Giant Talk: Where Strategy Meets Results

We're sure you've heard the acronym: OKRs - Objectives and Key Results. But somewhere along the way, the simplicity got lost in translation. In this episode, we ask: What if we stopped calling them OKRs altogether? Roger Longden, TBG Founder and Marc Applebaum PM2 OKR Consultant at PM2 discuss how goal-setting became over engineered, why rhythms matter more than rituals, and the power of intention...

  In this insightful episode of Giant Talk, Roger sits down with Sonia, an experienced HR professional and coach, to explore the critical challenge of organisational alignment. They dive deep into why strategic goals often get lost or diluted as they cascade through different levels of an organisation. Drawing from decades of experience at the board level, Sonia shares sharp insights into the disc...

In this episode, we sit down with our long-time friend Henrik-Jan Van Der Pol, Founder of Perdoo, to dig into the evolving world of OKRs. As the market shifts, with consultancies and software providers consolidating or shutting down, what’s really going on? Henrik-Jan shares his insights on these changes, the lessons learned over the past 4–5 years, and what Microsoft’s decision to retire Viva Goa...

In this episode, we’re joined by Sten, founder of Tability, an OKR platform designed to make accountability seamless and help teams achieve their goals faster. We chat about how accountability fits into the OKR framework and why this is so crucial. Sten explains that while teams often excel at setting goals during workshops, they frequently “drop the ball” when it comes to staying on track. Tabili...

Welcome back to another episode of Giant Talk. In this episode, we sit down with Jonathan Elliot, a seasoned CEO with a career spanning commercial sales & marketing, strategy consulting, and leadership. Jonathan shares his expertise on implementing Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) in large, complex organisations and the unique challenges that come with it. We discuss: The role of OKRs: How OK...

In this episode, we explore the power of communication with James Milsom, Head of Marketing at Hunter. AI. With extensive experience across tech start-ups and large SMBs, James shares his perspective on why communication serves as the bedrock of both success and failure within organisations. From enhancing collaboration to avoiding costly missteps, James highlights actionable strategies for leader...

In this podcast episode we sit down with James Church, COO and Co-Founder of investment readiness agency Robot Mascot. We dive into (from a founders perspective) the good, the bad and the ugly of becoming investable. What are the top 3 things that make a Founder (and their business) investable? How important is it to investors to be confident that Founders are evolving their approach to defining a...

In this episode Roger sits down with a Chief Elephant Spotter (curious, listen to find out what this entails). James Pels is founder of Proven EA, a consultancy specialising in providing business transformation, agile coaching and digital transformation services to a wide range of industries in the public and private sectors. Roger and James dive into how to not waste time on things that you shoul...

Welcome back to Giant Talk!   In this episode Roger has an interesting conversation with Luke Fisher, CEO of Mo. Luke shares his journey from a fintech company undergoing cultural transformation to founding Mo, a platform designed to help managers and leaders sustainably invest in organisational culture. We dive into the significance of high-performing teams, the critical role of bottom-up change,...

Like any military organisation, command and control is necessary, especially in battle.  When the stakes are this high, how can the time and space be made for testing new ideas, and challenging the status quo? So how does an organisation like the UK’s Royal Air Force learn, adapt and grow when hierarchy and orders are commonplace?  Flight Lieutenant Nic Corrigan joins us to share how time is consc...

In this episode, we reconnect with ECO Surv, a valued client from just over a year ago. ECO Surv offer compliance and workflow management solutions in the energy efficiency, retro fit and renewables sector. Dive into the conversation with Nate, Co-Founder and CEO, and Bex, People and Culture Manager, as they share their journey with OKRs. Discover how, amid their rapid scaling, ECO Surv found OKRs...

Welcome to another episode of Giant Talk. In this episode Roger chats to chats to Joanna, Head of Academy and Expert Consultant at There Be Giants. This episode shines a spotlight on the important, yet often overlooked, topic of psychological safety in the workplace. Jo brings a wealth of knowledge and experience from her work at There Be Giants and explores the essence of psychological safety - a...

We're clearly big fan of OKRs, but we're not so blindly fanatical that we don’t accept they are only part of the picture when it comes to strategy execution.  OKRs signpost and help to chart progress at a high level but don’t do a great job at defining and tracking the details; they need to interface with the next level, and that’s often project management. At TBG we've had a lot of involvement wi...

OKR teams rarely find themselves based in the same location, so forming and working together brings all the challenges of hybrid working in today's contemporary organisations. This is why we was particularly interested in having a chat with Alexandra Samuel, after reading her HBR article “3 Project Management Strategies for a Hybrid Workplace” .  In our 30-minute+ conversation, we discuss all aspe...

Welcome back to Giant Talk, the world’s first OKR podcast.   In this episode, Roger chats to Jacob Morgan author, futurist, & keynote Speaker on leadership, employee experience, & the future of work. In this discussion, Jacob talks about the topic of leading with vulnerability. How do you as a leader share a vulnerable side, share any gaps you have and open up about what you’ve learned to...

Welcome back to Giant Talk, the world’s first OKR podcast.   In this episode, Roger chats to Ryan Lowdermilk, Cloud Solution Architect at Microsoft, an OKR Champion and OKR Coach for the Microsoft Tech team for the America’s. Ryan chats to Roger about the use of OKRs at Microsoft, how OKRs can break through the hierarchy and why OKRs should be a light lift.     Enjoy the episode!  If you have 3 mi...

Welcome back to Giant Talk, the world’s first OKR podcast.   In this episode, Roger catches up with Tracey Boylin, CEO of Organisational Genetics. Organisational Genetics was born out of the real life experiences of the founders to address the challenge of nurturing a more open reporting culture in the NHS and other organisations.  Tracey chats to Roger about her work in Ukraine in preventing corr...

Welcome back to Giant Talk, the world’s longest running OKR podcast.   In this episode, Roger chats with  Behnam Tabrizi , of Stanford University. Behnam - a 3X award-winning scholar and educator - has been teaching “Leading Organisational Transformation” at Stanford University's Department of Management Science & Engineering and executive programs for over 25 years. An expert in organisationa...

Welcome back to Giant Talk, the world’s first OKR podcast.   In this episode, Roger catches up with Patrick Jocelyn, Chief Executive Officer at Omniplex Learning, a client of TBG. Omniplex Learning is the complete learning and development solution. Award-winning authoring tools, market-leading learning management systems, bespoke digital learning creation and systems and skills training – all in o...

There are countless things we love today that began as a single idea that developed into something spectacular after partnering with another.   A key question, therefore, needs to be: how can we work smarter, not harder, whilst adapting to ongoing changes and improving organisational performance? We teamed up with HR Fusion to conduct some of our own research and dig into existing research, to inv...

Join us to spend a fascinating hour digging into the often-misunderstood concept of “alignment” with Jonathon Hensley – CEO, board member of multiple silicon valley businesses and author of the book called, yes, you guessed it: “Alignment.” Jonathon has long been curious about why some businesses manage to align really well, and others don’t.  What is it the good ones are doing that the others are...

Welcome back to Giant Talk, the world’s longest running OKR podcast. Join us for a series of special episodes in conversation with long-standing organisational performance expert, Brett Knowles.   In this episode, we take a deeper dive into AI and the five major components of being able to use AI.     Enjoy the episode!  If you have 3 minutes and would like to see how your goal setting/OKRs could...

Welcome back to Giant Talk, the world’s first OKR podcast.   In this episode, Roger chats to Sara Jacklin, an expert facilitator with a specialism in design sprints. Sara has worked with many clients using design sprints as a sophisticated problem-solving process. Sara chats to Roger about how best to use design sprints and using them in an agile way.    Enjoy the episode!  If you have 3 minutes a...

Welcome back to Giant Talk, the world’s first OKR podcast. Join us for a series of special episodes in conversation with long-standing organisational performance expert, Brett Knowles.   In this third episode, we discuss the concept of AI and in particular Chatgpt , how can you integrate this into your OKR processes?    Enjoy the episode!  If you have 3 minutes and would like to see how your goal...

Welcome back to Giant Talk, the world’s first OKR podcast. Join us for a series of special episodes in conversation with long-standing organisational performance expert, Brett Knowles.   Throughout these we will be looking at some of the emerging challenges facing organisations today as we all try to adapt to the new normal of rapidly accelerating change and ever-increasing volatility.   In this s...