OKR does two things to correct this: First of all, it introduces a fast pace of at least quarterly setting of individual-level objectives, measuring progress through KRs and setting priorities around tasks to be done. Secondly, it aligns the individual objectives (or even KRs and tasks) to their team’s or department’s Objectives, KPI & KRI Measures and Strategic Initiatives, braking away from the employee performance evaluation cycle. But take care with setting the OKR objectives through ‘negotiation’ – that’s what killed MBO!

But the major problem of MBO remains, as the OKR needs to become fully embedded within the causal mechanism that correlates company objectives. And that is best done using Balanced Scorecard (BSC). Try to set OKR apart from BSC and you might expose OKR to a fate similar to that of MBO. At Google or anywhere else.
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