OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) is ambitious objectives paired with measurable key results. It sits in the Cognition dimension (COG) of the Human Behavior Taxonomy™ as element HBT-COG-0501, within the Strategy family. The core principle: ambitious objectives paired with measurable key results. In incentive terms, it matters because it changes the payoff people perceive before they choose — which means it can be designed for, or exploited.
Scientific Definition
Ambitious objectives paired with measurable key results.
Plain-English Definition
Ambitious objectives paired with measurable key results.
Feynman Explanation
Good when used as guidance. Toxic when used as comp targets.
Core Principle
Ambitious objectives paired with measurable key results.
Mechanisms
Pending editorial review.
Ambitious objectives paired with measurable key results.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Strategy execution and alignment.
Inputs (Triggers)
Pending editorial review.
Outputs (Behaviors)
Pending editorial review.
Behavioral Signature
Good when used as guidance. Toxic when used as comp targets.
Examples
- Google's adoption from Intel.
- Strategy execution and alignment.
Pending editorial review.
Original analysis from The Incentives Lab — how this element behaves inside real payoff structures.
Why this element matters to incentive design
Most organizations meet this element as a personnel problem. It is not one. The mechanism underneath it is straightforward: ambitious objectives paired with measurable key results. You can recognize it in the field by its signature: good when used as guidance. Toxic when used as comp targets. Every element in the Cognition dimension changes the perceived payoff of an action before the action happens, which is exactly where incentive design has leverage.
How it gets exploited
Left undesigned, strategy execution and alignment. It is amplified whenever strategy execution and alignment. Inside organizations that shows up as strategy execution and alignment. The pattern is the same one Goodhart's Law describes: the measurable proxy attracts the effort, and the purpose behind it quietly loses funding.
How the Lab designs around it
The redesign move is to decouple OKRs from individual compensation. The leverage is not in explaining the behavior to people. It is in changing what the behavior earns.
Famous Experiments
Pending editorial review.
Design Principles
- Decouple OKRs from individual compensation.
Measurement Approaches
Pending editorial review.
Evidence
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
The Perverse Incentive Lens™
How this behavior is exploited — and how to redesign around it.
- Decouple OKRs from individual compensation.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Interactive Mini Network
Click any neighbor to re-center the graph and follow the threads of connection.
Knowledge Graph Neighbors
Auto-linked to the rest of the Human Behavior Taxonomy by family, domain, dimension, and shared keywords.
Basics first (health/finances), then depth (mastery/impact), then altruism (widening circle).
A problem whose solution requires people to change their values, beliefs, or habits — not just apply expertise.
Holding a different — and correct — set of tools than everyone else.
Someone who incites others to take illegal or rash action, often to expose or discredit them.
Sun Tzu's ancient treatise on strategy, deception, and positioning.
Conflict between belligerents with very different resources and tactics.
Start from the desired future and work backward to the steps that make it inevitable.
Winning the disputed population, not just defeating the visible opponent.
Countering hostile narratives with truthful, well-timed alternatives.
Sort situations into Clear, Complicated, Complex, Chaotic, or Confused — each needs a different response.
Eroding the will to act, even when capacity remains.
Munger's principle: the surest way to get something is to deserve it.
Where OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) is cited in the corpus
Essays, field guides, and diagnostics from The Incentives Lab that apply this element.
- EssayGoodhart's Law in the Real World
How measurable proxies capture judgment.
- EssayThe Perverse Incentives Hiding in Your KPIs
Cognitive shortcuts turned into scorecards.
- EssayAI Agents Inherit Your Incentives
How this element propagates into automated systems.
- CourseIncentives 101
The free ten-part primer on reading a payoff structure.
- ReferenceThe Periodic Table of Human Behavior
The full 1,267-element map this page belongs to.
Questions about OKRs (Objectives and Key Results)
- What is OKRs (Objectives and Key Results)?
- OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) is ambitious objectives paired with measurable key results. It sits in the Cognition dimension (COG) of the Human Behavior Taxonomy™ as element HBT-COG-0501, within the Strategy family. The core principle: ambitious objectives paired with measurable key results. In incentive terms, it matters because it changes the payoff people perceive before they choose — which means it can be designed for, or exploited.
- What is an example of OKRs (Objectives and Key Results)?
- Strategy execution and alignment. The Incentives Lab catalogs everyday, organizational, and historical instances of this element on its Human Behavior Taxonomy™ page (HBT-COG-0501).
- How is OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) exploited?
- Strategy execution and alignment.
- How do you design around OKRs (Objectives and Key Results)?
- Decouple OKRs from individual compensation.
- Which behavioral dimension does OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) belong to?
- OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) is classified in the Cognition dimension (COG) of the Human Behavior Taxonomy™, family "Strategy", class "Mental Model". Its permanent identifier is HBT-COG-0501 and its evidence grade is B.