One of the most challenging things for people to wrap their heads around when learning to create No-BS OKRs is the power of progress key results, otherwise known as leading indicators. But leading indicators serve as critical data that may give you objective data on which to assess your progress, and, to inform decisionmaking. Today’s guest is Elena Chopyak, a self-professed "data nerd," who I met through our mutual friend Rachel. When Rachel introduced Elena to me as an expert in leading indica...
May 21, 2024•31 min•Season 1Ep. 16
Are you ready to create big, bold goals for Q2 and beyond, and achieve remarkable results? In this Thinkydoers Short, I'm sharing a slew of resources to help you get ready for Q2 -- whether you have a budget or not, and whether you are excited to get visionary and curious and plan your Q2, or are hoping to spend as little time as humanly possible, so you can get right to achieving your goals! Show Topics: It's OKR Quarterly Reset Time: Q1 performance review and Q2 goal-setting are upon us. Tune ...
Mar 13, 2024•9 min•Season 1Ep. 15
The long-term stress sustained during and since the COVID-19 pandemic continues to have a serious impact on our collective wellbeing. The American Psychological Association’s annual “Stress in America” report this year shared that “APA psychologists widely agreed there is mounting evidence that our society is experiencing the psychological impacts of a collective trauma.” In our personal and professional lives – especially for those of us who possess an “overthinky” brain -- we’re experiencing h...
Dec 05, 2023•39 min•Season 1Ep. 14
One of the first jobs to be done when implementing (or rebooting) OKRs is to identify how they fit into an organization’s existing planning “stack” and get clear about what job they’re being hired to do. This episode is based on chapter three of Sara Lobkovich’s upcoming book, The Evolutionary OKRs Playbook , which focuses on what is possible with Evolutionary OKRs®. You’ll be introduced to the first of three models that Sara uses every day in her work with organizations implementing OKRs: the C...
Oct 31, 2023•24 min•Season 1Ep. 13
We're excited to share Chapter Two of our work-in-progress Evolutionary OKRs Playbook with you. This chapter re-introduces Objectives and Key Results for people who may be less familiar with traditional approaches, and then shifts into the unique elements of the Evolutionary OKR model (which we've developed specifically to aid innovative and transformative organizations and teams in setting and achieving bigger, bolder goals). I also share a bit more about what we mean when we talk about the Evo...
Aug 29, 2023•25 min•Season 1Ep. 12
After years of writing alone and then sharing my work on the Evolutionary OKRs Playbook with (wonderful, patient) beta readers, with this rewrite I’m doing something different. It’s time to write (and read) in public. Certain chapters of the book are being shared via our email newsletter first ; then after a week or two, some will be shared via the Red Currant Collective Blog , via Medium , and here, as Thinkydoers podcast episodes. As terrifying as this is for me personally, it’s time. The fina...
Aug 15, 2023•16 min•Season 1Ep. 11
Fun fact: While I am an OKR activist, I'm not an OKR dogmatist. If OKRs "aren't working" in your organization, I'll be the first to support your decision to change course to an approach that works better for your organization. Frequently, though, I see organizations reach a stage where they're frustrated with their OKR implementation -- and the time of year I see the "OKRs aren't working" phase kick in is at mid-year, when we're looking at our annual company strategic plans or OKRs that may have...
Jun 13, 2023•26 min•Season 1Ep. 10
What's the difference between a KPI and an OKR? And specifically, what's the difference between a KPI and a Key Result? Here's a simple answer, with examples, to help make this concept easy to understand. You’ll find out what defines KPIs, KRs, stretch goals, and commits, what they mean, how they impact businesses, and how they overlap. We discuss the problems caused by confusing these terms, which can lead to damaged trust, safety, and a reduction in employee engagement. We even use Sara’s pers...
May 17, 2023•18 min•Season 1Ep. 9
Today, we take a step back and answer the obvious question: what are Evolutionary Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) and why are they important? OKRs are a method for setting collaborative, objectively measurable goals made popular by the book Measure What Matters, which creates enormous excitement about the potential of OKRs, but leaves many teams and leaders frustrating trying to figure out how to implement them. This episode introduces the Red Currant Collective brand of OKRs: Evolutionary OKR...
Mar 08, 2023•23 min•Season 1Ep. 8
We talk a lot around here about Objectives and Key Results (OKRs), and in this episode, we dive into an adjacent topic: the role that goal setting can play in making a case for and achieving important change in our organizations. The audio for this episode is from a LinkedIn Live that I hosted recently (if you'd like to hear about our every-other Wednesday Live gatherings, join our email list ). Those Live sessions are geared toward changemaker leaders and strategic implementors within organizat...
Dec 09, 2022•29 min•Season 1Ep. 7
We're closing enrollment on Friday for next week's Coaching Evolutionary OKRs course, so if you're looking for OKR Coach training before the end of the year, act quickly (or drop me a note, and I'll let you know when we plan our next cohort). And if a short course is more your style, that's coming this November! After years of focusing on deep-dive training for leaders & teams in goal-oriented organizations, I'm VERY excited to be launching a short course on efficient Objective and Key Resul...
Oct 13, 2022•8 min•Season 1Ep. 6
When the book Measure What Matters was published in 2018, it created a lot of excitement about Objectives and Key Results, or OKRs. Unfortunately, the book provided little practical information about implementing them, and many organizations have struggled to actually make OKRs work in the wild. Now we are seeing a rapidly growing OKR software market which is expected to reach $2.6 billion by 2023 but there is still a lot of confusion around the implementation and the potential benefits of OKRs....
Aug 25, 2022•22 min•Season 1Ep. 5
This time of year is called the "silly season" in motorsports because we're in the literal middle of our racing season AND we're all already operating in the 2023 season: planning partnerships, talent moves, and logistics for the year we won't start for another six months. Every summer I see something really similar with my corporate clients who set goals annually: sometimes between mid-July and September, even IF the organization did a mid-year reset after Q2, we find ourselves looking at our a...
Aug 06, 2022•21 min•Season 1Ep. 4
In our last episode, our host Sara Lobkovich took the antiquated concept of "managing up" to task. This episode is part two in this two-part series, where we dive into why and how organizations can replace "managing up" with building a culture of self-management. With norms established around expectations and goal alignment, communication, and candor and truthfulness, organizations can center their most important outcomes more effectively; manage healthy conflict to achieve necessary change; and...
May 03, 2022•29 min•Season 1Ep. 3
This is the first in a two-part series about why we work with clients to uncover and unlearn the behavior of "managing up," and replace it with a culture of self-management. It IS necessary to carefully and intentionally manage our relationships at work (up, down, and across), but the way managing up is coached in many organizations centers leaders instead of the work itself. The practice is inefficient, inequitable, and often emphasizes spin over substance. And many people who rely on managing ...
Apr 19, 2022•27 min•Season 1Ep. 2
By this point in the year -- 1/3 of the way through Q1 -- many of us have already abandoned any New Years Resolutions we set -- and in our work lives, we may still be digging out from year-end, having missed a month of achievement toward our 2022 goals. We're not going to start with goal-setting today -- most of you have already done that step. Instead, we're going to learn a bit more about the types of goals you've set already, and share a few simple steps to help you get your goal achievement ...
Feb 02, 2022•30 min•Season 1Ep. 1
Thinky-doers are those of us whose work spans the spaces between thought, through the messy middle, into doing. I'm a thinky-doer, and I'm here to help others create less friction, and more flow in our work.
Jun 01, 2019•30 sec
