Measure What Matters Quotes
"We need a trusty scythe to carve a path ahead of the curve."
"In business, alienation isn’t an abstract, philosophical problem; it saps the bottom line."
"Goals create alignment, clarity, and job satisfaction."
"When people help choose a course of action, they are more likely to see it through."
"An effective goal management system—an OKR system—links goals to a team’s broader mission."
"Goals can inspire employees and improve performance."
"It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities."
"Innovation means saying no to one thousand things."
"OKRs helped Remind become a better-managed company, a company that executes."
"In implementing OKRs, leaders must publicly commit to their objectives and stay steadfast."
"People naturally look to their bosses in setting goals and following through."
"To inspire true commitment, leaders must practice what they teach."
"At Nuna, our commitment to OKRs is very public and visible."
"As I know too well from my own private wellness OKR to run a marathon: Doing too much too soon will definitely end in pain."
"We don’t hire smart people to tell them what to do. We hire smart people so they can tell us what to do."
"Public goals are more likely to be attained than goals held in private."
"OKRs make objectives objective, in black and white."
"To deliver, we’d need more focus and commitment than ever before."
"Our whole team needs sharper focus and clearer priorities, the prerequisites for deeper commitment."
"The hairier the mission, the more important your OKRs."
"With OKRs, we could set both quarterly and annual beats for substantial key results against such a huge objective."
"Big Hairy Audacious Goals capture the imagination and grab people in the gut."
"People who choose their destination will own a deeper awareness of what it takes to get there."
"To succeed, a stretch goal cannot seem like a long march to nowhere."
"In pursuing high-effort, high-risk goals, employee commitment is essential."
"Few entities have Google’s resources to fall back upon when a moonshot crashes."
"For high achievers, anything shy of perfection can sap morale."
"Stretch your team too fast and too far, and it may snap."
"Leaders must convey the importance of the outcome, and the belief that it’s attainable."
"How can your team create maximum value? What would amazing look like?"
"If you seek to achieve greatness, stretching for amazing is a great place to start."
"The greater the margin for error, the more a company can extend itself."
"Stretch goals were beautifully defined by the leader of the Google X team."
"When you aim for the stars, you may come up short but still reach the moon."
"The career of Sundar Pichai is a stretch goal personified."
"Pre-phone, my mother would say, 'Can you see if the blood test is ready in the hospital?'"
"My first assignment was to expand the use and distribution of Google Toolbar."
"If Chrome wasn’t going to be dramatically different and better and faster, there was no point."
"Stretch OKRs are an intense exercise in problem solving."
"Google is propelled by our moonshot culture. The very ambitious is very hard to do."
"Our true currency wasn’t views or clicks—it was watch time."
"By committing to radical, qualitative improvement, an organization can renew its sense of urgency."
"Culture, as the saying goes, eats strategy for breakfast."
"You need a culture that high-fives small and innovative ideas."
"Culture is a set of values and beliefs, as well as familiarity with the way things are done."
"A strong and positive corporate culture is absolutely essential."
"Management has to develop and nurture the common set of values, objectives, and methods."
"The qualities prized by Andy Grove—collective accountability, fearless risk taking, measurable achievement—are also highly esteemed at Google."
"Peak performance is the product of collaboration and accountability."
"High-motivation cultures, they concluded, rely on a mix of two elements: Catalysts, defined as 'actions that support work,' and Nourishers—'acts of interpersonal support'."
"As continuous performance management rises to the fore, once-a-year employee surveys are giving way to real-time feedback."
"Feedback is a listening system. In the new world of work, leaders cannot wait for negative critiques."
"Leading the world in online higher education, Coursera jumped into OKRs in 2013, just one year after its founding."
"Coursera rolled up its team-level objectives to top-line strategic objectives, which in turn rolled up to five core values."
"In the past, when employees just needed to do the next thing right—to follow orders to the letter—culture didn’t matter so much."
"Scaling requires a system, with metrics. 'What we choose to measure is a window into our values, and into what we value,' Dov says."
"When an organization isn’t yet ready for total openness and accountability, culture work may be needed before OKRs are implemented."
"HR can be a potent vehicle for operating excellence. It’s also the place where culture change is crystallized."
"Bono: We had big goals for U2 from the start. (You could say megalomania set in from a very early age.)"
"OKRs saved us, really. They forced us to think clearly and agree on what we could achieve with the resources we had."
"And so: Edge was a really talented guitar player from the start, but I wasn’t the best singer. Adam wasn’t the best bass player. And Larry was just getting there as a drummer. But we had our goals, and a rough idea of how to reach them."
"People are discouraged from bringing love into business settings, but love was Bill’s most distinguishing trait."
"Bill Campbell: 'I always wanted to be part of the solution. People are the most important thing that we do. We have to try to make them better.'"
"The single most important element for OKR success is conviction and buy-in by the organization’s leaders."
"Vision-based leadership beats command-and-control. The flatter the org chart, the more agile the organization."
"A company’s optimal 'stretch' may vary over time, depending on the operating needs of the coming cycle."