Diagnostic Pattern
"We tried OKRs and it didn't stick"
The symptom is real. The cause is usually somewhere else.
You rolled out OKRs last year. A year on, nobody runs them. It looks like you picked the wrong framework, so the fix is to shop for a better one. It may actually be that you adopted someone else's system, and the process quietly started mattering more than the work. A framework is just a tool. The tool was never the problem.
What you think it is
We rolled out OKRs last year and it didn't stick. Maybe we try a different framework this time.
So you go shopping for the next named system. EOS this time. The Scorecard. Whatever the last book or podcast was selling. A new tool to replace the tool that didn't work.
What it usually is
A hypothesis to test, not an indictment on you or the team.
A system is people, process, and tools. You imported someone else's, and their people, their process, their tools are not yours. So two things happen. The process starts mattering more than the work. And the line from the front-line employee up to the goal at the top never gets drawn. That points to a Mindset.Skillset.Toolset failure: you reached for the tool before clarity of definition, and before the team had the skill to run it. A fool with a tool is still a fool.
How to tell
Could a front-line person draw the line from today's checklist up to the company's top goal? And would the system keep running if the consultant who installed it walked out the door?
The move
Don't shop for another framework. Build your own operating system. Start with mindset: get clear on what you are actually trying to accomplish and what has to be true to get there. Then skillset: make sure the team can run it. Tools last. Then draw the line from every front-line checklist up to the top goal, so the work and the goal are visibly the same thing. Mindset first. Skillset next. Tools last.
You might think you picked the wrong framework. It may actually be someone else's system that never connected the front line to the goal at the top.
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