Enhancing Collaboration and Strategic Alignment through OKRs
OKRs (Objectives & Key Results) have become an essential tool for our teams at P7S1. It quickly became clear to us how important it is to connect the OKRs directly to the overarching strategy of our organisation. So we initiated a new process. In this article Christoph (VP Agile & Change Excellence, *PTS) highlights key steps in the journey and how the teams have overcome challenges along the way.
The key to motivation and success is the overall understanding of the strategy and that all employees know how they can contribute to it. Using the OKR framework integrated with a process to break down our strategy into tangible target picture states, we are on a good way to closing the gap between strategy and operational work. The team was starting small, continuously trying out and experimenting with different approaches of OKR implementations.
*PTS (ProSiebenSat.1 Tech Solutions) is the internal IT provider of the ProSiebenSat.1 Media SE.
“By connecting our strategy directly to OKRs, we have created a new level of transparency and orientation many employees have asked for. This significantly will improve our focus, the contribution of our teams to the strategy, and the alignment across teams, divisions, and all entities at ProSiebenSat.1.” Wolfgang, Managing Director PTS
The Early Stages: Building Transparency and Understanding
The journey with OKRs started in 2018 when the PTS introduced this framework. PTS (ProSiebenSat.1 Tech Solutions) is the internal IT provider of the ProSiebenSat.1 Media SE. The initial focus was to enhance transparency and alignment on goals and increase cross-departmental collaboration. Starting with the leadership, the OKR process was kept simple by using Excel files to record and track goals. The planning was done individually, and the team leads involved their employees in the implementation of their OKRs where necessary. The results were shared and challenged in a meeting with all team leads.
Foster Cross-Departmental Alignment Through Interactive Workshop-Formats
However, the original approach was not effective enough to achieve the desired alignment. As a consequence, an interactive, all-day planning workshop was initiated, led by a moderator. The team leads prepared their OKR drafts knowing that their final OKRs might look different due to insights from their exchange in the planning workshop. An inbox was introduced where teams could request support from others and spend dedicated time to identify and align on interdependencies. This led to valuable discussions, e.g., on whether the total number of objectives is feasible in a single quarter or whether issues need to be postponed. Departments that usually get many requests for support on very short notice, such as our IT Infrastructure, got an early overview of what to expect and the possibility of managing the expectations of others and what they really can deliver. The COVID-19 pandemic and the need to switch to remote workshops was a boost for this procedure as working with an online whiteboard and break-out groups in video meetings enhanced the possibilities of visualizing and organizing information and their dependencies.
The Shift Towards Full Transparency and Structured Planning
Although the team took a huge step forward with this next step, the company still faced some challenges. Full transparency for the employees was not achieved as there remained central documentation accessible only to certain individuals. Additionally, there were concerns that the OKR process was still somewhat top-down driven, with participation limited to specific silos, hindering cross-departmental collaboration. To overcome these challenges, an initiative was taken to involve all employees and several people were trained to become OKR practitioners. A process was put in place that starts with OKRs on the company level, breaks down the company OKRs to the departmental level and finally moves to the operational team level. The OKR documentation was moved to Confluence so that all OKRs are transparent to all employees and they can easily add their team OKRs.
Moving Towards a Pull Mode and Outcome-Oriented Planning
From the beginning, an attempt was made to involve colleagues to give their input, to challenge the issues and priorities set by the leadership and to propose initiatives that would take us forward together. This wish did not come true in the first place. Many expressed concerns about the clarity of the company’s overall strategy, even when it was agreed across departments and made transparent to all. The way P7S1 used OKRs was not enough to close the gap with our strategy. In order to make the strategy tangible for all employees, an approach suggested by ProgressMaker was chosen: Motivational target pictures were developed for different parts of the strategy, describing the desired state of the company and its products in four to five years. The focus was on outcome or even impact and not just on projects or initiatives. To structure the strategy, the target pictures were broken down into so-called “puzzle pieces”, which were not based on disciplinary structure but on logical, strategic components. The documentation of this structure was then centralised in the ProgressMaker tool and became the single source of truth for the company’s strategic planning.
Connecting OKRs Directly to the Strategy
These puzzle pieces became an anchor for the OKR sets: At each OKR cycle, representatives of the leadership now set priorities to determine the focus for the next three months. This empowers different teams, including product development teams, project teams, disciplinary teams, leadership teams, as well as temporary cross-functional teams, to pull an issue from the prioritised list and plan their OKRs accordingly. In this way, they link their work directly to the overall company strategy and make their contribution transparent to others. Due to the fact, that this structure follows a logical structure instead of the disciplinary structure, this approach fosters collaboration across teams, departments and even entities, making it easier to identify synergies and break down silos. This has another effect: it creates a quick overview of the overall progress of strategy implementation. If progress falters, leadership can quickly enter into an exchange with the OKR teams, e.g., to check whether and what kind of support is needed.
Increasing the OKR Knowledge and Strengthen the OKR Community
One of the key takeaways from this journey with OKRs is the development of a robust community within our organisation. This community has become the backbone of our OKR implementation by providing support, sharing knowledge and fostering a culture of collaboration. The implementation of OKRs has increased collaboration and knowledge sharing with other business units that also use OKRs, such as sales and marketing. The latest highlight of this collaborative effort was our P7S1 OKR Day with Felix Geelhaar from Synk as keynote speaker and an Open Space with many learnings and intensive exchanges. This cross-functional interaction not only enriches our understanding of OKRs but also paves the way for a more integrated and harmonised approach to goal setting and strategy implementation. And it supports learning from each other, especially how to deal with challenging situations.
“People across all levels became OKR enthusiasts, pulling us OKR Champs to support the process with advice, workshops, or training. It’s wonderful to see the continuously improved quality of our OKRs and the process behind it.” Heiko, Agile Coach and OKR Champ
Conclusion: it’s an Ongoing Journey
It took some time to roll out OKRs to our extensive workforce. Implementing OKRs was a significant undertaking for many employees, requiring careful planning, training and communication until everyone got used to the process and the way of working. Internal training plays a central role in our OKR journey, especially until a critical mass of staff is reached who are familiar with the framework. These training sessions empower the teams to understand and use the OKRs effectively. The journey does not end here but continues to evolve. With the help of retrospectives at all levels, we are trying to understand what went well and where the process and quality of our OKRs can be improved. There are also plans to extend the OKRs to other legal entities within the organisation to spread OKR knowledge even further. Additionally, there is a focus on continuing to train and develop additional OKR champions who will play a critical role in spreading OKR practices and driving alignment throughout the organisation.
