Ep. 58: Key Insights into Enterprise OKRs | Michael Stemmler, CEO of The Stemmler Group

OKRs Q&A Podcast Ep. 58: Key Insights into Enterprise OKRs | Michael Stemmler, CEO of the Stemmler Group

In this exciting episode of the OKRs Q&A Podcast, Tim Meinhardt interviews Michael Stemmler, CEO of The Stemmler Group. Their discussion includes how The Stemmler Group is incorporating OKRs into their business solutions, how organizations struggle with OKRs at the onset, and how OKRs evolve in large enterprises. Michael also shares his advice regarding North Stars and how to successfully implement OKRs.

Michael offers terrific insight, expertise, and understanding when it comes to OKRs and successful OKR programs. To learn more about The Stemmler Group, visit their website at https://www.thestemmlergroup.com

If you are interested in working with the Atruity team or have a question you would like addressed on the show, please email contact@atruity1.com or visit our website at www.atruity1.com

Tim Meinhardt:

Welcome everyone to another exciting episode of the OKRs Q&A Podcast, also known as the OKR Corral, where OKR insight is the king. I’m your host, Tim Meinhardt, President and CEO of Atruity, an OKR consultancy headquartered in our nation’s capital.

Before we begin, if you’re an OKR fan and enjoy our podcast, please subscribe, leave a review, and explore our website at www.atruity1.com. And finally, should you have a burning question you’d like addressed in future episodes, please drop us a note at contact@atruity1.com.

In this exciting episode, we have the pleasure of speaking with Michael Stemmler, CEO of The Stemmler Group. This is a great podcast with some great perspectives for larger organizations to consider as they implement an OKR program. Our discussion includes how The Stemmler Group is incorporating OKRs into their business solutions, how organizations struggle with OKRs at the onset, how OKRs evolved in large enterprises, and Michael shares his advice regarding North Stars and how to successfully implement OKRs. Michael offers terrific insight, expertise, and understanding when it comes to OKRs and successful OKR programs. So, everyone, please grab that cup of coffee, plug in those earbuds, and enjoy my discussion with Michael Stemmler.

So, Mike, welcome to the program.

Michael Stemmler:

Thank you. Nice to be here.

Tim Meinhardt:

So, tell our audience a little bit about yourself and The Stemmler Group.

Michael Stemmler:

Sure. So, I started The Stemmler Group back about nine years ago in mid-2012. Before that, I was with Hewlett-Packard and a company called EDS. EDS was purchased by Hewlett-Packard back in 2007, I think. And you know, back then, sparing all the gory details, it became somewhat clear to me that the market had become a bit incestuous in terms of the large legacy companies here in the Northeast being ring fenced from innovative technology because of their partnerships with the large, kind of big, computer players like IBM and I don’t want to, you know, call names, but it became clear to me that innovation was having a very difficult time getting through to these big Fortune 100 legacy companies as opposed to on the West Coast, where these the newer Facebooks were coming online and they were not strapped with kind of a legacy thinking, legacy infrastructure, the contracts that existed, all of those things. They were free to go out in Greenfield and build things on technology that was just coming to market. And they had a different philosophy in terms of it was okay to fail. If you could deploy something, it was not going to ruin the company. And it wasn’t going to hurt their quarterly earnings or whatever metric you want to think about, which was not the case in terms of mindset.

You know, like I said, the legacy financial services companies, insurance companies, folks that if you’re from this part of the world, you’re very familiar with. So, I ventured out to see if that that hypothesis was true or not. Turned out it was true, but in turn, it also is very difficult to monetize. We went to market say “Okay, if we can use our relationships within these large companies, banks and insurance companies that we already had and then, you know, really understand the landscape.” Back then it was all about cloud, and big data was the key buzz word, and understood the players that were coming online and introduced those folks, those companies, to these larger legacy firms that we could, you know, make some important inroads and help these larger firms consume technology that would be much more impactful for them in there, and they’re needed to transform and drive change.

So that went through a couple of different iterations. And what happened was the large companies on the East Coast were wary of deploying new technology because it was unfamiliar to them. So, they were very risk averse. They weren’t going to pay for anything until it was proven. And the companies that we kind of represented, if you will, didn’t have the kind of cash flow that would allow them to pay us in a material way to go ahead and do what we were hoping to do. So, there were some kinks and some bumps in the road along the way. But it led to other opportunities. Like things always happen, one thing leads to another. And we began to transform ourselves into more of a traditional management consulting advisory firm and help them with things that were technology based, but also very much had a business focus. You know, back then, the technology was in the in the bottom of the steamship, it was not in the helm of driving the direction of a large company. Literally, but from a figurative perspective, the shoving the coal into the into the furnace at the bottom of the steamship, was now moving in terms of that importance to the navigator of that steamship. So, we began to see another phenomenon that needed addressing, which was the kind of straddling of technology in business and in closed chasm that had been existing for so long between the folks in I.T. and the folks in the, you know, the executive suites, if you will. And as we all know, that’s almost collapsed in on itself where technology is driving pretty much every single decision. So they were, you know, helping some pretty large companies in various transformation projects and programs, helping them understand how to deploy the right technology. But we don’t start with the technology, we start with the business outcome they’re trying to drive. And that leads us to where we are today, which is to really, really differentiate ourselves because of how outcome focused we are. It’s all about driving towards an outcome versus just managing programs at a task level because of how quickly things are shifting. I mean, we’re all, now that Agile is taking hold in terms of how things are helped. And that kind of same mindset and philosophy applies to just managing overall projects that are in programs that are highly transformational, highly visible to the C-suite of a firm, but change on a weekly or daily basis based on what’s going on in the market.

Tim Meinhardt:

100%. So, when were you introduced to OKRs, Mike?

Michael Stemmler:

I was introduced to OKRs—it’ll be four summers ago. So, three and a half years ago on Cape Cod by my brother-in-law who just read John Doerr’s book Measure What Matters, and he said, “You should read this book. It’s really interesting.” And he’s a CFO at a large marketing agency here in New York City. And he said, “Yeah, this is really interesting stuff.” We’re not usually on vacation, wants to kind of just talk shop, you know, on the beach for hours upon end. But he felt it was it was pretty interesting and pretty meaningful, I suppose. So, I read the book and everything that was in that book really spoke to me about the problems that exist and the challenges that exist, especially at large enterprises today, which is really interesting because it’s been around since 1977 or 78, right? Since then, I guess, you know, people have gone down various paths and I immediately thought we have to embrace this. We have to now think about how we focus on outcomes and how we measure towards progress along the way. So, this rearview mirror stuff is a thing of the past. So, we began to research it more and really just started to do it. I introduced the OKRs to my firm and we’ve been embracing them and learning and building them and managing our company by way of OKRs. And now every project that we do for our customers is either, you know, directly about deploying OKRs for the customer on a given project or program, or just managing the project that we are delivering by using OKRs. So, it’s really kind of becoming part of the DNA of our firm and really goes back to how—you can say you’re outcome focused, but what does that really mean? Well, how do you say, “I’m going to manage towards an outcome?” Okay, great. How are you going to get there? How are you going to measure success or lack thereof along the way? And that’s where OKRs are distinguished and incredibly valuable.

Tim Meinhardt:

Right. No, absolutely, you know, and you speak about that rearview mirror. You know, we run meetings all the time for OKRs, and organizations, they get into this habit of reporting and that’s what they want to do. They want to talk about what they’ve done. Where OKRs is focused on, as you’ve said, it’s looking straight ahead. What are we doing here? What are we trying to accomplish over a given period of time? What do you see in organizations as they struggle to begin, Mike, with implementing OKRs?

Michael Stemmler:

Oh, that’s pretty, pretty easy to answer because, and I’m sure you’d agree with this, Tim, the problem is they think it’s you go online, you watch a podcast or listen to a podcast or watch a YouTube video and now you can do OKRs.

Tim Meinhardt:

Sure, oh yeah, piece of cake.

Michael Stemmler:

It’s a classic scenario of “Okay, it’s not new, but some people are being reintroduced to it.” So, it’s the new shiny penny that people are talking about. So, they say, “Okay, as a leader, I’ve read a few pages, I like it. Go do it.” And as you well know, it’s not that simple. It creates a mindset change. It’s a journey that you go on. I know these sound like kind of, you know, words that we hear a little too often. And it’s a commitment, it’s a long-term commitment that you know you have to understand and embrace as a leader and a large organization, or a small organization, even for us. And you know, we’ve been out there, you know, sharing the OKR flag for a few years now. Two years, I guess it would be, two and a half. And we’re still learning, you know, ways to get better at this and reminding ourselves to go back and update the key results or refresh our objectives on a fairly regular basis because you have quickly fallen into the old habits and that’s just human nature. So, the biggest challenge is convincing a leader to say not just, “Hey, you should do this because that’s kind of easy to do,” but it’s going to take time, it’s going to take investment, but it’ll happen relatively quickly if you buy into it, you come into eyes wide open. And once you get over that, you know, you get through the turbulence of kind of launching the OKRs, and you get more buy-in, it begins to kind of take on a life and sort of momentum builds. And once that momentum builds, people start kind of embracing it and following it. And then you see kind of the alignment, which is really what it’s all about—driving alignment happen, which is which is really incredible.

Tim Meinhardt:

Yeah, very well said, you know, and I agree completely. You know, people think that it’s relatively simple, and the fact is it’s not difficult, but you need somebody leading the charge, you need somebody that’s understood, you know how to put this into an organization because it’s change, it’s different, and it’s a mindset change. And so very well said that you know that things can take and go in the wrong direction very quickly if you don’t have somebody right at the helm kind of directing you a little bit.

Michael Stemmler:

Yeah. I’ll share an anecdotal story that was really important to my, I should say, my light bulb going on, and how important OKRs are as a management tool and framework. I was having a conversation with a CEO of a Fortune 100 company who was a friend of mine, and he had just come back from a West Coast trip, and he was invited to, I guess, a social event at Bill Gates’ house and in the in this, I guess, gathering, there was quite a lot of very important people. Warren Buffett-type folks, and you know, you couldn’t throw a dinner roll without hitting a billionaire type event, which of course, I was extremely intrigued about just what that experience was like and him and I were chatting when he got back, and I asked him about it. I said, “Well, what was that like being around those?” And he’s of course, very successful on his own right. And he said something very interesting. He said, “You know, I figured out what makes a good CEO versus a great CEO.” And I said, “Well, I’m intrigued. What is that?” And he said the great CEOs have a vision. And you know, you think about that and it’s like, very interesting that that he would say that because you would think everybody in that sort of room would qualify as a great CEO, but I guess maybe not so much. And I took that to heart.

So, we not only use OKRs as kind of the tip of the spear, tip of the arrow. We have our conversations, do our work for our customers, but really elevate it to the fact that let’s start with what you’re trying to accomplish, which is the vision and mission that many companies that I’m still surprised by either don’t have, haven’t refreshed, have or put in a drawer somewhere, hasn’t evangelized in quite some time. So, we go in there and we say, “Listen, let’s start with what you’re trying to accomplish, and let’s start by really trying to articulate and build your North Star, your vision and your mission.” That’s a hard thing to do because you have that conversation with someone who’s got an organization of 3000 people and a P&L of $7 billion, you know, it’s a little bit risky to kind of like to point that out, but more times than not, it’s acknowledged. They say, “You know what, yeah, we should probably think about that.” And then that on its own is very important. But where the OKRs come in is once you have that North Star, now you’ve got a methodology that you can align the organization, align the work that’s required to do whatever programs or transformation they need to do, to that North Star. I mean, I love the parts in John Doerr’s book where he talked about people in cubicles, the working folks at these big companies really having no idea what their work is with regard to context to what the company is trying to accomplish, right? I’m programing this thing or I’m building this thing and I’m, you know, a director level in a very large group. Great, awesome job. But if you’d ask me how my work, you know, connects to the top of our brand’s vision of mission, they would say, “I have no idea.”

And you know, that really spoke to me. Like, what a cool thing to try and figure out how to change that, how to say, “Okay, you know what? This here that you’re doing? Here’s how it aligns to our organization’s objectives, and vision and mission. Here’s how that aligns to our group heading’s vision and mission. And here’s how that aligns to our enterprise vision and mission.” Then all of a sudden, you’re giving more meaning—I should say there’s always meaning there, but there’s more meaning given to those folks who are doing such critical work. And I think that has an incredible impact on their productivity, their overall motivation, and being part of that organization, and therefore makes the entire organization work much more effectively because at the end of the day, it’s all about people. It’s all about people and how productive they are, and how passionate they are for the job that they have. And we all know that, but it’s hard to do. It’s hard to get people, you know, motivated five or six days a week doing what they do. But this absolutely helps with that. So, you know, it gets us very excited when we’re able to connect those dots from the chairman down to, you know, folks in the call center who are critical to making that company successful but sometimes feel like, “Well, I’m just, you know, I’m not that important to the company based on my job title.”

Tim Meinhardt:

Before we continue with the interview. We’d like to tell you a little bit about Atruity.

Voiceover:

At Atruity we understand the challenge of implementing a successful OKR program. While the methodology may be straightforward and easy to understand, the implementation and execution of the program can seem daunting. Your team is concerned because you’re unsure how to properly implement or manage your OKR program. You are not alone. This is where Atruity comes in. We know how to implement an OKR program and are experts in OKR implementation and management. By using our proven methods and implementation structure, we can help you to successfully implement OKRs within your organization in as little as 30 days. If your organization is considering implementing OKRs or struggling with the management of the program, do not hesitate to reach out to us at contact@atruity1.com. Remember, no plan succeeds on its own—execution is everything.

Tim Meinhardt:

Yeah. You know, wow, I just have to say, wow, that was from top to bottom, absolutely beautiful. In fact, we just did an entire podcast. I talked with another individual and the North Stars came up. We talked about how critical they are. That if you don’t know where you want to go, any road is going to take you there. And you know, having that mission and vision set up front, at very least, having that mission statement set up front and understanding and then being able to pass that along to people. You know, today we have what we call the great resignation, right? And you know, why people resigning? Okay, great. Yes. Given the fact that, oh, someone offered him a wonderful position. But, you know, are they being empowered, are they being asked, do they know why they’re there? Okay? Is anybody even taking the time to share with them, “Hey, this is why you’re here. This is why you’re important to this organization,” and enabling that person to think for themselves based upon what it is that we want to accomplish over a given quarter, over a given year, or a given three to five years for their long-term objectives, ultimately leading to the overall mission and vision of the company. So, Mike extremely well said, and thank you for that. So, you and I have been chatting a little bit about the OKR marketplace in regards to centers of excellence, and I’d love to get your thoughts on this, Mike.

Michael Stemmler:

There aren’t many. That’s my assessment. It’s very interesting and exciting and also somewhat challenging. The OKR kind of industry, if you want to call it that, which means experts, trainers, companies like yours, software products, reporting packages, it’s fairly nascent, right? Which is really kind of surprising, I mean, given that this started Intel back in the late seventies and you know, if you read John’s book, it’s all about, you know, Google and them using the methodology. And then of course, there’s been a resurgence, hence this conversation we’re having right now. So, you know, I think it’s just a matter of time until for some reason, there’s a bit of a catch up. We’ve been out looking at the industry, looking at the landscape, and who’s got what software out there, you know, and how can we get this to have the effective reporting packages, and make it easy for people to track their objectives and key results? Make it easy for reporting to roll up to your peer group’s OKRs and how they all come up together. And I’m sure there’s stuff out there, but there’s not that much. And you can’t look—at least I haven’t seen one—where there’s a magic quadrant for OKR software. I think it’s coming, right, big time. And in terms of, you know, people, it’s like anything else. You’ll find people who say, “Well, I’m OKR certified.” But the level of experience and implementation or doing that varies quite widely. But you know, the good news is that if you have the basics, can you believe it? It’s really a belief system to some degree as well. I think that the fact that there’s a big demand and growing demand for this at very large companies that at least we’re talking to that is going to drive the industry, I think, in a significant way.

Tim Meinhardt:

Yeah, I couldn’t agree with you more. And you know, you’re starting to see now larger players, kind of. And I’ll say Microsoft, you know, Microsoft, which recently purchased a company called Ally.io for almost $550 million. And so, they believe, and rightfully so, and it touches on what you said earlier, Mike, was that they believe they’re kind of coining a new phrase called EXP, which is the Employee Experience Platform similar to ERP, where they want to be able to tie in OKRs, to be able to have people have a better understanding of how they’re making an impact to the overall company vision and mission. So, we’re starting to see that a little bit take place, but it is still, I would say, it’s relatively fractionalized at this point. So, once you get an OKR program launched, Mike, how do you see the program evolving currently in very large enterprises?

Michael Stemmler:

That’s a really good question that I don’t have a very direct kind of canned answer for. But I will say this—there’s effectively two ways to introduce the OKR framework to a large enterprise: bottoms up or top down. Or both, right? Probably both is the best way to do it because the two meet in the middle. Most of our work is more on the bottoms up, I guess, through that prism. But we’re seeing that the top of the house, if you want to call it that, is saying the right things. I’ll give you an example. We recently were asked by a very large insurance company, you know, very large insurance company we all know, to help them figure out how to do a better job planning for next year based on financial estimates and what they needed to do to prepare themselves. And there’s multiple lines of business and there’s a complex organization with different levels of matrices, et cetera. It’s a problem they’ve been struggling with for a long, long time. A lot of that has to do with how they get what they call tech capacity to deploy whatever new platform or integrate whatever new system they have do to remain competitive. And they showed us a document that came from their president that said, here’s the 16 initiatives that we have. And clearly, he gave this template to his leadership and said, “Give this back to me,” and the upper right quadrant of each slide said objective and key results. So, he said to this organization, “Give me what your plan is, your investment request for next year is, and put it in one slide and then take a third of that slide up and tell me what the OKRs are for that,” which I thought was amazing, that’s great. But here’s the problem. No one knew what the heck they were talking about. Having OKR was poorly written, ill-conceived, made no sense whatsoever. So, there is a prime example of where they are saying the right things, they see the value, but they haven’t really taken the time to train and to explain and to indoctrinate, if you want to use that term, their folks.

So now you’ve taken a concept, right, which is the OKR, and the concept says let’s get aligned so we can prioritize what we want to do for next year. Great, but you haven’t given them the training to actually do it the right way. So, in fact, you’ve muddled the situation further because you haven’t taken the appropriate steps to make sure they’re doing it the right way. You know, it’s kind of a classic problem, but that’s kind of what we see in the industry, which sounds somewhat negative, but it’s not. It’s a positive sign, and it’s extremely opportunistic for folks like us and for folks like you, Tim, to go there and help them with that. So, we love to kind of see that as an opportunity, and it’s an indicator of where the industry and the marketplace is going in terms of embracing the methodology.

Tim Meinhardt:

Right? Very well, said Mike. You know, and we do see that people grasp…if somebody at the executive level can grasp the concept of objectives and key results. But unless folks really are given some basic training on how to actually do and write a good objective and how to actually write a measurable key result, then they get things all over the map. And we’re constantly brought in to triage companies that are trying and struggling to do this, but just haven’t quite figured it out yet. And I couldn’t agree with you more. So, kind of the last question here, so what are a couple steps that you believe impacts the ability for any organization to have a successful OKR implementation?

Michael Stemmler:

Yeah, well, I mean, it’s going to sound kind of obvious, but they have to believe in it, they have to adopt it, they have to take the right time, and they have to do it. They have to go from talking about it to actually doing it. Even in the organizations that we’ve helped, and they’re quite successful as you measure, do they understand it? Are they deploying it the right way? Are they tracking it? Are they speaking in the right vernacular in terms of what they are? Right? Even in those, you know, successful areas, there’s still usually a group of folks who are, like, just kind of mailing it in, and they haven’t bought into it yet. You never know everybody, but I think, you know, once you get people to buy it, to really feel that this is going to make their lives easier, make their jobs more effective or more productive, make them on a better track for promotion because they’re able to align their work and through this OKR framework, describe, you know, what they’re doing, how they’re doing it, and by what measure. Then it’s like the light switch goes off. So, it’s like, you know, you have the lights on, but there’s a couple bulbs that need to be, you know, screwed tighter, and you see that. But eventually it’s a question of momentum. I don’t think you’re ever going to get like a 100% adoption. There’s always going to be people, because it’s just human nature, who want to do things the way they like doing them. But I think if you get to a high percentage rate of adoption, then eventually the impact is significant, and then it becomes part of your culture.

Really, you know, when I think about it at the high level, to answer your questions in a different way, Tim, is it is cultural, right? It’s like, I hate how people get, you know, you get this kind of eye roll sometimes. “Oh, another framework. Oh boy.” Right? And it’s fair because they’ve been beaten over the head with all these different consulting companies coming in, and different frameworks and different methodologies. You know, every acronym under the sun that you can think of. So, there’s always that that hurdle, that mountain to get over because you have to expect that, you have to expect some resistance, and you have to, like, keep pushing the ball down the field until they become part of, you know, kind of the believers and they build that into their organization’s culture. What I mean by organization, I mean, you know, just the business unit that may be looking to deploy this and eventually it catches on. I never see the situation, maybe you have where they’ve deployed OKRs, they did it the right way, they really kind of felt that it was a beneficial thing. And then they decided, “You know what, we don’t wanna do this anymore.” But that must have happened. I mean, because it’s been 40 years plus since, you know, they were kind of introduced to the industry. But, you know, I think most people, when they see it and they feel it and they go, “Oh, this is making my life easier, right? I can talk to my boss in a much more, you know, productive way. What am I doing here? Here’s how it aligns to what you’ve asked me to do, here’s how it aligns to what our organization is doing.” It becomes very, very, very meaningful and powerful.

Tim Meinhardt:

Yep. You know, Mike, when we’ll go into an organization and, you know, they don’t have anything. I mean, they go “Oh no, we’re organized,” whatever, or “We want to do OKRs,” and we start from the top and we do that mission statement and long-term objectives. And then we do things from an annual perspective. We break it down to a quarter. Then we go to the department heads. All of a sudden, people’s eyes start to open up like, “Oh, wow, look at this, this is really, this is something. I get it.” And that’s that “Ah-ha” moment. You know when organizations can finally see it in place. And you know, we do a lot of facilitating one on one with leadership that not only go through a training program, but we’re going to also work with the senior leaders to make sure that they’re doing their OKRs properly because it sets up everything else, and it gives them a comfort zone to be able to brainstorm a little bit, talk through things, and work with us through our experience of being able to drop excellent objectives and key results.

But at the end of the day, it’s about evangelizing this program because you’re right, it’s momentum, and that momentum is contagious, and that’s where you get the people that they’re in, but you know, if they had it their way, they wouldn’t do any of this stuff because they had their job nailed down and whatever have you. But you may find that those people, the people underneath them, craved this. And they really wanted it. And it goes back to the simple thing that I’ve talked about now for a few months, which is the great resignation. Hey, if you’re giving people what they want and they understand why they’re meaningful to your organization. Granted, you may not get everyone to stay for whatever reason, but it certainly gives people a better feeling and a sense of worth as to what it is they’re busting their butt for on a daily basis for an organization that they actually have impact in how that organization operates. And you know, you talked about that call center person that walks into an organization he or she feels like she’s in a corner. And how did they really impact the organization overall? But you start looking at objectives and key results, and you realize how important you are and what you’re actually doing for the betterment of that organization.

Michael Stemmler:

So, we did, it’s funny Tim, we, not to cut you off, but we did, a couple of years back, we helped a large organization with the kind of hiring strategies and retention strategies. It was a large IT organization, this was maybe three years ago, and then, like today, that the talent is difficult to come by because of the demand being high.

Tim Meinhardt:

Yeah.

Michael Stemmler:

And we did a lot of research in the marketplace in terms of what things are important, and how to retain people, and how to attract talent. And, you know, one would think that the number one thing is compensation and money, and that’s not true. There are two things that we found that is proven in industry by folks a lot smarter than us who’ve been researching this for a long period of time, that people think about the body of work and are they valued? And then compensation is like third or fourth or fifth on the list of what’s important to people. So, this underlying idea that I’m jumping ship because I got offered more money may be true, but there’s also something else going on.

Tim Meinhardt:

There’s something else. Yeah, there’s something else.

Michael Stemmler:

If you can take the other stuff off the table—where the body of work is, they like what they’re doing. And through this kind of methodology, they understand how it’s valuable to the organization, that money thing becomes less important. It becomes less of a puller away. And if you can do that, then your retention rates will go up, because now it’s not about “Oh, can you throw more money” when you’re not solving the actual, you know, underlying issue, which is people just don’t like what they’re doing, or who they’re working for. And you know, that’s always gonna be part of reality. But addressing it in the U.S. with this great resignation, which people think is all about money, it’s not. It’s not about money, it’s about people wanting to do what they, you know, what they love to do and feel valued for doing just that.

Tim Meinhardt:

Meaningful work is just a huge motivator, and those people talk. You know, Mike, they talk to people. So, if you’re if you’re at a place where you are doing meaningful work and you’re being respected and you know why you’re doing what you’re doing, you’re not silent, you’re telling people you’re happy. Conversely, if you’re upset, you’re telling people as well. So, you know, I believe that OKRs can help and play an integral role in the great resignation moving forward. And it’s proven out, by even, like you said, people far smarter than you and I. But you kind of look at Microsoft. They made a half a billion-dollar investment, which just is a small part of what they believe is an Employee Experience Platform they’re working towards.

Michael Stemmler:

Yeah, there you go.

Tim Meinhardt:

Yeah, absolutely. Mike, I want to say thank you. This was delightful. This is a just a wonderful discussion today about OKRs and about yourself, and what you and how you see the marketplace. So, I want to thank you so much for taking time out of your busy schedule to join us today.

Michael Stemmler:

Thanks, Tim. I enjoyed it, and it’s an area of passion for us, so I’ll talk to you as much as you want about OKRs.

Tim Meinhardt:

You got it. Yeah, right. We could go on and on. So, Mike, listen, have a wonderful, wonderful holiday season and we’ll be speaking soon.

Michael Stemmler:

Happy Thanksgiving! Thanks, Tim.

Tim Meinhardt:

You got it—bye now.

Michael Stemmler:

Bye now.

Tim Meinhardt:

Thanks so much for taking a few minutes to listen to our OKRs Q&A Podcast. You know, OKRs provide such an excellent, agile framework which is critical for today’s business needs. It’s such a pleasure to have such wonderful people share their stories and journeys with us. Please, should you ever need assistance with your OKR journey, do not hesitate to reach out to us and contact us at www.atruity1.com, and make sure if you have a minute, to rate our show. Have a great week. Stay healthy. And of course, stay happy. Thanks, everyone.


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