Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) have emerged as a powerful framework for defining and tracking goals, aligning teams, and driving activity. However, there's more to achieving goals than writing them down and agreeing key results. Every player in your market is setting goals for broadly the same thing yet everyone can’t be right. Achieving goals is harder than simply setting goals and identifying key results on the way to achieving those goals.  

So what's the missing ingredient? James Clear, in his masterful book "Atomic Habits," shares an epiphany—“You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.". I believe this is the critical element that OKRs gloss over—the underlying systems or processes that transform action into results.

Imagine the following: your OKRs are set, with your key results meticulously monitored. Yet, by the end of the year, you're left puzzled. Despite setting SMART goals and working towards them with the best intentions, results are underwhelming. Why? It's probably your underlying systems or processes - often opaque or poorly understood - that are a brake on your progress. I suggest OKRs could be even more powerful with a 'P' added to the end? Let me show you how.

OKRs as the Framework, P as the Catalyst

Before we unpack the OKR-P framework, it's vital to understand the powerhouse that OKRs already are:

1. Clear Direction: OKRs provide unambiguous clarity on what one needs to achieve.

2. Alignment: Teams and individuals are aligned toward common, impactful goals.

3. Autonomy and Accountability: OKRs empower teams to chart their own course, without neglecting accountability.

4. Transparency: The public nature of OKRs fosters a culture of openness, where everyone understands the company's aspirations.

Now, imagine enhancing this with the 'P'—the processes, practices, or plans that gear your teams towards habit-forming mechanisms. This extension reshapes goal setting from a yearly ritual to a culture of continuous improvement and achievement.

Why Systems Power Goal Achievement

In "Atomic Habits," James Clear explains that goals are not the path; systems are. Our goals are achievable only if they're supported by systems or processes, architectures of habits that make progress more likely. Unfortunately, our goal-setting approaches leave out the definition and refinement of the very systems that will secure our goals.  

But why do we fall back on mediocre performance, as James Clear implies with his quote? It’s simple. Our behavior, our habits, lead the way. If we ignore systems powering our pursuit of lofty objectives, we risk setting our teams up for failure. These systems, the processes and practices that together define how we work, will help or hinder our progress towards desirable results.  

With that, the OKR-P methodology is born, one that shifts the focus from end results to understanding the underlying behavioral change. Adding the 'P' to OKRs brings this notion to the forefront, acknowledging that the 'how' is just as important as the 'what' and the 'why'.

The OKR-P in Practice

Let's consider an organization that's adopting OKR-Ps. For each key result, we build on our understanding of the practices and habits we have used in the past. This is where the 'P' starts to take shape. Here's what that might look like:

1. P for Practices and Habits: We start with being aware of our daily practices and habits that contribute to how we work, speeding our journey towards goal achievement.  

2. P for Process Improvement: By visualizing progress - the results of the practices and processes we use - we refine how we work and optimize our processes to reach our goals more effectively.

In this model, successful attainment of OKRs isn't just about pushing harder. It's about structuring our work to make the right actions stick—providing a vocabulary to assess what parts of our practices and processes work and what parts need refining if we are to achieve our objectives.  

The goal is not to lengthen the goal setting dialogues unnecessarily - there are already conversations on which key results will deliver the right objectives. However, OKR-Ps add a level of pragmatism to the exercise. Do we know how to work towards the key results? Are the organizational practices and habits building a foundation for success or eroding our foundation for success? Are we confident the processes we've used in the past are fit for purpose - or do they need analysis and improvement?  

Challenges and Considerations

While the OKR-P approach offers a substantial upgrade, it's not without its challenges. The discussions add time and effort to the process. There is inevitably resistance to change and a cost in maintaining and communicating complex processes. Fortunately, the conversations tend to be the most valuable ones - driven by the vocabulary of process improvement and understanding habitual actions that build a foundation for success.

The key is to keep OKR-Ps from becoming stifling bureaucracy. The goal is to avoid analysis paralysis and lengthy descriptions of ideal practices and processes. Focus instead on alignment and understanding how the results can be obtained. Create regular habits to review and improve practices and processes to continuously move toward the objective. OKR-Ps should facilitate, not dictate, the way teams work toward their objectives.

The Road Ahead

Successful goal setting doesn't lie between defining big hairy goals or pragmatic achievable objectives. The goal is to guide the conversation to the underlying systems and create a culture focussed on building effective processes and the right ingrained practices. It's about setting goals, as big and audacious as you choose, and then focussing on understanding and improving the systems that make achieving the goals a foregone conclusion.

A consequence of this approach is that our teams learn to control their journey. If at first you don't succeed, change the system until you do succeed. With organizational change at the core of business survival and growth, it’s time to look at our systems and how they support—or hinder—our goals. OKR-Ps offer a fresh perspective that could well define the new era of goal achievement in organizations worldwide. After all, the implementation is where the true value of a goal-setting framework is realized, and with OKR-Ps, the 'how' is just as exciting as the 'what'.