Connecting Strategy, OKRs, and Everyday Execution

The gap in the middle

Strategy is usually set once a year and work is planned every week. Between the two sits a gap where intentions get diluted: priorities multiply, measures drift, and nobody is quite sure which decision a task serves.

Objectives and key results are meant to close that gap. They often widen it instead, when they are written as a catalogue of activity rather than a translation of strategy.

Trace every objective to a choice

A useful test: for each objective, name the strategic choice it advances. If none comes to mind, the objective is probably operational housekeeping, which is important, but belongs in a different system.

Fewer objectives, each clearly linked to a choice, make trade-offs visible. When something new arrives, the team can ask which choice it serves and what it displaces.

Evidence and ownership

A key result without an agreed source of evidence turns every review into a debate about the number. Decide in advance where the measure comes from and how often it updates.

Give each key result one owner. Many people contribute; one person is accountable for noticing early when it drifts and raising it.

Review on a rhythm

Short check-ins, every week or two, focused on what changed and what is blocked, keep OKRs alive between quarterly resets. The quarter then becomes a moment to learn and adjust, not to discover that the plan stopped mattering in week three.