“If you hate OKRs, someone is doing them wrong. Maybe you, maybe your boss.” -Christina Wodtke.

Many organisations struggle with OKRs, often finding them frustrating and ineffective. But the problem isn’t the framework—it’s how it’s implemented. Cascading goals, task-focused execution, and rigid structures create silos and disengagement, stifling the true potential of OKRs.

In this talk, we’ll start by uncovering common dysfunctions that derail OKR initiatives and demystify why they fail to deliver results. Then, we’ll introduce a fresh, proven approach: the OKR Solar System. This dynamic model replaces top-down cascades with cross-team collaboration, enabling strategic alignment that adapts to your organisation’s evolving needs.

You’ll learn how the OKR Solar System fosters aligned autonomy, breaks down silos, and empowers teams to focus on shared outcomes. Real-world case studies will showcase its transformative impact on strategy execution. Whether you’re just starting with OKRs, scaling them, or looking for a reset, this session will inspire you to reimagine what’s possible.

Why do you think strategic initiatives fail?

misalignment, control, focus, fatigue, top down, …

70% of strategies fail because of misalignment and unclear strategies

OKR: measure strategy

• Vision: 5-10 yr
• Strategy: 1-2 yr
• OKR: 3-6 months
• Work

OKR:

• Objective: what do we want to achieve?
• Key Results: how will we know if we achieved it?
• Initiatives: what will we do to drive progress?

initiatives is something I do in order to achieve something

the key result indicates whether I achieved it

initiatives are many, many things we do to try something, experiments, if we did not achieve it, we try something else

Outcome over Output

Put the behavioural change in the focus, the customer we are not measuring productivity, how fast, how much, … but what kind of effect has what we do

classic approach to OKR

cascade OKR from company to department to team to individual, the objective becomes the key result of the next level

cascaded and org-chart copied OKRs

• slow down because of dependencies, we wait for the other team to complete our team’s OKR
• kill engagement
• block innovation

If you hate OKRs, someone is doing them wrong. Maybe you, maybe your boss.

– Radical Focus, Christina Wodtke

most orgs ask to fix alignment, but Alignment is NOT telling others what to do, this is being in control of what happens next

Alignment is channeling efforts in the same direction

what helps to get true alignment: strategic focus and shared goal

Strategy first

-> some books:

• Playing to Win
• Good Strategy, Bad Strategy, Richard Rumelt
• The North Star Playbook
• Wardley Maps

Strategy is directional and creates focus without saying what exactly to do

– Richard Rumelt

• Diagnosis: articulate the problem
• Guiding Policy: directional and focused
• Coherent Actions: actionable and interrelated

Strategy loop

10 mins strategy a day keeps the trouble away

if we get this right, we do not need to cascade, cascade is a result of a lack of strategy

-> OKR solar system

• Sun = strategy
• Planets = teams
• Satellites = enablers, teams supporting other teams closer to customers
• Orbits = interconnected

all at its own pace

not necessarily follow on the quarterly pace, some teams need 6 months others 2 months

Book: Objectives & Key Results, Cansel Sörgens (free download)

What is a team?

Team is those who need one another to act

– Peter Senge

most of the time not represented in an org-chart -> dynamic re-teaming

create teams based on a focus, goal, this is the responsibility of the team

Dynamic Markets need Dynamic Organisations

static teams do not exist anymore, people leave

Conclusion

Don’t cascade goals!

Build a Solar System!