What I learned this week:  Ok friends - this week I learned a lot about OKRs or Objectives and Key results.  How you help yourself go from an idea then to execution.  My husband had told me about the idea and thought it would help  my decluttering.  We read the book, Meausre what Matters by John Doer.  It is all very business related but I thought I could have it work for my personal goals as well.  

An objective is: An Objective is simple: What is to be achieved. No more and no less.  By definition, objectives are significant, concrete, action oriented, and (ideally) inspirational.  When properly designed they’re a vaccine against fuzzy thinking – and fuzzy execution. (7)

For my objective with decluttering I need to have a bigger vision and then put that into words that will inspire me and maybe even my kids.   An idea I had was:

Objective:  To have a home full of things that I love that is beautiful and easy to maintain.  

Then there are the key results which is where the action and execution really starts.  A key result is: Key Results: benchmark and monitor HOW we get to the objective.  Effective KRs are specific and time bound, aggressive yet realistic.  Most of all they are measurable and verifiable.  You either meet a key result’s requirements or your don’t; there is no gray area, no room for doubt. AT the end of the designated period, typically a quarter, we declare the key result fulfilled or not. Where an objective can be long-lived, rolled over for a year or longer, key results evolve as the work progresses.  (7)

So this are the results that will take the steps needed to get you to your goal.  Here are my 5 key results:

1.  to declutter 3 times week for 30 minutes min. 

2. Take 1 to 3 bags of items to donate or a few larger pieces of furniture to sell or donate each week

3. To tidy up for 10 minutes each night before scriptures.  

4. Watch one or two videos to keep motivated and gain more ideas of ways to declutter weekly. 

5. One of your 30 minutes decluttering session is in the dreaded storage room.   

The one thing I  like about the key results is they can be flexible and don't have to be perfect.  See how you do for the first month and then evaluate.  You may need to fix things but as they mentioned in the book a great quote from Voltaire "Don’t allow the perfect to be the enemy of the good.” 

The other quote that John Doer says which is important : “Ideas are easy - execution is everything” (5)

THe last part of the key results is to evaluate and see how you have done at the end of the designated time period.  And you evaluate without judgement.  There were two ways to evaluate suggested in the book.  One way is that you assign a number between .1 an1.0.  Then they also had the green, yellow and red.  

Scoring:  Google’s method

0.7to 1.0 = Green (we delivered)

0.4 to 0.6 = yellow (we made progress, but fell short of completion)

0.0 to 0.3 = red (we failed to make real progress)

Remember that you need to evaluate without judgement.  The key results that are red, you need to figure out why you didn't make real progress.  John Doer points out that key results you stretch you a bit and that you shouldn't have all greens at the end of your time period.  If you don't do them all then you know they were a bit hard and it helps you work even harder.   I love the quote from the book “Our goals our servants to our purpose.”  If they are not working see what might work better. 

Edwin Locke, an University Psychology professor, in 1968 said “hard goals” drive performance more effectively than easy goals.  Second, specific hard goals “produce a high level of output” than vaguely worded ones.  (9)

In this book it says now 50 years later and thousands of studies have proven “one of the most tested, and proven, ideas in the whole of management theory.”  Among the experiments in the field, 90 percent confirm that productivity is enhanced by well-defined, challenging goals.  (9)

Best factor in worker engagement “clearly defined goals that are written down and shared freely… Goals create alignment, clarity and job satisfaction.” (10)

In the book, John Doer points out have objectives and key results have 4 super powers. 

Superpower #1 : Focus and Commitment

Super power #2: Align and Connect  - focused and transparent OKRs

Superpower #3: Track for accountability 

Superpower #4: stretch for amazing

The last super power I really liked - Stretch for Amazing.  I think I have gotten a little laid back and am not stretching as much as I could.  They also talk about the BHAG or the big hairy audacious goal.  Do you have a BHAG that you are working toward?  I know I am going to think more about that this year.   What is my stretch for amazing!