OKRs Without the Jargon: Why Simplicity Wins
We don’t give a damn if you call them OKRs or not, because your teams need clarity, not corporate jargon.
Let’s be honest – The world doesn’t need another acronym. OKRs without the jargon? Now that’s something worth talking about.
We’ve worked with organisations that swear by OKRs, ones that avoid the term entirely, and others that rename it to something more digestible and in keeping with their culture. We’ve learned that it doesn’t matter what you call it. What matters is that your teams have direction.
Goals Aren’t the Goal
We see it all the time, leadership teams spend hours wordsmithing OKRs until they’re polished to perfection, only to see the real work buried under day-to-day chaos.
A solid OKR needs the right ingredients – clear priorities, a shared understanding of the “why,” and a structure that supports execution. Get that right, and there’s no need to obsess over the wording.
“I really don’t care if you label your goals as OKRs or not, it’s the momentum they generate and the results you achieve which is where the value lies. This will only come if you have “rails to run them on” as goal setting alone won’t change anything, it’s habits and routines you have around progressing them which leads to the results.” – Roger Longden, Founder, There Be Giants.
Specific, challenging goals direct attention and mobilise effort. Small wins stimulate the brain’s reward system; they feel like progress.
Team-based progress reinforces belonging, efficacy, and recognition.
And most importantly, progress that connects to a larger “why” builds intrinsic motivation.
That’s what we’re aiming for. Not acronyms. Not compliance. Not process for the sake of it.
Rhythm Beats Ritual
One of the biggest misconceptions about OKRs is that crafting perfect OKRs is the most important part. It’s not. Cadence is.
If you’ve got a weekly check-in rhythm, a monthly sync, and a quarterly reset – even half-baked OKRs will evolve and improve. Why? Because you’re keeping the dialogue alive. You’re allowing for iteration. You’re putting progress ahead of perfection.
When organisations get stuck in ritual, quarterly meetings with no follow-up, overly complex templates, scorecards that gather dust, the energy quickly fades. Ritual kills adaptability. Rhythm builds it.
It’s Not the Framework. It’s the Focus.
We don’t care if you use the term OKRs. What we care about is helping you implement OKRs without the jargon – because when teams understand the purpose behind their goals, the label doesn’t matter.
What we care about is whether:
- Your teams know what matters most right now
- People understand how their work connects to that direction
- You’re checking in regularly and adjusting as reality shifts
- And most importantly, you’re creating a space for learning, not just performance
When the above things are happening, you’re building a healthy, adaptive, aligned organisation.
“I repeatedly see how establishing a consistent rhythm of openly tackling challenges as a team fosters trust, strengthens collaboration, and drives faster, higher-quality outcomes. The OKR performance meeting-whether you call it that or not! – is where that happens.” – Dr Marc Applebaum, Partner, PM2 Consulting
Let the Acronym Go (If You Need To)
We’ve had a few clients that don’t want to call them OKRs. They find the acronym alienating, it felt like something that didn’t fit their culture. So, they renamed the process. The principles stayed the same. The results were transformative.
Clarity increased. Silos started to dissolve. Teams had a shared language for what mattered and why.
So, in essence we don’t give a damn if you call it OKRs. But we do care that your people feel connected, focused, and in motion and have a process in place that’s repeatable and enables your teams to continuously refine.
Want to talk more about OKRs (or whatever you want to call them), and how your organisation can use them? We’d love to chat, book a call with a goal setting expert.
Not ready for a chat? We’ve got a whole host of resources to get you started on your goal-setting journey.
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Thanks to the team at PM2 Consulting for collaborating on this piece and contributing their expertise on building adaptive, high-performing teams.