I had a bit of hope when companies started down the OKRs path.
That model could work really well when done bottom-up, with individuals defining what they see as most important in their context and managers rolling that up into coherent strategies at each level as it goes up. Effectively, managers should be puzzling together what those closest to the product and customer find rather than forcing down goals and metrics.
Unfortunately companies don't work that way and leadership fundamentally doesn't trust their employees, especially employees they are a few layers away from in the org chart. OKRs ended up being just another name for leadership slamming goals down the org, no different than the Company Pillars I would see at Microsoft 15 years ago.
That model could work really well when done bottom-up, with individuals defining what they see as most important in their context and managers rolling that up into coherent strategies at each level as it goes up. Effectively, managers should be puzzling together what those closest to the product and customer find rather than forcing down goals and metrics.
Unfortunately companies don't work that way and leadership fundamentally doesn't trust their employees, especially employees they are a few layers away from in the org chart. OKRs ended up being just another name for leadership slamming goals down the org, no different than the Company Pillars I would see at Microsoft 15 years ago.