Measure What Matters

John Doerr presents here the “Objectives and Key Results” (OKR) method used by Google, IBM and Intel. This form of management by objectives combines flexibility and rigor, thus enabling the teams to implement the company strategy in an autonomous manner.

Through 21 chapters and case studies, the author shows how identifying specific objectives, and meticulously implementing them, is key to exceptional performance. Initially, focusing on a small number of objectives, understood by the entire staff, improves cohesion, spontaneous collaboration and team mobilization. Then, through regular, detailed and transparent monitoring of everyone’s progress, the staff become more accountable—which encourages their sustained involvement. For the author, the implementation of OKR systems largely explains the high performance culture that is typical of the companies mentioned.

This book, rich in examples, constitutes the ideal guide to modernize the management of objectives in your organization. It precisely describes the levers that a manager can use to mobilize his/her team around objectives that are useful to the company, then to encourage moving into effective actual implementation.

A welcome read at a time when teams’ autonomy and reactivity increasingly condition the success of any company.