10 Tips How To Get Your OKRs flying
What I learnt from implementing Objectives and Key Results in Enterprises, SMEs and Start-ups
When I tell people I am an OKR Master, they often tell me things like “Yes, we have OKRs in our company as well, but it does not come to fly properly”.
If I deconstruct the situation with them, there are some common misconceptions and pitfalls when it comes to OKRs. I hope that these 10 tips help you to navigate around these pitfalls!
OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) are a popular goal-setting framework used by many successful companies. When implemented properly, they can help align teams, increase productivity, and drive growth. But how do you actually implement OKRs in your company and ensure their success?
Here are 10 tips on how to get your OKRs flying
1. Start Top Down
Get your management buy-in. I find it the most powerful, if management starts with setting up their own objectives and key results and starts with the first OKR-sprint.
Announce that in your company and be transparent about the goals your set and how well you did in achieving them. There is no shame in failing. Sharing fu**-ups is a sign for a great learning culture. Back in my karate-times my sensei used to say: “Sometimes you win, sometimes you learn”.
Starting with you management has two advantages: Firstly, leading by example is powerful, authentic and inspiring. Secondly, management has a chance to build empathy with what teams might struggle with, so they can offer the support the teams need.
2. Let each team decide on their own
Do not force teams to use OKRs. Let them go their own pace and do not force a tool on them. A lot of OKR-plannings I moderated were not even intended to be those. We just came together as a team to solve problems, used maybe some design thinking techniques and ended up by formulating our action-field as OKRs.
This was a really great start, because OKRs were a tool to solve problems the teams actually bothered and not some method as an end in itself.
OKRs have prevented the solutions that were painstakingly developed in the workshop from ending up on some confluence page and slowly rotting away there. They ensured that the team solved its own challenges in a self-effective manner. You can hardly experience more effectively why OKRs are a helpful tool.
3. Be pragmatic
Once your management started and the first teams joined, take it easy. Don’t force teams to align with the vision and other objectives at all costs. They will ask for that once it will be relevant for them. The most important thing is, that OKRs are a tool that helps to solve actual problems.
There are smart grown ups working in your organization. Trust them to do the right thing. And give them the freedom to set up OKRs in way that help them. Sometimes, that’s different from the book — but hey, inspect and adapt right?
4. Make really sure the key results are measurable
As far as I am easy and give space for adaption, there is one thing I really annoy my OKR teams with (Sorry folks!)
Key results have to be expressible in numbers. And they have to be sharp.
This is where I really put my finger on it. Do not go with things like “XYZ solved”. Ask “How many?”, “What will the result look like?” “How can you express this on a scale from 0–100 %?”.
Of course, it is all right if there is an OKR, that you can measure binary (achieved or not achieved), but it should not be the standard. Really make sure, that two weeks later you still know how the key results look like, when they are achieved.
5. Encourage to start an objective with “The customer…”
This is a simple one. Do not start your objective with “We…”. Start with “The customer…” or “The stakeholder” or “As a stakeholder”. This helps you to focus on outcome and customer centricity. In the vast majority of cases this is possible for these internal process optimization cases as well.
For example: If you improve the communication between your salesreps and your project managers, what will be the value for your stakeholders? If you do not find anything, this is probably not a good objective.
6. Differentiate between accountable and responsible
The person who will be the owner of a key result or objective, is not necessary the one who does all the work.
For instance, they do not necessarily lead all the 15 customer interviews (responsible). They just make sure this happens, keep track of it and enable people to get things done. But in the end, it’s their job to make sure the objective (or key result) is achieved (accountable).
7. Less is more
Teams often tend to set a lot of goals in their first OKR-sprint. 3 month feel very long in a planning, but very short when the review is getting close. So, keep that in mind in your planning.
I’d rather have one objective too few than too many. It can quickly become frustrating to jump back and forth between too many things. If you have some time to spare, great! Who doesn’t want to experience that?
8. Live the weekly
This is an important one. Often things get stuck on a confluence page and after three month they are dug up again — without any progress. The (bi-)weekly is your super power here. It gives you the chance to remember your goals and double-check if any impediments or learnings popped up. The weekly is as well a chance to align with your colleagues. Make sure it happens, even if it is just five minutes once in a while.
9. Don’t prioritize non-OKR stuff
I would say a common pitfall is to set up OKRs and then after some time figure out “Oh, I was not able to work on that, because I am very busy with other things”. This has mostly two reasons: Either, you are busy with things that do not help you to reach your goals (bad!) or you set up goals, that are not actually your goals at the moment (bad as well!)
Make sure that the Objectives you focus on are really the priority things. Kill your darlings. Decide what you won’t do and stick to that.
10. DON’T get stuck with the vision
Many OKR-Experts will probably disagree with me here. But I think it is more important to get startet with OKRs to solve problems at hand. Linking it to your vision can be the second step. Working on a great vision can be challenging and take a lot of time. If you wait for that, you might loose momentum and not get startet with your OKRs at all. I think, it is better to get started imperfect, but get started. There is a lot of time to improve and figure things out.
I hope these tips from my experience help you to get your OKRs flying! If you have any questions, feel free to connect on LinkedIn.
P.S.: Thanks for reading and the time you spent with my story! Please consider following me, if you like my content. Writing takes some time and with your follow you support my work, so I can continue to write more valuable things. I appreciate it! You are awesome!
PP.S.: If you find this valuable please share with others. If you didn’t please tell me!
Implementing OKRs in your company can be a game-changer. By following these tips, you can set effective OKRs that align with your company’s vision and drive success.
