OKR (objectives and key results)
“Objectives and Key Results” is an effective goal-setting and leadership tool for communicating what you want to accomplish and what milestones you need to achieve. “objective and key results” are used by some of the world’s leading organizations to set and implement their strategies. According to the studies, it has been proven that employees’ commitment to a goal increases the efficiency of employees’ performance. Once the organization knows what it is focusing on and how it will measure success, it is easier for people to link projects to organizational goals.
Discipline and prioritization, saying no to a good idea or a worthwhile project or a needed improvement can be difficult for any team in a company. When everyone agrees on what the most important goals are, it’s easier to say no to less important ideas.
These goals should be challenging and ambitious. If we want to define “objective and key results” with a few indicators, we should mention their measurability, which are usually rated between 0–100. “objective and key results” do not mean employee evaluations, nor do they mean a list of things to be done…
Normally, the rate of operationalization of “objective and key results” is between 60–70 percent. And if a project consistently gets a score of 100 on the “objective and key results” you should know that the “objective and key results” set are not ambitious enough.
History of OKR (Objectives and Key Result)
The former CEO of Intel “Andy Grove” has stated in a book called Productivity Management that in determining “objective and key results” two questions should be answered:
What is the goal?
How to proceed towards the goal?
One of Google’s early years investors tells a story from his time at Intel, saying that when Andy Grove joined Intel, the company was on the way to change from a memory company to a microprocessor company. At this point, “objective and key results” came to help Grove and his employees to focus on priorities and move towards common goals…
Tips on Setting Ambitious Goals in OKRs or “Objectives and Key Results”
Setting ambitious goals is sometimes difficult because it means setting the team up for failure, but these goals attract the strongest workforce and make the workplace seem so amazing. And even failing to achieve goals makes great progress.
In setting ambitious goals, the important thing is to clearly define the meaning of success in them. For example, the Google organization considers achieving 70% of the “objective and key results” that it has specified as success, and considers more than that to be extraordinary results.
- Avoid phrases that do not specify a deadline. For example: “Maintain market position” or “Continue recruiting” Instead, describe the impact of these activities, for example, “Publish customer service satisfaction scores by March 7” instead of “Customer service satisfaction assessment” ».
- Use statements that quantitatively define the goal endpoints. For example: “gain 5 customers”
- Use concrete, objective and unambiguous terms. It should be clear to the observer whether a goal has been achieved or not.
- Determine about three key outcomes for each goal.
- Key results should describe results, not activities. If key results include words such as “consultation”, “assistance”, “analysis”, “participation”, they only describe activities. Instead, describe the impact of these activities, for example, “Publish customer service satisfaction scores by the end of Tower 6.”
Common Mistakes in “OKR”
Weak “Objectives and Key Results” can obscure strategy, undermine internal metrics, and cause teams to focus on maintaining the status quo.
- Incorrectly ambitious Objects in “objectives and Key Results” — Setting ambitious goals requires careful communication between teams. If your project depends on another team’s goals, make sure you understand their goal-setting philosophy.
- Poor “objectives and Key Results” — The mistake most teams make is to set “objectives and Key Results” based on what they can do, not what customers need or company goals. To avoid this mistake, you should prioritize projects based on their value relative to the effort required to achieve the result. And thus allocate your time only to high priority projects.
- Objects that don’t change every quarter — for example, make sure customer satisfaction is above 60%. There’s nothing wrong with this goal always being a high priority, but you need to evolve its key outcomes so that the team is always eager to improve.
- Inadequate Key Results for Objectives — If the key results for a given objective do not represent all that is required to achieve that objective, it may delay the discovery of the required resources and also the discovery that the objective will not be completed on schedule.
What are the components of “objective and key results”?
“Objectives and Key Results” are usually written with an objective and 3–5 key results below it. They can also be written as a statement:
I will measure (objects) against (key results).
example:
For example, “I’ll fix the website for the 7 out of 10 people who can’t log in.”
objects
Defining the goal is very simple, what we want to achieve. By definition, goals are important, tangible, flexible, and (ideally) inspiring. When properly designed and implemented, they are a vaccine against ineffective implementation.
Key results
Key results are the measure of our achievement of the goal. Effective key outcomes are specific and time-bound, yet realistic. Most importantly, they are measurable. At the end of the designated period, conduct regular reviews to see if key outcomes have been met.
Types of “objective and key results”
“Objectives and key results” have three types. Committed, ambitious and informative.
Committed Objectives and key results: When the Objectives and key results are scored at the end of a term, the Committed Objectives and key results are expected to have received an acceptable score.
Aspirational “Objectives and key results”: in fact, they are the same ambitious “Objectives and key results” that we explained earlier. These “Key Results” may outlive a natural “Objectives and key results” cycle and be achieved later.
“Objectives and key results” are instructive when the most important goal during the realization of “objectives and key results” is to learn new issues. These “objective and key results” help teams when they are not sure how to adjust their work process, so they set a “objective and key results” for a 90-day period, for example, the most important thing we want to achieve in the next 90 days. What do we get? And after obtaining the answer, they can set ambitious or committed “objective and key results”.
Benefits of “OKR”
Focus: “objective and key results” allow a team to proceed based on a small set of carefully selected priorities.
Commitment: “Objectives and Key Results” provide a level of collective commitment from those involved in the project to adhere to the agreed priorities.
Tracking: “objective and key results” allow a team or organization to track their progress toward a goal and know early when to change policies.
Tools available to determine “objective and key results”
Some “objective and key results” tools are free, such as Google Sheets and Google Docs, or even a simple sheet of paper. But if you need more advanced tools, here are some of them:
Profit, Planview, Craft, Wrike, Lipsum, Aha, Asana.
All of these tools have the ability to manage goals, monitor key performance indicators, manage negative feedback, process monitoring, and strategic planning. The only tool that does not have negative feedback management is PlanView.
Asana, Aha, Rike and Profit tools can be used in all three areas of computer, mobile phone and cloud, while Planview tool is only available in the cloud and mobile and Craft tools are available only in the cloud and computer, as well as the cloud is only way to access Lipsam.
How to evaluate “objective and key results”
Yes or No: Andy Grove has taken the simplest approach to evaluating “objective and key results”. For example, did you meet Person X? Yes or no
Colors: Most organizations prefer to go into more detail, so they consider a color grading system for their evaluation. For example, they use green to mean success, yellow to mean progress, and red to mean failure
Percentage ranking: Google uses this method to evaluate its “objective and key results”. This method involves the most detail, this method considers the average scores of the key results to determine the overall score for that objective.
