[How to Startup] Google’s Organizational System, OKRs #1

Objectives & Key Results — How it fascinated Silicon Valley

Reality Reflection works with the OKRs system for the effective management of the whole organization.

Here, we want to introduce the OKRs system to you as a tip to manage your startup. Even for small teams that certainly do not have enough resources for HR, effective organizational management is necessary to elevate the possibilities of the team. In particular, the OKRs System is a perfect way to manage a small team even without managers or HR resources.

In fact, OKRs is well known as Google’s management technique. Top leading startups including Uber, MongoDB, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Zynga applied OKRs as well. Regardless of the size, the OKRs System is certainly effective for the organizations. In some cases, an individual can implement OKRs for the self-management.

Let us figure out what OKRs is and how it is effective!

OKRs?

What OKRs is & How it works

OKRs is a short term for Objectives & Key Result. One should set one’s objective and key results to accomplish the objective in a year or a quarter.

Objectives: Inspirational qualitatives.

Objectives Grade: an average of the key result grades. Scale of 0–1.

Example: Raise the brand awareness of Reality Reflection globally through blog marketing.

Key Results: measurable and actionable quantitatives.

Key Results Grade: scale of 0–1.

Example:
KR1 — over ten thousand blog visitors a month
KR2 — over a thousand website visitors through Reality Reflection blog
KR3 — opening an international blog of Reality Reflection

Share OKRs of individual, team, and company levels every Quarter.

Everyone can check each other’s OKRs openly including the CEO’s.

Set challenging OKRs to accomplish them with a scale of 0.7 out of 1.0.

Google considers 0.7 as the sweet spot — where one can be pushed to go forward instead of sitting on a comfort zone. When you first set OKRs, the success/failure rate should be 50:50.

Set OKRs from down to top.

Team OKRs are set to speak for individual OKRs, and company OKRs are set to speak for team OKRs. Team OKRs and Company OKRs should be mutually agreed by everyone since they are not dictations.

“Everyone must mutually agree, no dictating.”

(Rick Klau of Google Ventures)

Why are Silicon Valley Startups fascinated by OKRs?

Aligned: individuals, teams, and company

OKRs support everyone in the company to stick together and unite. Goals are connected to each other, up to the Vision of the company. Individuals can grasp how the whole company works and how he/she contributed to the company’s goals. A sense of ownership is achieved and members cooperate with each others for the shared goal — OKRs of the company.

Enhanced Self Management: Critical decision Making & Direction Setting

OKRs support individuals to manage themselves. When it comes to under 0.4 grades of the OKRs, one can change the direction or change the way of accomplishing OKRs. One of the core benefits of OKRs is that one can prioritize the tasks asking oneself, “how important is the task for achieving the objectives?” More importantly, one can decide what he/she has to stop. OKRs also allow individuals to summarize their works at a glance. Without extra managers, unneeded communication is reduced.

Motivated Individuals and Teams

Self-managed objectives reflect both the goal of the company and one’s own growth. Individuals understand why and how they are working on tasks and become inspired to take the lead. Challenging objectives by each individual allow the whole team to accomplish objectives passionately. Everyone learns how to push themselves and accomplish their goals through OKRs.

Better Communication

Everyone inside of the company can cross reference one’s own OKRs to another employee’s OKRs to see if a task is compatible. During the quarterly sharing session, members share their OKRs and grades explaining why and how one set their OKRs and how one graded them. Sharing experiences and directions allow members to learn their lessons together. Of course, the sharing session is an opportunity to suggest a new idea or direction and work together.

Here’s a video from Google Ventures Startup Lab explaining OKRs. If you have any questions about OKRs, this video would be very helpful.

OK, We learned about OKRs

- an organizational managing system that Reality Reflection applies.

In the second article about OKRs, we will introduce you how Reality Reflection practically utilizes OKRs. If you are interested in specific use cases, check out our second article.

Give OKRs a try for self-managing communication, direction setting, and motivation. I hope this writing helps your startup!

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