For all businesses to succeed in an increasingly complex and competitive world, it is essential that they adjust their operations in order to increase productivity, employee satisfaction, and overall efficiency. This sounds great and is probably something you have heard already, but what does it mean in practice? The answer lies in developing frameworks that empower your employees to work at peak effectiveness while enabling the overall team to meet the goals and targets required for a successful organization. One such framework is using OKRs to help your staff reach their potential through the use of reasonable but measurable goals. This article will explore what OKRs are, why they are so vital for success, and how you can set them up and follow through on them.
Knowing What OKRs Are
If you want to use this robust framework, you need to gain a deeper understanding of what they are. OKRs (or Objectives and Key results) are arguably one of the most important steps when it comes to setting up a practical plan for achieving success for your business. OKRs are a powerful accountability system that encourages focus, collaboration, and transparency by helping people define goals and hold each other accountable for progress. Moreover, according to Workhuman, they enable all members of a team to work toward a common direction minus the excess that often gets tangled up when there is no clear path. At a high level, OKRs consist of two parts:
- Objectives: What you want to accomplish.
- Key results: The measurements you will use to know if you’ve met your goals.
A strong OKR should measure both quantitative outcomes as well as qualitative insights, such as customer satisfaction (if that’s what you’re trying to achieve). The key to successful OKRs is to be clear and concise with your goals. Aim too low or too high, and you won’t challenge yourself or your team enough; miss the mark on what’s truly important, and you’ll quickly become distracted by meaningless efforts. Therefore, take the time upfront to ensure your objectives and key results align with your broader mission. By doing so, everyone in the organization will understand what they need to do to achieve the company’s expected results.
How Can You Set Up Effective OKRs For Your Business?
Having gained a bit more of an understanding of what they are, you will still need to figure out how to implement them into your existing workflows. Luckily, this tends to sound far more challenging than it really is. The main feature that makes an OKR framework so effective is its simplicity in both setup and application. Nonetheless, you need to follow a few straightforward steps in order to make the most of them.
Set Specific And Measurable Objectives
The key to developing sensible OKRs is to ensure they are specific and measurable. In other words, they need to be SMART:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Achievable
- Realistic
- Time-bound
When setting up your OKR, make sure that you are being specific about what it is that you are working towards achieving. It can be tempting to use a wishy-washy goal like “increase customer satisfaction.” Still, without context and detail, such as considering what “increased” means, you can never direct your team in the right direction. Each objective should have a measurable goal attached to it so that progress can be tracked and monitored as successes or weaknesses become visible. This will allow you to adjust and modify your strategy as needed to reach your desired outcome in a timely manner. Additionally, try to make sure all of your objectives are achievable, relevant to your business’ values or goals, and appropriately timed – having ambitious but achievable goals will help ensure everyone remains motivated while still accomplishing something every day.
Ensure That Objectives Are Achievable And Realistic
There is nothing more demotivating for your employees than giving them completely unattainable goals. Setting unrealistic goals can lead to:
- Frustration
- Demotivation
- Confusion
- Workplace toxicity
Evaluate each objective to determine whether or not it is feasible within the given timeframe. Also, figure out how you will measure success by deciding on specific key results that must be met for each objective. This will enable you to quickly alter the course if you discover your goals are unachievable, thus allowing you to keep your team on board as you adjust. It is equally important for each objective to have a real purpose. Every goal should have a meaningful outcome for your business. Ask yourself, “What specific value will this bring?” And then decide if the effort required justifies the expected result. It is also helpful to consider every OKR in terms of cost/ time/ benefit before finalizing it as a part of your business strategy. This way, you can avoid wasting resources and frustrating staff by pursuing objectives that won’t do anything to move the needle (or worse, turn it the wrong way).
Identify Key Results That Will Help You Achieve Your Objectives
Key results are specific, measurable goals that, when accomplished, suggest successful progress toward a final outcome. By planning and defining the key results carefully, you can easily track your progress with tangible data. By breaking down objectives into measurable achievements (key results), you will get a better view of how your OKR program is faring and whether or not it’s actually helping your business achieve its long-term goals. Additionally, tracking and reporting on individual key results makes it easier to identify areas where your team needs help to quickly take corrective action.
Ensure That Your Key Results Are Quantifiable And Measurable
Once you have identified an objective(s) that will help your business achieve its goals, it’s time to work out how you’re going to measure success. This is where key results come in. Key results are specific, measurable numerical outcomes that will tell you if your goal has been achieved or not. For each objective, set two to five key results that are achievable and less prone to external factors. For example, if you want to increase sales, a key result could be:
Generate $100,000 in new sales in three months.
Alternatively, if you’re trying to build better customer relationships, it could be:
Gain 30 client referrals from current customers over six months.
Once you have identified the key results and written them down, it’ll be easier for everyone to stay focused on the objectives and track their success against the outcomes that were discussed upfront. It’s also important to remember that these can change as your objectives evolve, so make sure they’re regularly reviewed and updated!
Assign Each Objective And Key Result To A Specific Team Or Individual
The art of good management is delegation, and this is no different when it comes to new frameworks like OKRs. Consequently, assigning each objective and key result to a specific team or individual is essential. This way, everybody remains accountable for their part in helping the company reach its goals. Furthermore, assigning OKRs to individuals is also beneficial for keeping everyone focused on what’s expected of them. Moreover, when people connect their own name with their task, they are much more likely to stay motivated and put in the effort than if it were merely a generic goal without any meaning for the person or team carrying out the task. Plus, it allows you to measure progress more accurately by tracking which team or individual hit their allocated goals on time and as expected.
Establish A Timeline For Achieving Your Goals
By establishing a timeline, you can create realistic expectations and set yourself up with an endpoint everyone understands and relates to. This will help keep you organized and on track with your OKRs while avoiding procrastination or working outside what has been planned. Furthermore, having a timeline in place makes it much more manageable to measure your progress and adjust if needed. When creating this timeline, think about what is realistic based on the resources available at the time and the desired outcomes. You don’t have to have each step mapped out to the minute, but try to break large projects down into smaller, more manageable chunks. Also, consider setting additional milestones along the way or checkpoints at which results can be measured so that any changes can be made if necessary. Furthermore, deadlines provide a tangible end to a task and let employees know if they are working in the right direction or if their efforts have been in vain.
Regularly Monitor Progress And Adjust Your Plan As Necessary
Nothing remains static, and when you observe the sands begin to shift, you should consider how you might change tack to bypass the issue. It’s vital to track your success and analyze the data to determine why particular objectives were or weren’t met. The more information you collect throughout the process, the better, well-informed decisions you can make in terms of optimizing your strategy. Regularly setting aside time for review will allow you to assess where you focus on and what needs adjusting. You can ask yourself:
- Are there any objectives that need particularly close attention?
- Do key results require redirection or a different approach entirely?
Engaging in difficult conversations around changes early on will help develop an atmosphere of accountability and ensure smooth sailing as you continue with regular review meetings moving forward. At the end of each cycle, transparency also plays a significant role in assessing performance updates from executives and employees alike, allowing teams to learn from successes in order to pivot quickly during difficult times. By staying on top of reviewing goals with each team member, ideas that would otherwise go unnoticed can be incorporated into future objectives, resulting in higher levels of engagement and productivity amongst staff members across all departments.
Make Sure You Communicate Clearly With Your Team
It’s crucial to emphasize the importance of clear communication when setting up a practical OKR framework for your business. Make sure that everyone is aware of the objectives and goals and the means you’ll use for measuring them. Each member should know what metric to focus on and which steps are necessary to succeed. By communicating with your team, you will also ensure that everyone knows how their individual efforts tie in with overall company goals. Knowing that their actions contribute to something bigger helps employees feel like they are part of something larger and enhances engagement and motivation. You can also use regular check-ins about progress toward goals with both individuals and teams, so there is always a shared understanding of how each person’s work fits into the greater scheme of things. This will help maintain momentum and alert you to potential problems early on before they become too difficult or costly to address.
Celebrate Your Successes And Learn From Your Failures To Continuously Improve Your OKR Plan
Celebrating successes and learning from failures should be a vital component of any effective plan, regardless of whether it is related to an OKR or not. Additionally, it’s essential to celebrate wins and successes in order to boost morale and build relationships with stakeholders and recognize their hard work. Acknowledging progress, no matter how small, encourages people to continue striving toward objectives while also keeping the momentum going. However, you also need to be aware of and accept failures. Failing is part of any growth process…it even brings opportunities for innovation and change. Failing is part of any successful business journey, indicating whether an adjustment needs to be made or if the strategy works best when repeated next quarter. Looking objectively at what went wrong helps you develop new strategies for improvement and understand any potential risks which weren’t spotted early on. It can also help identify weaknesses before they become costly mistakes. By continuously evolving your OKR plan based on successes and failures, you’ll ensure the maximum benefit from it over time.
Businesses sans a plan will never achieve success. This isn’t conjecture but reality. However, creating a sound plan that sets goals and targets is not as difficult as it seems. Objectives and key results guide businesses worldwide to figure out what they need to do to get results and build a system that helps their team achieve said results in incremental, measurable steps.
