In our use of OKR, we was concerned about this as well. Having to use mental gymnastics to make things work is a bad sign.
The way we thought about it was that OKR should not dictate 100% of effort. OKR is about prioritizing the changes that leadership wants to make at the productivity frontier of the organization. OKRs alone are not enough to direct company efforts. Leadership also needs to specify what % of energy should be spent on OKR vs other responsibilities. The OKR effort goal could be between 0-100 for different teams, or the company as a whole.
For instance, a company that needs to pivot or will die is probably close to 100% OKR effort on all teams.
This approach gets around the need to assign OKR to every activity and allows OKR to be more salient and less diluted as a tool for alignment and goal setting.
The way we thought about it was that OKR should not dictate 100% of effort. OKR is about prioritizing the changes that leadership wants to make at the productivity frontier of the organization. OKRs alone are not enough to direct company efforts. Leadership also needs to specify what % of energy should be spent on OKR vs other responsibilities. The OKR effort goal could be between 0-100 for different teams, or the company as a whole.
For instance, a company that needs to pivot or will die is probably close to 100% OKR effort on all teams.
This approach gets around the need to assign OKR to every activity and allows OKR to be more salient and less diluted as a tool for alignment and goal setting.