Objectives and Key Results (OKR) is a performance management framework that aligns employees’ work with company missions and strategies. It is designed to promote transparency and trust.
The difference between OKR and traditional goal-setting is that OKR is outcome-based, while transitional objectives are output-based. However, all the techniques of transitional objectives still work for OKR. Andy S. Grove, the author of High Output Management, who systematised the idea of output-based management, is believed to have developed the ideas on which OKR is based.
There are three concepts in OKR: objective, key result and initiative. An objective can have up to five key results. Each key result can have multiple initiatives. If the objective is the final destination marked on a map, the key results would be the road signs that lead us to the destination. Initiatives, conversely, are. the concreted actions we take to reach each sign - we can choose to drive to the next roundabout, a shortcut and swim across the river. The end goal is the same - reaching the next milestone.