Giant Talk: The World‘s First OKR Podcast

S10: E11 Why care about Accountability?

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.
Tability bridges this gap by making goals part of your weekly routine instead of something that gets revisited only at the end of the quarter.
Here are some of the key takeaways from our conversation:
Why spreadsheets fail for OKRs: Goals on spreadsheets can easily lead to drift. Without regular check-ins, teams lose momentum.
Building habits for weekly accountability: Sten emphasises the importance of reviewing progress to ensure you're moving in the right direction
Speeding up execution: Delayed feedback can waste time and resources. By integrating OKRs into a team's rhythm, Tability empowers faster decision-making and execution.
Enabling self-management: The ultimate goal of OKRs is to help teams self-manage effectively. This approach contrasts with traditional command-and-control models and unlocks bottom-up energy.
Adapting to leadership changes: Sten shares how Tability often supports teams undergoing leadership shifts by providing clarity and empowering individuals
The importance of setting clear expectations: Goals aren’t a silver bullet—they require clarity, alignment, and regular follow-up to be effective.
If your team has ever struggled to stay accountable to your goals or wants to achieve faster execution with fewer bottlenecks, this episode is sure to arm you with lots of insights.
 
Enjoy the episode!
 
 

S10: E10 OKRs and the future: Staying relevant in a data-driven world

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 OKRs help organisations scale, transform, and navigate crises
Building alignment: Creating a vision, clarifying roles, and ensuring teams stay aligned without disruption.
Future-focused thinking: Why OKRs should be tied to forward-looking metrics, not past performance.
Strategic Execution: Why success isn’t just about hitting “green” metrics but executing the strategy effectively.
Jonathan also highlights the universal value of OKRs for organisations of all sizes and the top benefits of implementing this framework effectively.
If you're ready to align your teams and drive meaningful outcomes, this conversation is packed with actionable insights.
 
Enjoy the episode!
 

S10: E9 Beyond lip service - building real collaboration and culture

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 leaders and teams to drive meaningful change.
 
Enjoy the episode!
 
Connect with James on LinkedIn

S10: E8 The good, the bad and the ugly of becoming investable

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 and delivering results, as their business grows in size and scale?
Listen to this exciting episode to find out more.
 
Links
Connect with James on LinkedIn
Find out more about Robot Mascot 
 

S10: E7 Are your teams wasting time on things they shouldn't be ?

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 shouldn't be doing and discuss some common issues faced in workplaces that are a result of this. 
No matter how well teams are working, if they're not working on the right things then time is wasted...
Enjoy the episode!
 
Connect with James on LinkedIn
Find out more about Proven EA
Proven EA Toolkit Toolkit
Lean Agile Manchester 
 
 
 
 

S10: E6 How to sustainably invest in your organisational culture

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, and how small, marginal changes can drive transformational impact. 
Whether you're looking to build a high-performance culture or engage your employees more effectively, this episode is packed with actionable insights and expert advice. 
 
Link to Mo - https://mo.work/
Connect with Luke - https://www.linkedin.com/in/lsfisher/

S10: E5 Building High-Performance Cultures: Insights from the Royal Air Force

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 consciously made for reflection and analysis so that the RAF can always be certain it’s improving and evolving its capacity and capabilities. Nic brings with him a critical perspective on this given his unit is responsible for human performance.
This is a fascinating insight into not just the processes the RAF follows, but also how they have developed and sustained the culture to support this.
 
Enjoy the episode!

S10: E4 The Advantages of OKRs in scaling businesses

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 to be a game-changer for prioritisation and aligning their team with a shared vision. Nate and Bex reflect on the transformative impact of using OKRs over the past 12 months – unveiling what strategies have proven effective and how they've adapted on this exciting journey.
Enjoy the insightful discussion!

S10: E3 Why should leaders care if they have a psychologically safe workplace?

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 climate where team members feel included, secured and free to express contrasting ideas. She argues that instilling psychological safety requires persistent effort and patience from both leaders and team members, with trust playing a crucial role.
Enjoy the episode!
 

S10: E2 The battle between waterfall and agile methodologies

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 with project management over the years, both in a “traditional” waterfall sense and also agile, and have seen how either tribe (as that’s how it appears sometimes) seems to hold the other in disdain.  Because of this, Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez’s HBR paper on how Waterfall and Agile should learn how to work together better caught our eye.
 
Join us as we explore the challenges of managing modern projects and how Antonio believes a “hybrid” combination of waterfall and agile is now needed.
Antonio is the author of the HBR Project Management Handbook, he also writes for the WSJ and is one of the founders of https://www.strategyimplementationinstitute.org/
 
Antonio is currently conducting research into hybrid project management so if you are interested in contributing, you can do this via https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/NXK2TCF
You can find his website at http://antonionietorodriguez.com/
He has a LinkedIn newsletter at https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/lead-projects-successfully-6820596029113565184/
And a selection of free courses on LinkedIn learning at https://www.linkedin.com/learning/instructors/antonio-nieto-rodriguez
 
Enjoy the episode!