Another interesting comparison to OKRs is Stephen Bungay's application of modern mission command to business management, as he describes in his book, The Art of Action. Goal Trees, Mission Command, and the, albeit elusive, effective implementation of OKRs all have a lot in common. One interesting thing about mission command, as Bungay describes it, is that it is explicitly intended to decentralize decision making to the people with the most situational awareness, because modern militaries realized a long time ago that centralized decision-making authority and rigid plans of execution do not scale. This decentralized decision making is another important aspect that isn't explicitly enforced in OKRs, and the reality is that the prevailing business culture isn't ready to trust "subordinates" to make decisions -- even within the scope of that employees responsibility, and even if it doesn't scale.
Another interesting comparison to OKRs is Stephen Bungay's application of modern mission command to business management, as he describes in his book, The Art of Action. Goal Trees, Mission Command, and the, albeit elusive, effective implementation of OKRs all have a lot in common. One interesting thing about mission command, as Bungay describes it, is that it is explicitly intended to decentralize decision making to the people with the most situational awareness, because modern militaries realized a long time ago that centralized decision-making authority and rigid plans of execution do not scale. This decentralized decision making is another important aspect that isn't explicitly enforced in OKRs, and the reality is that the prevailing business culture isn't ready to trust "subordinates" to make decisions -- even within the scope of that employees responsibility, and even if it doesn't scale.