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When ive been introduced to okr Ive really liked this concept to the point that i started to use them in my private life

But on the other hand i dont fully like them in my work life

First my job forces OKRs amount and treats them equally

So OKR like completing half day training and sharing the learnings has the same value as multi month engineering effort.




I think that completing a training or sharing the results are, technically speaking, deliverables not results; that's why that doesn't work as a OKR. OKR would ask for the measurable impact that completing those things has on business behavior (user-facing KPIs, or internal productivity / value measures).

My only encounter with OKRs sucked badly, and mismatches like that were one of the reasons.


This is the problem with both SMART goals and OKRs. They purport to be meaningful by measuring results, but results are outside of one's control and subject to the inputs of lady Fortune!

What we want to incentivise is not success, but the kind of behaviour that leads to success. But that, on the other hand, suffers even worse from Goodhart's law.

Cedric Chin dug deeply into this dilemma[1] about a year ago. His suggestion is to frequently follow up on both behaviour metrics and result metrics to build a tacit understanding of how one is affected by another. This then allows you to focus improvements on behaviour metrics, which are mostly in your control.

I have yet to try putting it to practise, but I like the idea.

[1]: https://commoncog.com/goodharts-law-not-useful/


We take trainings under

Some technical skills increase or personal development objective

And that completion of training or certs is what is measured




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