In this episode recorded live at Accelerate 2025, AO Smith CEO Steve Shafer joins Deidre Paknad to discuss how leaders keep strategy moving when markets shift faster than traditional planning cycles. Steve shares how he connects long-range goals to quarterly OKRs and how WorkBoard supports his teams in staying aligned and focused. From adjusting priorities to using real-time execution insights, this conversation offers a practical look at keeping strategy current and actionable.

CEO and Co-founder Deidre Paknad and Sameera Moinpour, Global VP Customer Success & Services, give a debrief from WorkBoard's Fall Executive Advisory Board session with the CEOs of AO Smith and Aprimo, Chief Product Officer of DaVita, Chief Operations Officer of 8x8 and Chief People Officer of Q2 Inc.  They asked these execs for their success models, shared the failure patterns and got their advice on how to help more executives succeed at their strategy execution ambitions.

Recorded live at WorkBoard’s Accelerate 2025 conference, this episode covers how organizations have matured their approach to OKRs, strategy execution and the connection with individual performance over the past few years and what's changing next. With startling stats on AI use today and the pace of change, WorkBoard CEO and co-founder Deidre Paknad paints a vivid picture of how AI is radically improving strategy execution and how you can take full advantage of it.

Sam Wilson, CEO of 8x8, discusses strategy execution and why WorkBoard is essential to his success.  He shares how they thread long range strategy to current quarter strategic priorities and OKRs, to the operational meetings and 1on1s that move people and decisions forward.  For Sam, WorkBoard is to strategy+execution what Salesforce is to sales, Workday is to HR, and NetSuite is to finance – the essential system and foundation for driving transformational strategy achievement.

Deidre Paknad, CEO of WorkBoard, shares how the company runs its business using its own platform. She outlines the full operating rhythm—from long-range strategy and quarterly OKRs to weekly scorecards, leadership ‘deep thinks’, and cross-functional reviews. Hear how AI helps the team move faster, stay aligned, and focus on what matters most.

Harry Blease from British telecom giant Virgin Media O2 started with the “why” of OKRs as the foundation for his implementation. He anchored on what leaders hoped to accomplish with OKRs – alignment, accountability, transparency – and then focused on making it very simple for teams to engage and reap the benefits. This powerful combination of purpose and simplicity led to fast wins including transparency on what teams are trying to achieve in the quarter and more honest conversations about challenges.

Are you in the UK? Join fellow WorkBoard users in London on May 15th for a networking meetup and happy hour!

Jaclyn Pedersen, Director of OKR Strategy and Alignment at GHX, lays out how she's improving alignment and execution in 2025, from strategy execution workshops with cross-functional VPs, to really intentional retrospectives focused on learning and actually making changes, to making accountability easier for everyone.  She shares her secrets to getting everyone to embrace her OKR practices and being of real value to the CEO.  Don't miss this episode - it's overflowing with ways to raise your impact this year!

Bharath Oruganti, EVP at Q2 Inc, has a real drive for leadership excellence.  Changing his management model and cadence, he's eliminated any confusion about the strategic priorities, simplified work for his team, and ensures he spots risks to those priorities in less than a week to maximize his outcomes. Hear his leadership epiphany and the high functioning operating rhythm that is propelling his organization's success.

Deidre shares her thoughts on OKRs to kick off 2025 and get dialed in on the victories and advantages we want to create at our companies this year.  They're powerful drivers of peak enterprise performance, but can be a double edged sword if you're over-zealous.  She hits all the “versus” topics – strategic change vs BAU, KRs vs KPIs, outcomes vs outputs – suggesting we replace “versus” with “and” to stay true to first principles and continuous improvement rather than grasping for rigid second principles or false perfection over real progress.

Guest Alexis Kearns, Chief People Officer at GHX, shares her approach to OKRs and performance management, the hard conversations, team OKRs and effective managers, and the CEO-CHRO partnership.  She starts with first principles to authentically elevate performance, with healthy respect for the worthy but difficult work of managing people and teams.