‘Measure What Matters’ BOOK REVIEW Learn to John Doerr’s Book Introduces an Innovative Strategy to Goal Setting
Percent the Nasdaq has gained in 2018, nearly double the S&P 500’s advance 16% 16.1% 4.2% $100 5 $1.1 3,400 BY THE NUMBERS Percent U.S. corporate year-over-year profits soared in the quarter that ended June 30, the largest such gain in six years Percent the U.S. economy (GDP) grew in the second quarter Billion annualized in lower taxes paid by U.S. corporations due to lower rates signed into law last year Months straight both the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq have posted winning gains Trillion dollars richer U.S. stock investors were after August’s hot month of gains Days of the current bull market, the second longest ever. The average postwar bull market loses steam at about 1,821 days.
“Ideas are easy. Execution is everything.”
So says John Doerr in the first few pages of “Measure What Matters.” It’s his mantra, and what defines his overarching message is that knowledge is important, but execution is king. The engineer came to Silicon Valley with $50 in his pocket, hoping to get a start in the computer industry. Doerr cut his teeth at Intel, where he first crossed paths with Andy Grove and came across the seeds of what would become an innovative management methodology and goal-setting framework.
He went on to share this methodology with Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who were just getting their new company, Google, on its feet at the time. His “sharp- edged tool for world-class execution” was effective and helped the startup track their progress and “measure what mattered” so they could quickly define themselves as the premiere search engine in the marketplace. Thankfully, Google isn’t the only one with access to Doerr’s incredible management system — he has meticulously catalogued it in his book “Measure What Matters.” If your organization has ever been stymied by fuzzy ideas and less-than-stellar execution, this book is for you. In it, you’ll find key management principles and a goal-setting technique that will help you and your team achieve excellence. Doerr preaches the importance of objectives and key results — OKRs. The collaborative goal-setting protocol can be applied to your entire company, from teams to individuals, to help you get to the top. After Doerr shared it with Google, co-founder Larry Page said, “OKRs have helped lead us to 10x growth many times over.” OKR is a little like a compass for your team: You can think of objectives as giving the direction for your goals and the key results as the milestones. Doerr presses upon the importance of clarity and specificity when it comes to defining key results. They must be aggressive yet realistic. He’s a true scientist at heart — key results must also be measurable and verifiable. How else do you know if what you are doing is working? You need the quantitative data to allow your results to be measured. There are two quite interesting takeaways: 1) Doerr doesn’t advise tying OKRs to compensation or bonuses. Instead the book’s teachings assume that by having your team constantly set goals, rinse, and repeat, they will achieve more for both themselves and your organization. 2) OKRs are self-graded by author, not manager. That certainly is a break from how most organizations review employee goals. Whether you’re a C-level executive or manager of a small team, “Measure What Matters” has concepts that you’ll likely want to implement right away. In the framework of goal setting, the OKR strategy has the potential to help your team hone in on and quantify where you are and where you’re headed.
True North Rating : A 2018 Must-Read
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