Stretch Goals, Stretched Teams, and the Science of Giving Up
OKRs are supposed to be simple. Set a goal. Track it. Celebrate.
Except that’s not what happens, is it?
What happens is: you launch a shiny OKR framework at the all-hands. Everyone nods. Slack emojis fly. Then Q2 hits, and… nothing.
No one updates their progress. Objectives go stale. “Stretch goals” become inside jokes. And by the time the exec team does a retro, you’re asking: “Did we even use OKRs this quarter?”
The Brain Science of Why OKRs Fail
Cognitive Overload: Humans can’t juggle 10 priorities. We think we can, but our prefrontal cortex taps out after 3 or 4. Pile on more, and people either shut down or default to old habits. (Usually email. Or doomscrolling.)
Reward Prediction Error: If the gap between effort and reward is too big, the brain stops caring. That “10x moonshot”? It sounds ambitious. But to the brain, it’s demotivating. Your team needs micro-wins, not just one big parade in December.
Unclear Cues = No Action: Behavioral science 101: No clear trigger, no behavior. If the OKR isn’t tied to a weekly workflow, it’s just a sentence in a doc nobody opens.
So how do you make OKRs actually work?
Let’s make it tactical. Here’s how I build OKRs that survive Q2:
1. Fewer. Clearer. Tied to behavior.
Set no more than 3 Objectives per team. And make every Key Result observable. Not “Improve product-market fit.” Say:
“Conduct 10 user interviews/month”
“Launch V2 onboarding flow by July 15”
2. Link to weekly rituals
Every Monday = status check.
Every Friday = KR review.
No extra meetings. Just slot them into existing standups or team check-ins. The brain loves rhythm. Use it.
3. Make them visual, not invisible
Goals hidden in dashboards don’t exist. Use posters. Whiteboards. Miro. Widgets. Whatever keeps the goal in visual working memory.
4. Tie incentives to progress, not perfection
Celebrate progress early and often. The dopamine hit of “moving closer” is what keeps people trying. Not a quarterly scorecard.
OKRs are not just strategy tools. They’re behavior-shaping tools.
And if you want your team to follow through, you need to design them like behavior-change systems, not wish lists.
So. Next time you roll out OKRs, ask not just: “What’s the goal?”
Ask: “What does this objective look like in someone’s calendar?”
If you can’t answer that, it’s not an OKR. It’s a fantasy.
