Too Many Acronyms: When OKRs Start To Sound Like Teen Slang

There’s a funny moment we see in many organisations: someone enthusiastically says “We’re doing OKRs now!”… and half the room nods politely while the other half is quietly Googling what that actually means.

It reminds us a bit of hearing Gen Z slang for the first time. Everyone pretends they understand what “it’s giving” means, until someone whispers, “…giving what?”.

Acronyms have the same effect at work: they create the illusion of clarity while hiding the absence of shared understanding.

And OKRs — despite their simplicity — are one of the biggest victims of acronym fatigue.

The truth is: If the language becomes a barrier, the framework stops being useful.

And let’s remember, an OKR is more a verb than a noun — a mindset more than an artefact. But a mindset doesn’t flourish when people feel like they must memorise vocabulary before they can participate.

OKRs are about focus, alignment, and learning — not jargon. Yet, in real teams, we see these common patterns:

1. People equate OKRs with tasks. Because terms like Objective, Key Result, Initiative, Baseline, or Commit sound abstract at first, they fall back to what they know: a list of things to do.
2. Leaders mix OKRs with KPIs. Another acronym… and suddenly the conversation becomes a puzzle of letters instead of impact. What’s the difference? KPIs monitor the business, OKRs move the business — but that nuance gets lost fast when everything is reduced to three uppercase letters.
3. Teams hesitate to ask “What does this mean?” Because nobody wants to look like the only adult who doesn’t speak the new language. And when people hesitate, learning slows down. And OKRs, by definition, are a critical thinking framework defined by asking questions. If we remove the questions, we remove the value.

We insist on something essential: Start with the problem, not the plan.

But acronyms often push us straight into the plan: – Write OKRs – Enter KRs – Link to KPIs – Flag BAU

Suddenly, the conversation is more about boxes than about purpose.

When people ask us “How do we make OKRs stick?” our answer is always the same: Make the conversations meaningful before you make the acronyms meaningful.

If the team can tell us:

• Why something matters
• What must change
• How we’ll know
• What we’ll learn

…then they understand OKRs — even if they forget every acronym.

1. Normalize the “wait, what does that mean?” question. In a strong OKR culture, curiosity is a strength, not a weakness. We explicitly encourage asking questions at every level — about mission, alignment, objectives, and KRs.
2. Make language human. If a Key Result can’t be explained to a high-school studenT, it’s probably too abstract.
3. Give examples grounded in reality. Teams learn faster when OKRs describe behaviour change, not theory
4. Shift the spotlight from the acronym to the intention. Asking “What needs to change?” is infinitely more valuable than asking “Are these OKRs correct?”

When the language becomes more accessible, alignment becomes natural. And when alignment becomes natural, OKRs stop feeling like a new dialect and start feeling like a shared way of thinking.