Why you need OKRs for your business?
Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) are a great way for organizations to communicate their strategy, goals, and objectives.
The use of OKRs has been proven to increase employee engagement in the workplace. Employees feel that they have a voice in their business’s direction based on the collaborative process of setting up goals and objectives together.
Key Benefits of OKRs
- Alignment across the organization.
- Focus on what matters.
- Clarity for Employees.
- Transparency.
In this post, we’ll explore what is an OKR, how they work, and how to roll out OKRs in your company.
What are Objectives and Key Results?
Objectives and key results are a form of goal setting for teams and businesses that want to set ambitious goals and meticulously track them with metrics. From nonprofits to software startups, teams everywhere are turning to OKR’s to help them meet their goals and grow their organization.
For many teams, the OKR meaning might seem too simplistic. But the simplicity of this system is what gives it the flexibility to adapt to many different types of teams and organizations. To create your own goal using OKRs, fill in this sentence:
I will accomplish (objective) by (date) through attaining and achieving the following metrics (key results).
The objective can be any goal you want to reach such as increase your lead generation by 5% or improve employee morale by fiscal year-end. And the key results are the vital metrics you need to track to ensure that you do reach your goals by the date specified.
Preparing for objectives and key results in your organization
It is the responsibility of every department to know and understand their objectives and key results.
This is important because it will give a clear goal to achieve. It will also help in monitoring the progress of the organization, and it will also help in measuring the success of each department.
Knowing about objectives and key results also helps in preparing for future plans. This includes knowing what needs to be done immediately, what can be done at a later time, which are problems that need immediate attention, etc.
A typical preparation process for an organization would look like this:
Educate employees on OKRs, benefits and share success stories of OKRs in various companies.
Brainstorm your goals.
It starts with Leadership. Leadership is the people who are responsible for setting the vision of the company and provide directional clarity in terms of what needs to be done. One of the first tasks for Leadership is to discuss and agree on goals. This is an opportunity to capture the big items that the team wants to accomplish over a period of time. Allow for constructive feedback on each of the goals identified so that the team arrives at an agreement on the most important goals to achieve. This also ensures that there are no conflicts between the goals they have set.
Publish draft OKRs and collect bottom up feedback.
One way to get your company talking is to publish a draft of objectives and ask for feedback. This lets everyone know what the company is trying to accomplish, and helps with more focused discussions. This step allows for collecting bottom-up feedback and the entire company gets an opportunity to pitch in.
Solidify your Key Results.
Once consensus is obtained on the Objectives (and the WIP Key Results), take another pass in solidifying the key result metrics. This gives an opportunity to double-check on how the Objectives can be measured.
How to Create SMART Objectives and Key Results?
SMART objectives and key results are a powerful way to ensure we are being productive and successful. They focus on the end goal and allow us to prioritize what needs to be done to achieve that goal.
Objectives should be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely.
Key results are the measurable steps taken towards achieving an objective. They demonstrate concrete progress towards a goal.
Check out this OKRs examples guide to find examples by each department.
Tips for Implementing Effective OKRs in Your Organization
Here are some tips on how to implement effective OKRs in their organization.
Keep them short and specific
First, you need to make sure you have clearly defined objectives. Objectives should be specific enough so that they can be measured and tracked over time, but not too specific so it doesn’t provide room for creativity or flexibility.
Assign a team lead to oversee the process
Team leads are in charge of managing a group of people. They provide direction, guidance, and accountability to their team members.
This person should be able to delegate tasks to the appropriate people while keeping track of deadlines and progress. As the team lead, they also have the responsibility to weigh in on any decisions that affect the team.
Involve the whole team from the beginning
The most successful projects are the ones that involve the whole team from the beginning. From creatives to developers, project managers to stakeholders, it’s important for everyone to be on board from the start.
Make sure your company has a clear understanding of which KPIs they want to be able to measure the success of your team
Why You Should be Using Objectives and Key Results
Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) are an important process that helps a company strategize. There are many benefits to using OKRs and they can be implemented in various ways depending on the company.
Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) have been around for decades, but not many companies use them. An OKR is something that a company sets to help strategize for the future. It consists of two parts: the objective, which is what your company wants to accomplish, and the key result, which is what your company has to do in order to make this objective happen. This process helps companies with their long-term goals because it shows them what they need to do in order to accomplish their objectives.
Irrespective of the type of goals you are trying to accomplish – personal, professional, or organizational, working on them within the perspective of Objectives and Key Results is going to make the process more practical and achievable because OKRs let you focus on what matters the most and pave the path for goal execution. In addition to this, organizational OKRs bring alignment between teams and the organization, laying the foundation for High-performance culture.
To learn more about how OKRs methodology can benefit your organization and how you can transition your team to OKR methodology seamlessly, schedule a call today.
