Peer Approval for OKRs

Replace top-down OKR approval with fast peer review from three connected teams

Christina Wodtke
The ultimate guide to OKRs

Peer Approval for OKRs

"The approval process will kill you. I've seen it happen over and over again... Instead of having your boss approve it, you write your OKRs, you get three teams that work with you enough to know what you're up to, to look them over and they just look them over, 24 hour turnaround." - Christina Wodtke

What It Is

Instead of routing OKRs up the management chain for approval (which creates bottlenecks and delays), have 3 peer teams who work closely with you review your OKRs with a 24-hour turnaround. They provide feedback like "This looks right" or "I don't think this is possible"—and that's it. No lengthy approval cycles.

This approach dramatically accelerates OKR setting while maintaining quality through distributed oversight.

How It Works

Traditional Approval (Broken):

  • Team writes OKRs
  • Sends to manager for approval
  • Manager sends to their manager
  • Bottleneck at each level
  • Takes weeks, not days
  • Creates revision loops

Peer Approval (Fast):

  • Team writes OKRs
  • Sends to 3 peer teams who know their work
  • Peers respond within 24 hours
  • Quick feedback: "Looks right" or "This seems off"
  • Done

Selection of Peers: Choose teams that:

  • Work closely enough with you to understand your context
  • Would be affected by or depend on your OKRs
  • Can provide informed feedback quickly

How to Apply It

  1. Identify 3 peer teams - Pick teams that collaborate with you regularly and understand your work context.

  2. Share OKRs with them - Not for detailed approval, but for a sanity check.

  3. Set 24-hour expectation - Quick turnaround is essential. This isn't a detailed review—it's a gut check.

  4. Accept lightweight feedback - Peers say:

    • "This looks right"
    • "I don't think this is possible given [context]"
    • "Did you consider [thing]?"

  5. Incorporate and move on - Take valid feedback, skip the rest, and finalize.

  6. Protect your own bandwidth - If 10 teams ask you to review, say no to some. Keep to a reasonable number.

  7. Trust the process - If you get it slightly wrong, you'll figure it out over the quarter. Perfect approval isn't worth weeks of delay.

When to Use It

Use peer approval when:

  • Traditional approval takes more than a week
  • Management bottlenecks are delaying execution
  • You have mature, aligned peer teams
  • There's general strategic alignment already

Keep hierarchical approval when:

  • OKRs require significant resource allocation decisions
  • Teams are new or haven't proven judgment
  • There's genuine strategic disagreement to resolve

Why It Works

Speed: 24 hours vs. weeks. More time executing, less time negotiating.

Better feedback: Peers who work with you often understand your context better than managers several levels up.

Trust building: Treating teams as capable of reviewing each other builds organizational maturity.

Eliminates false precision: Spending weeks perfecting OKRs that will change anyway doesn't add value.

Lets go of control: As Christina notes, "If you're not right, you'll figure it out over the quarter and do better next quarter. We have to let go or we will get mired down in all this crap."

Source

  • Guest: Christina Wodtke
  • Episode: "The ultimate guide to OKRs"
  • Key Discussion: (00:49:43) - The peer approval alternative to hierarchical approval
  • YouTube: Watch on YouTube

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