On Driving an OKR Deployment at Scale

How would you approach implementing OKRs in your organization even after a failed first attempt? To avoid failure the second time or being tedious, it is recommended that you roll out OKRs gradually within your team.

In this episode, Jenny speaks with Pedro Signorelli, the founder of Pragmatic Management Consulting. Previously, he was Head of Management at Nextel Brazil, where he implemented OKRs for more than 1700 employees. Pedro explains how he led Nextel Brazil’s OKRs roll-out plan the second time and the strategies he implemented to ensure success.

Listen in to learn the importance of having OKR workshops to define, communicate, and validate priorities. You will also learn the importance of having lowercase conversations to discuss quarterly objectives performance.

“Ideas are easy; execution is everything, so who owns the team needs to be on board.” — Pedro [15:39]

Show notes

• [0:53] Intro
• [2:11] Get to know Pedro and his background in project management and entrepreneurship.
• [5:58] How Nextel Brazil was transformed over 2 years after they started implementing OKRs.
• [10:08] Why you need to gradually roll out OKRs in your organization to avoid failure and tediousness.
• [15:11] How they involved the executives and collaborated to figure out why the first OKRs roll-out failed.
• [17:34] How they created a calendar by defining OKRs and involving executives.
• [19:39] The importance of having OKR workshops to define, communicate, and validate priorities.
• [24:33] Pedro on how they quickly defined OKRs in the company after the first and second workshops.
• [26:09] He describes the purpose and objectives of the weekly and monthly meetings they held.
• [29:08] He explains the importance of executive sponsorships and how they play out in meetings.
• [36:09] The importance of having lowercase conversations to check on what is needed to keep OKRs moving forward.
• [39:04] Why he doesn’t recommend tying employee compensation to OKRs.
• [41:25] Pedro’s appreciation to his team for being open-minded to suggestions and ideas
• [42:20] He answers more quick-fire questions.