Launched 'Take Off' - A 10x Exercise

So I launched 'Take Off' - a 10x Workshop, from Shobha's Yellow Butterfly programs yesterday. It's based on the OKR principles and a group of us got together to experiment with it. The idea behind it is simple.

O stands for Objectives and KR stands for Key results. It's a concept used by Google and many other organisations and written about by John Doerr in his book 'Measure What Matters'. The idea however is something all of us have experienced - that big goals get better performance than small goals. Or rather, when faced with a big situation we cannot get out of, we somehow find the resources to accomplish it.

Which means, setting ourselves big goals is better than setting small goals because we use the same amount of resources at our disposal better.

1) Objectives therefore are the 10x version of whatever you are doing, the big goal, the WHAT you'd like to achieve that gives you the greatest leverage in a time frame. (3-6-12-24 months) It is concrete, inspirational, gets you in the gut and makes you feel its not achievable. It's so big you need to alter your current methods, take stock of all resources and use them. They are realistic yet significantly big.

To win the tournament (especially if you haven't won before)
To earn 50 lakh in one year (if you have been earning 5 lakh before)

2) Key Results are the HOW of achieving the objectives. Each objective has 3-4 KRs. They are specific, measurable (has to have a number), time bound, action oriented (but be clear it does not mention an activity but an outcome - as in wrote a book vs published a book), verifiable. Typically involves taking stock of available resources, seeking external help where needed to use existing resources to meet goal. 

Get team organised - pick the right team with correct balance by xx date.
Set goal (to win all matches), values (play fair but hard, team comes first, play for one another) by xx date
Plan (targets, roles), prepare ti win every match each match - (analyse, strategise, bring in routines that make team feel better prepared)

Some key insights on how it works

1) Same resources that we have are better utilised once bigger goals come into picture

2)  Forces you to change the way you are working and look for creative ways to achieve goal

3) Once objective is written, KR flow intuitively

We had an introductory session yesterday. Another session to set our OKRs and then we follow up once in a fortnight.