This bundle brings together Nicole Pollock’s complete approach to making OKRs work in mission-driven organizations: from the alignment conversations you need to have before you track anything, to a month-by-month implementation guide that helps you build the habit — not just set the goals. Nicole has run OKR processes for teams of 25 and teams of 3,000. Her system is, in her words, “shockingly simple.” That’s the point.
From the Helia Library — based on the article Are You Actually Using Those OKRs?, from our Coffee Chat with Nicole Pollock.
What’s Inside
Three resources, meant to be used in sequence. Start with the vision alignment guide — the rest of the toolkit is most useful once you know that the people around you actually agree on what success looks like.
01 — Nicole’s OKR Template
A simple Google Sheet for tracking objectives, key results, owners, and progress — the same one Nicole has used for teams of 25 and teams of 3,000. Use this once you’ve done the alignment work and you’re ready to actually start tracking.
02 — Vision Alignment Question Guide
A structured guide for running the conversations with your board, executive team, and direct reports before you build anything. Use this first — before you open a spreadsheet — to surface misalignment while you can still do something about it.
03 — OKR Implementation Checklist
A month-by-month guide for setting up monthly meetings, assigning owners, and avoiding the most common pitfalls. Use this once you have your objectives and key results set and you’re ready to build the routine.
When Resources and Templates Aren’t Enough
These tools will help you set up the system and build the habit. What they can’t do is help you navigate a board and executive team that aren’t aligned on what success looks like, reset a team that’s tried OKRs before and written them off as busywork, or hold the line on not changing things mid-year when you’re also the one running the program. If that’s where you are — or if you’ve done this before and it still didn’t stick — that’s usually where a thought partner makes the difference.
If You Want Help Making OKRs Actually Stick
Nicole Pollock partners with mission-driven organizations to build measurement systems that stick — helping leaders get alignment before they build anything, design tracking routines that become habits, and hold the line on not changing things mid-year when everything is telling them to.
She’s a good fit if:
- You’ve tried implementing OKRs before and they didn’t stick after a quarter or two
- Your board and executive team aren’t aligned on what success looks like — and you need someone outside the dynamic to surface it
- You’re spending more time managing the OKR system than doing the work it’s supposed to track
- You want to build internal capacity, not just hire the work out — Nicole can train your team to run this process themselves
Connect with Nicole!
Not sure Nicole‘s the right fit? Talk to Helia directly!
About Nicole
Nicole Pollock started her career as a cartographer — using data to tell stories about communities — then moved into public policy work, and eventually into the state agencies where she had to implement the laws she’d helped pass. That’s where she learned that even the best-written policy fails without systems behind it. She became a Lean Six Sigma black belt, served as Chief Innovation Officer and then Chief of Staff for a capital city, and now leads operations and programs for a national education nonprofit. She takes on 2-4 consulting engagements per year.
What I loved most about our conversation: her willingness to be unapologetically loose about the process — because she knows that when you get too obsessed with the spreadsheet, you stop having the conversations that actually matter.
