This sounds trivial, but in our experience rolling out OKRs for more than 300 organizations we have learned that many organizations put a lot of effort into defining beautiful, well-written OKRs, just to claim a few weeks later that they had no time achieving them.

This tale is probably as old as goal setting - “set and forget”. Teams set goals, but then - nothing changes. The same meetings happen, the same people wait for each other to act, and then three months later, you dust off the doc and realize you're 20% toward goals you forgot you had.

Setting OKRs is like buying a gym membership. It’s nice, it’s a good first step - but if you never go you won’t build muscle. And if you’re not changing how you operate, setting different goals is not going to help either.

For individuals, you can call this Atomic Habits. But for organizations, we found we need something more. We call them the Results Rituals - a recurring cadence of meetings and check-ins that keep OKRs alive between setting and resetting. And these aren’t necessarily new meetings, often enough they are just a new way to run them. Yours might vary, but we found these to be most helpful - adding structure without adding a ton of bureaucracy.

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→ Weekly Calibration — Keeps teams agile so they can pivot quickly or reallocate resources before a small problem becomes a big one. And celebrating wins at the end of each week? It keeps motivation strong through and your OKRs up to date.  → Project Meetings (weekly) — Short and focused. The team shares progress, surfaces issues, and aligns on next steps. No one leaves without knowing what they're doing next.

→ 1:1s (bi-weekly or monthly) — These are working sessions between managers and their team members about getting stuff done — removing blockers, adjusting priorities, staying connected to what each person actually needs to succeed. We found that working together in small pairs, at least once in a while, is the best training and development for an individual and the best alignment exercise, too.

→ Performance Check-Ins (quarterly) — These go deeper. Skill-building, career trajectory, how someone's work connects to the company's vision. This doesn’t mean individual OKRs - we don’t set those - but regular feedback that helps individuals grow and an organization as a whole build capability.

→ Town Halls (monthly or quarterly) — Company leaders update everyone on the broader direction and celebrate what's working. Keeping energy and clarity high. And this should be a two-way-street, allowing for questions and feedback.

→ Business Reviews (monthly) — Department heads showcase achievements, discuss challenges, and recalibrate OKRs based on what's actually happening in the business.

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Thanks Vincent Pierri for the help with the infographics!