Summary
Long a goal-setter by nature, this executive leader explains how he leverages OKRs to make decisions, prioritize his time, and to dictate what to say no to.
Samyr Laine is a multidimensional success story. He’s an author, philanthropist, and graduate of Harvard University and Georgetown University Law Center. He’s an Ivy League record holder for the triple jump, an N.C.A.A. All-American, and an Olympian. And from 2021 to 2022 he was the Vice President of Good Goods, the consumer product division of Westbrook Inc. - a multimedia, entertainment company founded by Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith
On the track, Laine always pushed himself as hard as possible — competing with yesterday’s version of himself. And that has carried over off the track. Long before his formal introduction to the Objectives and Key Results framework (OKRs) through Measure What Matters, he was goal oriented, committed to results, and a constant tracker of his progress. He says he is a “goal setter by nature.”
Goal setting for Laine began early on. Inspired by the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, he began to work strategically and follow a well-thought-out plan to realize his Olympic dreams. He learned that meticulously charting a course toward where he wanted to go was going to be the best path forward.
Charting the Course: How to identify measurable goals
Laine was a star in the classroom first, so his decision to attend Harvard was “wholly unrelated to athletics,” he said. But in track and field he started a new event — the triple jump — in his freshman year. His first goal was to increase his jump from 45 to 50 feet.
“I was able in college to understand where I was, where I wanted to go, and as an athlete and a triple jumper, what I had to do to get there,” he said. “For me, athletics are good because you can actually measure what matters — particularly in a sport like track and field, and an event like the triple jump, where every centimeter literally mattered.”
To close the five-foot gap between his start and his vision, Laine reverse-engineered a strategy and built out measurable action items for increasing speed and strength.
“I was able to chart the course from a video analysis and work with my coach to say: Here’s my goal,” he recalled. “What I was doing was setting OKRs.”
Laine went on to become an All-American at the N.C.A.A. Championships and set the Ivy League record at Harvard. He later competed in six World Championships, two Pan American Games, and the 2012 Olympic Games.
From a world stage to Westbrook
From 2019 to 2022, Laine worked on the executive team at Westbrook Inc., a dynamic multimedia company using OKRs to empower artists, entertain through movies and TV, and affect lives through storytelling.
A natural goal setter, Laine quickly appreciated the foundation being laid at Westbrook and the young team’s commitment to implementing the Objectives and Key Results framework.
Although the stakes are different for an athlete than a senior executive, after reading Measure What Matters, Laine recognized that the mindset and method for leveraging goals are largely the same.
“I was able to lean on goal setting and deliberate practice so much as an individual athlete that I really have a deep appreciation and understanding of how powerful it is,” Laine said. “I could teach it in a way that helps people grasp why it matters, why it’s important, the impact it has, or the impact that not setting goals has on an individual or an organization.”
When onboarding OKRs, especially in the case of new teams and organizations, Laine emphasizes that executive buy-in is a must-have. Gila Jones, Westbrook’s COO, led the charge toward using the OKRs.
“We also have buy-in from the top-down,” Laine said, noting that the president, CEO, founders, and division president all support Objectives and Key Results. “Every team member has bought into the value of OKRs — that is extremely powerful,” he said.
Once a team or organization has chosen to implement OKRs, the next step is commitment, which can be challenging when it’s in the form of a new practice or habit.
“In a professional setting, it’s a new behavior for people,” Laine said. “It does take effort. We are still getting to the place where people lean on their OKRs to make decisions, guide how they prioritize their time, and to dictate what they say no to.”
Olympic-level OKR tips
Goals don’t have to just be organizational. Laine has used the process of goal setting to excel on and off the track, and he understands that it requires effort, consistency, and a little discomfort at times.
As we face a new year, with new intentions and personal, professional, and organizational goals, Laine believes it’s important to keep the following principles in mind:
✓ “It’s a marathon, not a sprint — and I’m someone who prefers sprinting.”
✓ “Make adjustments — it’s not as rigid as you think it needs to be.”
✓ “Be kind to yourself.”
