Objectives and Key Results

Chapter FourConnecting OKRs to Drive Alignment

WE'RE GOING TO BEGIN THIS CHAPTER with a story directly from Paul on the importance of connecting goals. During the summer between my junior and senior years of college, I was living with my retired parents at my childhood home in a small town in eastern Canada. I'd lived in that house my entire life, and while my parents took pride in the property and maintained it well, the rough (some may say savage) Canadian winters had exacted a toll on the roof of our house. It was clearly in need of replacing, and fast. Since my parents were living on a fixed income and I had a bit of time before starting my summer job, I decided I would take it upon myself to fix the roof. This despite the fact that what I knew about roofing you could easily write on a piece of confetti.

The first step was enlisting a team of buddies to help with the project, which I assumed could be completed in a couple of days (faulty assumption number one of many). With the standard college currency of pizza and beer offered, all of my friends agreed to assist. My father advised us on the supplies we'd need, and we dutifully went around town assembling the raw materials for the new roof. We were all set.

On a glittering May morning we began. Up the ladder and on to the roof we shimmied. Tools and materials were hoisted up and we began tearing apart the old roof. Shingles, tarpaper, and the sounds of Billy Idol booming from my ghetto blaster (this was the early 1980s) ...