Measure What Matters: How Google, Bono, and the Gates Foundation Rock the World with OKRs

“pulse” surveys

peer recognition

Replace competitive ratings and stack rankings with transparent, strength-based, multidimensional criteria for performance evaluations. Beyond the numbers, consider a contributor’s team play, communication, and ambition in goal setting.

100 percent (committed OKRs) and those that are stretching for a Big Hairy Audacious Goal (a BHAG, or aspirational OKR).

“Gospel of 10x”

Rely on intrinsic motivations—purposeful work and opportunities for growth—over financial incentives. They’re far more powerful.

For each objective, settle on no more than five measurable, unambiguous, time-bound key results—how the

three to five top objectives—

Instead, they “sell” their reds. The team votes on the most important at-risk OKRs for the company as a whole, then brainstorms together as long as it takes to get the objectives back on track. In the spirit of cross-departmental solidarity, individuals volunteer to “buy” their colleagues’