Larry opted to elevate the login objective to a Google company-wide OKR, but with a caveat: The deadline would be three months, not six.

To safeguard quality while pushing for quantitative deliverables, one solution is to pair key results—to measure “both effect and counter-effect,”

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

Institute peer-to-peer recognition. When

Andy Grove’s quantum leap was to apply manufacturing production principles to the “soft professions,” the administrative, professional, and managerial ranks. He sought to “create an environment that values and emphasizes output”

Once each month, managers meet with their reports to discuss individual goals. The system has built-in, 360-degree feedback, with both parties comparing notes on a regular basis.

You wind up calling thirty-five prospects, for a raw goal score of 70 percent. Did you succeed or fail? By itself, the data doesn’t afford us much insight. But if a dozen of your calls lasted several hours apiece and resulted in eight new customers, you might give yourself a perfect 1.0.

Google divides its OKRs into two categories, committed goals and aspirational (or “stretch”) goals. It’s a distinction with a real difference.

We discuss them at weekly all-hands meetings. At a recent off-site retreat, I demonstrated our OKR process to the larger leadership group—and they just ate it up. “Best off-site we’ve ever had,”