TI lost,
Lirian, who stayed up all night watching the games, felt heartbroken.
So he planned to change moods
and see what Mia’s recent study task is.
What is OKR
The course Mia recently listened to just happened to talk about OKR.
Lirian actually only knew that OKR is
short for Objectives and Key Results,
a way of performance assessment,
and KPI is another way of performance assessment.
He felt the relationship between OKR and KPI
might be like the relationship between quality education and exam-oriented education,
each with its advantages, each different.
So Lirian used a move throw brick to attract jade to open the topic:
“So what exactly is the difference between OKR and KPI?”
Mia returned with a move swapping the stars and shifting the constellations:
“I think OKR and KPI have an essential difference.”
Lirian followed up with a move crow boarding airplane asking:
“Oh, what’s the differenceplease tell”
Mia didn’t board the airplane, returning a move borrow strength to attack:
“Then let me first ask you, do you know what KPI is?”
Lirian was suddenly confused:
“Ah… I don’t know… probably some kind of performance assessment method?”
“That’s not wrong either.
KPI’s full name is actually Key Performance Indicator,
translated into Chinese it’s 关键绩效指标.
At work, everyone can have their own KPI,
generally settled once a year/half-year,
this goal must conform to the SMART principle.”
“What’s the SMART principle?”
“The SMART principle is just like the SWOT analysis method you know,
it’s an acronym foreigners love.
Specifically, it’sSpecific,Measurable,Achievable,Realistic,Timely
these five adjectives’ English first-letter acronym.
A scientific KPI must be SMART.”
“Oh oh oh, got it.
So Zhuge Liang’s KPI,pacify the Southern Barbarians within this year,
is much more scientific than restore the Han Dynasty within my lifetime?”
Mia reluctantly agreed with this analogy:
“Uh, you could say so.”
Why use OKR
Lirian remembered the original topic:
“So what’s the essential difference between OKR and KPI?
I feel OKR should also be SMART…”
Mia thought, said:
“I think the purposes of KPI and OKR are different.
KPI tells you what they want me to do,
OKR tells you what I want to do.
Also, KPI is usually tied to bonuses,
OKR may not be tied to bonuses.
KPI might set the entire year’s goals at once,
OKR often changes…”
Lirian felt the information density suddenly grew bigger,
quickly interrupting Mia’s chant:
“Hold on, your humble brother doesn’t quite understand…
What is what they want me to do?”
“KPI’s what they want me to do refers to it generally being a top-down decomposition of tasks.
For example our company this year is striving toward a market value of one hundred million yuan,
how each department should do this and that,
specifically how each person should do this and that,
these are all qualitatively-and-quantitatively defined tasks to complete.
But OKR’s what I want to do is more about laying out the one-hundred-million goal,
then the department decides short-term, long-term department goals.
Each person also decides their own goals based on the department’s goals.”
“Huh? Sounds like KPI has a lot of assessment pressure!
Listening to this I still like OKR…”
“Yes, OKR was invented in the Silicon Valley Bay Area,
Google really developed OKR further.
But this actually varies by person and position.”
“Hmm, how do you mean?”
“There’s a very important point in KPI, which is that it can be quantified.
Like piecework workers in a factory,
can be assessed directly by completion count.
At this time their individual will, creativity, etc. won’t be important factors in assessment.
But for jobs that can’t be quantified,
like you programmers,
can you really assess by lines of code?
Obviously unscientific.
Here Lirian, who thought of K&R naming convention, nodded furiously
Like HR,
if it’s recruitment it’s okay,
can quantify by number of positions recruited.
But if it’s training or whatever,
also can’t quantify, forcibly using KPI would be painful.
So that’s why KPI and OKR these two performance assessment methods
vary by person, position, and company.”
Here Lirian also thought of Chen Peisi in Leading Role and Supporting Role
Zhu Shimao said to him: “For your kind of person, you really need death orders.”
Obviously this is the dramatic conflict between OKR and KPI.
Lirian pondered + understood a bit,
then asked:
“Then what about QAD?
Does QAD use KPI or OKR?”
QAD is where Mia and Lirian met.
A multinational software company specializing in ERP,
main competitor is SAP.
Mia gave a wicked smile:
“QAD uses neither KPI
nor OKR.
QAD uses MBO.”
Lirian was stunned:
“There’s such an operation?
Sounds like the name of some TV station,
what is this MBO?”
Mia explained:
“This MBO
full name is Management by objectives.
Chinese might be 目标管理, actually has similarities to KPI.
It’s a performance assessment method that appeared in the 60s and 70s of the last century,
earlier than both KPI and OKR,
following the Xiao-Cao tradition, QAD has used MBO all along.
But the PDP shift in the last two years
actually has shadows of OKR.”
How to operate OKR
Lirian thought, then sorted out his train of thought:
“Since OKR and KPI vary by department,
does that mean a company can use both performance assessment methods simultaneously?”
“Yes.
Just as Grandpa Deng said,No matter black cat or white cat, the one that catches mice is a good cat.
All management theories, when actually implemented,
just need to fit to be carried out.”
“Then, is it possible that in the same department,
some employees use OKR,
some use KPI?”
“Oh, that’s not possible.”
Lirian was puzzled:
“Why?
If I’m in an OKR team,
but I just need explicit quantified indicators to tell me what to do,
what do I do?”
Mia answered quickly:
“That actually means you don’t fit this team,
because the team having its own unified style is also very important.”
Lirian could only helplessly learn this fact:
“Alright…”
Talking about teams, Mia added a few more points:
“The current OKR adoption status is:
in China, more used by startups, internet companies, transforming companies.
In America it’s Silicon Valley tech companies.
Of course because OKR is really just a guiding principle,
each company’s executing policies will also vary.”
Lirian thought:
hmm, just like everyone has their own RestFul style…
Mia also remembered KPI has one big flaw:
“Also KPI has a big problem,
people easily put the cart before the horse.
To complete KPI’s quantitative indicators,
they deviate from the company’s original goal.”
“Yes, not forgetting the original intention is important.
Hope CN Dota keeps it up,
next year’s TI keep it up.”
“Huh?”
“Um, let me tell you what TI is.”
(End of chapter)