Reader Jonathan asked for some more color on the OKR swamp...

Remember the Fire Swamp from Princess Bride? (If you don't, RUN to watch the movie. And consider this spoiler alert - and snooze this email until you're back)

Navigating your OKRs often feels like the Fire Swamp.

There are so many OKRs that they are all stuck - like the standing, dark, moist water in the Fire Swamp.

The exercise of creating them involves wordsmithing agony that reminds you of a Battle of Wits with a sicilian...

Working on some of these OKRs feels like Lightning Sand - you sink in the details, and the cross-department work quicker than lightning.

While working towards your OKRs, you get surprised by actions you take not working, as well as realizing you're not even working on the right deliverables. It makes you think of the infamous Fire Spurts.

Some OKRs are of unmanageable size - being too abstract and unclear. Kind of like ROUS (Rodents of unusual size)

And you have to fight all these swamp features/creatures while handling day-to-day work. (At least the antagonists in the movie were smart enough to stay out of the swamp, allowing Wesley and the Princess to Focus!)

How do you overcome it? Through true love, of course :-) And that's actually how leaders and their teams most often overcome the OKR Swamp - they somehow slug through it.

There's a smarter way, though. It does require courage and focus.

Remember that the point is alignment around outcomes, not perfection. (So be thoughtful about how much time you spend on drafting and confirming OKRs)

To say No (to too many OKRs, or everything being an OKR).

To plan for surprises (through continuous iteration and adaptation)

Focus on finishing one at a time. (Through ruthless prioritization and tradeoffs)

Have a great day! Go drain some OKR swamps...

Yuval

What if you had a trail map helping you navigate the OKR Swamp? Mastering Organizational Outcomes is a practical email course designed to help leaders of scale-up and midsized organizations break free from scattered priorities and bring organizational flow, focus, and clarity. Use it to upgrade your company operating system to achieve traction as you scale. Check it out, or use this quick link to subscribe.