When used well, OKRs create the space for our best work to happen. We'll talk more soon about the superpowers of OKRs. But when it comes to achieving our goals together, the real magic of OKRs is in the stretch, or as John says, "Stretch for amazing." Earlier, we talked about three kinds of OKRs: committed, aspirational, and learning. Organizations sometimes spend a lot of energy trying to find the perfect balance between the three. In my experience, all OKRs should be appropriately aggressive. Let's talk about how to build stretch in, no matter the goal. First off, risk for risk's sake isn't the prescription. We're talking about taking calculated risks, the ones tuned to the culture and capabilities of your organization, which can, of course, change over time. When setting an aspirational OKR, ask yourself, "What would amazing look like?" Answering that question and framing your Objective as an outcome helps paint a picture of success for the team, and setting the right stretch Key Results conveys a belief that you can get there because there's a plan in place. Stretching might mean setting a finish line beyond what your team has accomplished before. As long as you've drawn on the collective commitment of the team and aren't dictating the stretch, you can remain in the realm of the inspirational and believable, not accidentally depressing the effort with unrealistic expectations. Ask teams for input and rely on their knowledge of what's possible to build in the right amount of stretch. Stretch can also be strategic. If you're thinking about how far to push, you may also need to consider the effort. As we discussed with holds, increments, and leaps, sometimes holding or making a step forward is a considerable amount of effort. Other times, you're going to want to make a completely new breakthrough, and so you're going to set an OKR that doesn't just stretch your team, it forces them to think differently about the problem. For example, reusing a rocket booster, or building a new type of electric vehicle, or going from sustaining your nonprofit on large donations to ones relying on just individuals. In setting these goals that truly stretch, you need to reinforce a culture that's primed for learning and adapting, not punishing or shaming. Falling short of an aspirational OKR is not necessarily a failure if significant progress was made, or if critical things were learned. In fact, you should keep carrying them forward quarter to quarter. Understanding why you fell short can help you make even more progress. Remove barriers, and fine-tune your risk tolerance. In Google's OKR Playbook, they highlight that dropping an OKR because of a lack of progress is a mistake because it disguises problems of prioritization, resource availability, or a lack of understanding of the problem or solution. They also warn against the trap of sandbagging, the antithesis of stretching. That's when you set an unambitious goal or goals that you can just achieve easily. Tactically, it's when a team is meeting all of their OKRs without using all of their headcount and resources. If you see sandbagging, it's a warning sign that something or someone is preventing the appropriate stretch. At Google, they use it as a cue to re-assign headcount and resources to groups who are going to make more effective use of them. As a leader, it's up to you to help define and protect the stretch, and that means evaluating OKRs within the organization for that ambition. Does this OKR solve a real problem? Does it build capability that we don't have today? Would we have to do a lot differently to achieve this Objective? Or is it more like the status quo? How risky is this OKR? Are we taking a little risk or a lot? Are these the right metrics to measure to see the progress we want to make? To quote the legendary coach Bill Campbell, "Growth is the goal."