OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) is not a new management buzzword. Intel and Andy Grove are credited with introducing OKRs to the business world in the early 1980s. John Doerr left Intel and subsequently introduced OKRs at Google during its first year of operation when it roughly 40 employees.  More recently, dozens of successful companies including LinkedIn and Twitter have rolled out OKRs as a goals and performance management platform.  While it’s true that OKRs are particularly popular with Silicon Valley start-ups, large, established organizations are adopting OKRs as well.

Like any new technology, people have misconceptions about OKRs. Here are the two biggest myths about OKRs today:

Myth #1: OKRs are a “California Thing”

In my experience, OKRs are not just popular in the Silicon Valley, as most people presume. As an OKR consultant, I have clients in Nevada, Cleveland and New York.  And OKRs are popular outside the US as well.  This summer, I met with clients in Paris, Denmark, Germany, the United Kingdom, and Canada.

Myth #2: OKRs are for just for technology start-ups

There is quite a buzz about OKRs in the tech start-up community thanks to Google’s endorsement of the approach, and many technology startups have adopted OKRs.

However, my largest client, Sears Holdings Corporation (SHC), now has approximately 20,000 associates using OKRs. It is neither a tech company nor a start-up! So, how can a large company like SHC incorporate OKRs within its Performance Enablement Framework? How did they deploy OKRs to roughly 20,000 associates in just 18 months? How did the company develop its own tool for tracking OKRs?

Well, you can find out in an upcoming Webinar featuring Holly Engler, Manager of Organizational Effectiveness and Chief of Staff, HR at Sears Holdings Corporation.  Holly leads Sears’ initiative to transform its performance management methods in large part by implementing OKRs. Holly will also show screenshots of the actual OKRs tool that Sears developed in-house. You can register for the November 5th Webinar here.