Few years back I read High Output Management. I found the idea of OKRs fascinating. Inspired by Mr. Grove I decided this is something I must implement in my org. And if it works for Google, it must work for us!

I could not resist the urge to sit down start framing OKRs for my team. After a week of deliberation I presented our OKRs for the team. It checked all the boxes: aim high, keep only 3 Objectives etc.

The team received it well. And we embarked on it.

Needless to say, few months down line it had failed. I realised that the text-book flavour of OKRs doesn’t work for us. I also underestimated the difficulty of execution discipline like ensuring measurability of metrics etc.

Reader’s High:

We all read books. We all get inspired. And we want to go apply that compelling new technique we just learnt.

Don’t!

Give it time.

This urge is almost irresistible. And it is at its peak just after you have read a book(or a chapter). Let it subside…

Don’t let the tools use you:

As leaders/managers there could be a tendency to find ways to apply what you just learnt to your org/project. This leads to force fitting of solutions where they may not naturally fit.

Reading books gives us tools to think and frameworks to navigate problems. Don’t be the guy with the hammer looking around for nails.

This problem extends in general to using solutions from books/podcasts/leaders and trying to fit it to your org/project/situation.

Similar Problems are not Same Problems:

The reality is that your problem is unique in certain ways. There might be parallels between your situation and what you have read. But there are many nuances that will make your problems uniquely different. And until you understand these nuances no book can help you.

Reader’s High Alert: Be super cautious when people start bringing War/Military analogies into workplaces.

What use is a book if I can’t apply what I have read?

As I mentioned earlier, books give you the tools to think/operate. You still have to figure out how/when/where to use these tools and in what combination. You will often find yourself arriving at a flavour of your own.

Here is how to go about this:

  1. Internalise the ideas: as you read, let an idea seep deep into your thought process. let it become part of your mental model. once you have done this, applying this knowledge to a problem would happen naturally. It would just be “your” way of solving a problem.

  2. Layering of Mental Models: think of mental models as many layers of world view. Lenses to look at things if you will. When you solve a problem you will use this mental model. It is highly likely that you won’t be picking one specific thing that you learnt from a book to solve a real life problem.

  3. The Problem Context: The common saying goes - a problem well defined is as good as half solved. Develop a deep understanding of the problem at hand. Gain as much context as possible from first principles. Now, does the thing that you just learnt fit here?

  4. Pragmatism of Execution: There could be situations where you have framed a problem in your org very well. You have figured out a very good strategy to tackle the challenge. It would help to pause and ask the following questions:

Is the org ready for this?

What is the degree of change required for this?

What is the rigour of execution required for going through this solution?

You may find that while the solution is a perfect fit, there may be prevailing factors that may make execution of such a solution impractical.

Conclusion:

Read books and keep “updating” your mental models. Don’t try to find problems for active-application. The problems will find you.