In contemporary science, the prevailing view is that what drives us in work, business and creative endeavors is the desire for self-realization, predominantly fueled by our own attitudes and internal aspirations. We often do this subconsciously, striving to engage in activities that bring us satisfaction. If we don’t find satisfaction in our daily work and goal fulfillment, achieving high-quality results becomes not just challenging, but potentially highly detrimental to mental and physical well-being.

Drawing from my experience, studying management practices of successful companies, insights from international consultants and researchers in the field of management and motivation, all indications suggest that a modern organization striving to remain effective must align its strategy and goals with those of its employees. Only content employees who are in suitable roles and engage in fulfilling work every day will enable a company to develop rapidly and adapt flexibly to rapidly changing external factors and the competitive landscape. Initially, this may appear utopian, but it’s the only viable approach to building a successful long-term business.

Incidentally, parallels can be drawn here with family dynamics. In recent years, child-rearing methods in modern society have undergone a similar transition – from strict hierarchy and authoritarianism towards younger generations (and women, incidentally) and negative reinforcement and motivation techniques to a nurturing environment fostering personal experience and free exploration of the world, empathy, openness, and discussions on sensitive issues, as well as collective decision-making that impacts the everyday lives, existence, and destinies of offspring.

It’s crucial to underscore that our strategic orientation in life must align with the company and its values. If you favor traditional authoritarian-hierarchical approaches, the laid-back atmosphere of a youthful startup will seem frivolous and incongruent with your work values and you, in turn, will be detrimental to the team. Conversely, a democratic leader who embraces flexible management and planning approaches won’t fare well in a company with aggressive management practices. Such mismatches, akin to personal relationships, result in suffering for both parties.

There’s an approach that meets the demands of our time. It’s called Objectives and Key Results (OKR) – a goal-setting framework utilized for systematic execution of strategy, increasing motivation, and directing employees towards what’s most crucial and valuable for the company. OKR didn’t materialize out of thin air – it’s a contemporary iteration and successor of goal-setting systems from the past century like MBOs, SMART goals, BSCs, KPIs, but with a modern emphasis on people, decentralization, and adaptability.

The methodology was initially developed and implemented at Intel and later introduced by John Doerr to Google’s leadership in 1999, when Google was in its first year of operation and there were only 60 employees. As those Google employees migrated from one company to another, the OKR methodology gained traction and spread among technology corporations such as Oracle, Netscape, Amazon, Flipboard, Twitter, and Spotify. Now, even small (yet forward-thinking) companies and startups are integrating OKR into their management systems. The significant surge in the approach’s popularity was also bolstered by the renowned consultant Felipe Castro, the author of the book «The Beginner’s Guide to OKR».