We have listed out the best OKR books that spill the secrets of giants like Twitter, Yahoo, Intel, Adobe, Amazon, Dell, Deloitte, and a long list of other organisations that use OKRs. These organisations have not only effectively incorporated OKRs, but also adapted them to meet their specific needs in order to get the most out of this methodology.
OKRs offer an ideal framework for organisations, allowing them to understand the roles of each worker contributing to the company’s goals. It allows coworkers to seek help from one another and stay on the same page so that they can unitedly achieve all the objectives.
Why do CEOs Need to Read the Best OKR Books?
The best OKR books can help you unlock the secrets behind OKRs to achieve astonishing results.
It is often necessary to make extraordinary efforts in order to excel with your team, and this necessitates the use of fundamentals. These fundamentals are best spelt forth in books authored by world-class professionals in a clear and succinct manner.
These books are hands-on tools, and consist of practices that any active entrepreneur can use to build their business in today’s environment while focusing on key results and objectives (OKRs).
Must-Read Books for OKR
1 Measure What Matters by John E. Doerr
John Doerr – a venture capitalist and notable investor has written Measure What Matters. This book delivers strategic thinking on how to set effective goals and measure what really matters.
Many of the titans from the last fifty years’ are depicted in these pages — as Doerr recounts, their dedication and determination radiate through their work.
2 High Output Management by Andrew S. Grove
This book is one of the best and concise guides on how to be an excellent manager written by Andrew Grove – the legendary CEO of Intel who managed a small team, all the way up to an entire corporation.
Andy Grove is attempting to turn day-to-day management into a science that anyone can comprehend. The book is practical and pragmatic. It’s not intended to be read once. It’s more of a manual to be reflected upon.
3 Work Rules!: Insights from Inside Google That Will Transform How You Live and Lead by Laszlo Bock
The book is written by a former Senior Vice President of People Operations at Google & it presents his perspective which is insanely extensive & thorough.
We learn in the book how Google uses OKRs to set its business goals. This technique was introduced to Google by Kleiner Perkins’ John Doerr when the firm was just a year old.
It is a convincing and research-driven guide, with invaluable lessons for the way you think about work and life.
4 Succeeding with OKRs in Agile: How to create & deliver objectives & key results for teams by Allan Kelly
Allan Kelly walks us through the whys and wherefores of OKRs, topped with some off-the-wall humour.
After reading other books that promote OKRs as a panacea for achieving a high-performing organisation, we found Allan’s opinions to be balanced, informed with experience that provides patterns and antipatterns to be aware of.
5 Objectives + Key Results (OKR) Leadership;: How to apply Silicon Valley’s secret sauce to your career, team or organization – Doug Gray
This book will help professionals who want to receive the key and actionable concepts they can put into practice right away.
Gray outlines a simple and effective management style to help you gain achieve accolades in both professional and personal life.
The author’s services are also mentioned in the book. This will be beneficial to people seeking further expertise in their businesses.
6 The Team that Managed Itself: A Story of Leadership – Christina Wodtke
If we had to pick just one book on how to develop a better team, this would be it.
The fictional element did a good job of framing the process and saved it from becoming a normal, dry business book with forced examples in the midst of chapters to specify the points of OKR.
7 Product Direction: How to build successful products at scale with Strategy, Roadmaps, and Objectives and Key Results – Nacho Bassino
Nacho walks the reader through a series of tools and exercises that will help them identify, articulate, and set a product direction.
The method is practical and pragmatic, but it also allows for a clear understanding of the “why” and the desired outcomes of each phase in the process.
After reading a variety of books on strategy, road mapping, and goal-setting frameworks, Product Direction offers a practical and experience-based guide for all of them, with real-life examples and a call to action.
Reading isn’t the same as doing, of course. However, it has the potential to inform and inspire what we do and how we do it. So, we’d urge you to read these books and build a team of efficacious players.
