OKR Advice From Bruce Lee

Recently, I was introducing my son to the work of Bruce Lee and it dawned on me that he may have been the best OKR coach, ever.

Here are some of my favourite quotes and how I interpret them in the context of OKRs.

“A goal is not always meant to be reached, it often serves simply as something to aim at.”

• Let your goals inspire you!

“Don’t fear failure. — Not failure, but low aim, is the crime. In great attempts it is glorious even to fail.”

• Aim high
• Celebrate progress

“If you don’t want to slip up tomorrow, speak the truth today.”

• Transparency
• Are things at risk? Why? How can they be strengthened? Think through this, share your thinking, and make adjustments.

“Be happy, but never satisfied.”

• Celebrate where you are. But don’t stop moving.

“The less effort, the faster and more powerful you will be.”

• Find the highest leverage outcomes and achieve them before doing anything else.

“Obey the principles without being bound by them.”

• It’s okay to adapt OKRs to your context.
• Challenge the rules and make the framework work hard for you.

“To know oneself is to study oneself in action with another person.”

• Keep doing those check-ins
• Use OKRs to understand how you work together as a team

“I’m not in this world to live up to your expectations and you’re not in this world to live up to mine.”

• OKRs are set by the team, delivered by the team, used by the team to understand the team.

“Take things as they are. Punch when you have to punch. Kick when you have to kick.”

• Change & adapt your OKRs as needed
• Make them serve the current you in the current context

“Notice that the stiffest tree is most easily cracked, while the bamboo or willow survives by bending with the wind.”

• Stay flexible

“To hell with circumstances; I create opportunities.”

• How can you use what is to create what will be?

“As you think, so shall you become.”

• Clearly define the outcomes you want to achieve. The clearer the picture, the more likely you are to achieve it. An fuzzy picture depicts an impossible outcome

“If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you’ll never get it done.”

• Don’t overthink or over-negotiate your OKRs. Start checking in & delivering ASAP. You can always change later.

“Mistakes are always forgivable, if one has the courage to admit them.”

• Be clear on what’s happening with your OKRs.
• Learn continuously.
• Find new leverage, and use it.

“Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way around or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves."

• Define the end goal (the sea) but don’t try to define the exact path you will take there. Be responsive, not reactive.

“Absorb what is useful. Discard what is not. Add what is uniquely your own.”

• Courtesy of my lovely colleague Muhammed Rehman
• Verified here.
• Take any OKR advice with a grain of salt!

Take Aways

• Let your goals inspire you, even if you never reach them
• Celebrate progress but don’t rest on your laurels
• Rise to the next challenge
• Persist
• Stay flexible
• Think but don’t overthink
• Create opportunity, don’t be a victim of circumstance
• Maximise efficacy, not effort