The OKR Podcast Aligning Fast and Deep to Drive Results w/ Denise Kanfield
May 19, 2021
Denise Kanfield, an OKR and results leader at Cisco with prior transformation work at Thomson Reuters, discusses alignment and execution. She contrasts rallying OKRs with outcome-driven OKRs. She explains vertical and lateral alignment, turning OKRs into operational plans, and how platforms expose thinking quality while not replacing accountability.
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OKRs Turn Hidden Strategy Into Purposeful Work
- OKRs create transparency by taking strategy out of leaders' heads and giving employees clear purpose.
- Denise Kanfield recalls people doing work then discovering priorities shifted because nobody communicated the new destination.
Three Ways People Approach OKR Conversations
- People approach OKRs from different orientations: visionary (objectives), measurement (key results), and doers (activities).
- Denise observes mixed groups must be managed dynamically in co-creation sessions to reconcile these perspectives.
Run Follow-On Alignment To Resolve Dependencies
- After creating OKRs, run follow-on alignment sessions to resolve dependencies and let detailed planners map activities to key results.
- Denise warns problem solvers will disengage unless you provide space to build the plan post-creation.