What can PE learn from Google?

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How do you define success in PE? 

How do you communicate this to your students, colleagues and parents?

What are your yearly/termly targets and what metrics do you use to evidence success?

These questions go to the heart of the much discussed purpose of the subject. 

But before we jump in, please take a moment to reflect on what you currently communicate as success. What do you celebrate? For many years, physical education teachers have celebrated school sports results. These tend to be shared on newsletters, in assemblies, school websites, and nowadays, they are often seen in PE posts on social media…’Well done to the Year X [name of sport] team for [accomplishment] #proudteacher’.

Don’t get me wrong, having spent a disproportionate amount of my life standing on touchlines as a teacher, coach and parent, I fully appreciate that school sport can bring something magical to lots of young people’s lives. But, and this is a big but, I’ve never had anyone in PE acknowledge that this is their driver. I’ve asked hundreds of people on social media polls, at CPD events, in my PETE work and pretty much everyone agrees that it’s something to do with long term engagement in physical activity for all young people. This is in line with official policy documents like the various national curricula used around the world. So how do we align and evidence outcomes with intention or purpose?

To answer this question, I’d like to cherry pick from the world of commerce - cherry pick because I am not advocating that schools be run like businesses, rather whether we can learn from organisations that successfully set out to deliver on their missions. 

John Doerr was one of the early investors in Google. When he first met the founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, it was evident that they were both brilliant but clueless - they had no idea how to grow their business. Doerr drew on his years and the systems used in his previous career at IBM and introduced them to a target setting/review system that he refers to as OKRs. Google still uses this system along with many other high-performing organisations across a range of sectors. 

OKR stands for Objectives and Key Results: 

Objective - WHAT do you want to achieve?

Key Results - HOW will you achieve it?

Target setting is not new in education. Doerr argues that OKRs are better than SMART targets and KPIs as they bring a number of important benefits:

• They support alignment between the overall big idea/mission, to Key Results that must be achieved to get there. This allows us to focus deeply on the process and offers a simple litmus test - does this decision/action/policy/approach help us achieve our objective.
• OKRs contribute towards forming a cohesive team and a rewarding place to work. They allow teams to be transparent, analytical and non-judgmental. They support individual and team growth.
• If the Key Results are well-worded and concise, they provide an unambiguous means of charting team and individual progress. This allows for better review and can boost morale by making progress over time a cause for celebration.
• They provide accountability and transparency to all stakeholders. Each team member's OKRs should be viewable on a shared drive. Google still does this with all their 1000s of employees from the CEO down.
• Setting and reviewing OKRs termly allows us to stay true to our main priorities especially in the hurly burly of school life when priorities can easily be lost or forgotten.

At the heart of the OKR framework is a sense that the Team can find the answers to their own problems - ‘the answer is in the room’. This calls into question the role of the ‘expert’; something I’ve grappled with for many years. A critical friend is probably far more helpful than the ‘sage on the stage’. 

OKRs keep us grounded. They help us focus on accomplishments rather than credentials or appearances. Social media can be a great learning tool but wouldn’t it be great if there was more focus on measurable and measured impact, for example -  ‘I’ve been working on this [approach, activity etc] this term and 40% of students expressed increased enjoyment and participation went up by 12%. DM me for further details’ as opposed to ‘here's a great resource/activity I’ve been using’.

OKRs applied to PE

If used well, Doerr talks about OKRs having 4 Superpowers

1. Focus and commit
2. Align and connect
3. Track for accountability
4. Stretch for amazing

1. Focus 

You know that feeling when you feel overstretched and end up doing nothing well? Focus allows us to avoid that. Start with what is the highest priority for next term.

This then needs to be over communicated to colleagues, parents and, most importantly, students. Doerr cites the former CEO of LinkedIn, Jeff Weiner…”When you’re tired of saying it, people are starting to hear it.” (Probably a good tip for learning generally!) The focus superpower allows us to ‘stay on message’. 

Finally, focusing on a single objective makes it easier to measure performance and results against the goal. 

2. Align and Connect

All Objectives should be related to your overall, ‘big picture’ goal or Vision. If you click here you'll receive a downloadable worked example. I have started with the vision statement that I have used for a number of years now. Feel free to create your own or you can keep it as it is. The point is, the OKR process allows this to become a reality overtime rather than remain an aspiration.

3. Track for accountability

This is not a new idea. Most of the world runs on metrics that provide accountability. Starbucks track how much coffee they sell, Instagram knows how many people use their platform and your local car dealer knows if they are on track to meet their monthly or quarterly targets. But we don’t need to turn to tech or commerce to see this process applied. Education uses data extensively to ensure learners are ‘on track’ in many subjects especially Numeracy/Maths and English/Literacy. If we want to stop bemoaning the low status of PE, it might help to collate our own evidence related to our goals but more importantly, if we are to engage more young people in physical activity so they can reap the benefits that it can bring to a person’s life, we need to know if, how, when and why they are engaging in activity. 

4. Stretch for amazing

When I first became HoD, a Deputy Head at the school gave me some classic advice - ‘Pick your battles wisely, Greg,’ he said, ‘the current year 10s are beyond redemption’. I thanked him politely and duly ignored his advice. This unambitious, some might say pragmatic approach, is an acknowledgement of defeat. So how much stretch should we aim for? Larry Page, Co Founder of Google aims for targets that make the organisation 10 times better. When they took over YouTube, the goal was 1 billion views per day. It took them a few years but they got there! The Google mantra is ‘aim for the stars and if you ‘fail’ you’ll land on the moon - still amazing’. The PE equivalent of this, as far as I can see, is for us to aim for every student to form a positive relationship with physical activity that is evidenced by them actually doing physical activity on an ongoing, consistent basis. This starts with knowing if how, when and why they are active. As another business guru, Dov Siedman says, 

“If you measure something, you’re telling people that it matters”

Please note; OKRs should not be used for any form of performance management. They are about teams and individuals learning, growing and reaching their goals. 

Click here to receive our FREE spreadsheet complete with worked examples designed to help you create OKR's and start making your aspirations realities.