bu…

Glad you liked the structure/goals.

All of them are for January-February-March 2021. Does that cover the time-bound aspect you're talking about?

Re: Setting up personal OKR (objectives and key-results)

#6
post #3

What I like about OKRs is that it really focuses on providing ways to clearly specify your goals and measure whether you are achieving them. This is also its biggest weakness, since "Key Results" that cannot be expressed as continuous, clearly measurable values will suffer. This leads to cold-seeming Initiatives like the "Connect to the girlfriend for at least six hour-long sessions." from the blog post. Well meaning…

Agree that a quality-sensitive metric can't be modelled fully in the structure. This is something I'm even observing in the work-environment also.

Do you have any learnings to make such initiatives work?

Re: Setting up personal OKR (objectives and key-results)

#7
post #3

What I like about OKRs is that it really focuses on providing ways to clearly specify your goals and measure whether you are achieving them. This is also its biggest weakness, since "Key Results" that cannot be expressed as continuous, clearly measurable values will suffer. This leads to cold-seeming Initiatives like the "Connect to the girlfriend for at least six hour-long sessions." from the blog post. Well meaning…

>Well meaning no doubt, but relationship quality just doesn't lend itself to quantisation like that.

Granted, but sometimes you can find proxies and variables that increase the likelihood of success if you hit them consistently. For example, what's "successfully land an aircraft"? It's a sequence of hitting certain parameters within certain time windows that, when you do that, result in a smooth, successful, landing. Successful landing is a "lagging indicator".

There are many things, even in "artistic performance", that are a sequence of consistently hitting a target within a certain tolerance, at a specific time, etc.

In the workplace, you may have the problem of having a quality relationship with your colleagues or "reports". You may not be able to "quantify" that easily, but you can have regular one on ones in a relaxed enough setting that lead to candid conversations that unearth problems early enough that you can effectively solve them. The relationship quality is a lagging indicator, if you will, of what has been done upstream.

What do you think?

Re: Setting up personal OKR (objectives and key-results)

#9
First off, I like the exercise. I think it’s healthy as a form of journaling and more people should be introspective in this way.

But I’d like to ask what problem is this trying to solve? In a large org, the OKRs are driving alignment and accountability.

But for an individual, i think the bigger challenge is motivation, discipline, dedication, commitment.

So what I mean is, I don’t think individuals have a problem knowing what to do: we all know we need to lose weight and reduce BMI.

The devil is building the habits (eating less, exercising more, avoiding temptation, being more disciplined, being around people with likewise habits) to achieve the OKR.

I’m not saying that the OKRs are a bad idea – just that they are a map of a terrain that leaves out all the devilish hills that really need climbing.

Re: Setting up personal OKR (objectives and key-results)

#10
post #2

I have a pretty extensive personal system partially based on OKRs but I find the key element is doing the exercise as a group and having accountability partners.

I’d like to see this added to the system. At my company, every goal has a “POC” – point of contact aka “owner” or “partner”. I think you should add a partner to each goal – a person who will rate you on the objective. The objectives are what matter. e.g. if you hit 6 hrs time with gf, but she still thinks you are rubbish , you haven’t made any progress on the “strengthen relationships with gf” objective.
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