How Your Company Can Succeed With OKR
OKR is a proven framework to achieve your goals realistically. Big names like Netflix, Adobe, and Google have laid their hands on OKRs to achieve and track the goals of their organization. However, it is not as simple as it seems – not all companies succeed with OKRs. This blog highlights the key strategies to help your organization along the transformative journey of OKR.
Focus
Set Your Own Goals
Kickstart your OKR journey by defining the direction of the company and promulgating strategy to all corners of your organization. Individuals, teams, and departments should then analyze the goals of the company, and set individual goals that align well with the bigger picture. One of the best ways to ensure the success of your OKR framework is by having a clear destination set for each team in the organization.
This way, each team has a clear focus set for the quarter, and they work together to achieve them, realizing that their contribution is essential to the organization.
Track Progress Toward OKRs
As necessary as it is to set goals, it is equally critical to track your progress towards them. This is also the reason that most organizations follow a quarterly OKR.
Three months is enough time to track the progress of an OKR, check if it was successful, identify the strengths and weaknesses, and aim to eliminate the mistakes made in the last quarter.
Regular (Weekly) OKR Check-Ins
Bi-weekly updates with the team and weekly one-on-ones between managers and direct reports are essential to ensure that the team is moving in the right direction. Doing so allows for time to steer your team back on to the path if progress is being made in the wrong direction.
Alignment
OKR Provides Clear Direction To Every Individual
Stating clear directions for every individual is essential. It ensures that all your employees are aware of the company goals and work together to achieve them.
Connect Employee Goals to The Organization’s OKRs
While setting up employee goals is essential, it is also necessary to establish a clear connection between how employee goals will relate to the company goals. When all teams have a clear idea of their individual OKRs for the quarter, it helps them get an idea of the bigger picture they are working toward achieving.
Two-Way Communication With OKR
Communication is always a two-way process, especially so with OKRs. While communicating the message from the top-level executives to the employees is important, it is essential to keep the channel open for bottom-up communication.
Doing so ensures that employees can put forward their queries, and that top-level executives are aware of the potential gaps in strategy well ahead of time.
Accountability
Shared Goals
Accountability is necessary, both on the part of top-level executives and individual teams. This helps top-level executives ensure that the goals are set and achieved as per the set schedule. It also ensures that teams are held accountable for achieving their own goals.
Dependency Across All Teams
All teams are interconnected. Although you might have individual goals set for respective teams or members, they should work in unison to achieve the organization’s strategic Objectives. Therefore, it is essential to make teams aware of the fact that they are interconnected and dependent on each other. This keeps them motivated, knowing that the output their team provides will significantly impact the output of other teams too.
Analyze Results & Move Forward
Both success and failure are a part of an OKR cycle. Even if you cannot meet the set targets in a particular quarter, you can still reflect on the quarter, learn critical lessons, and implement them in the OKR set for the next quarter.
Set Realistic OKRs
Pivot your objectives realistically. You set them too high – your teams lose the motivation to achieve them. You set them too low – you defeat the entire purpose of setting up an OKR.
Therefore, the key here is to strike the right balance and set objectives realistically that keep the teams inspired while also helping you achieve significant growth quarter after quarter.
Conclusion
Based on the feedback that People Stretch Solutions has received from various companies trying to implement OKRs, we have found that many companies lack focus, communication, and accountability.
By keeping track of your goals, encouraging two-way communication, and holding each team accountable for their individual goals, you can make your way towards successful OKRs.
If you need more help and insights into OKRs, download our executives guide to OKR below or contact us today.
