How to Implement OKRs Into Your Organization and How to Use Them

OKR is a highly effective tool that can help organizations and teams remain focused on their goals and general purpose efficiently.

Set goals for your company and coordinating your team members to achieve them is crucial in addition to it helps you manage yourself better. In this article, we’ll teach you the basics tips for:

• What exactly are the OKRs and why are they an effective tool?
• How can you integrate them in your business
• Tips for how to utilize them efficiently

What are OKRs?

If you’ve been contemplating about implementing OKRs to your team or organization and team, then you’re in the right spot. This tool is not just powerful, it aids in aligning your organization’s objectives and mission with the teams’ goals as well as bring transparency to its processes through specific actions. OKRs are a fantastic tool that will help your company expand and achieve precise goals for what direction you’d like to take your organization.

The principal goal of OKRs is the creation of discipline that produces dramatic results in efficiency and performance. The name is an indication of its primary goal Key Results and Objectives.

Utilizing OKRs in your team is not just a way to bring clarity the main objectives of your organization but also allows teams to work to achieve a common goal.

What is the reason it is a potent tool?

OKR is a methodological approach which helps to break down goals and as stated earlier it measures the actions. The tool can be used to clearly communicate your goals for each team. OKRs serve as visual representations of what the company’s current position is and in what direction they’d like to go in.

Things to consider in implementing this program to groups and organizations:

1. Always inquire about where the company is and where they plan to move to? (objectives)
2. How can you tell if you’ve arrived at your destination? (key results – actions that can be measured)

OKRs at Google

OKRs gained a lot of attention after Google adopted this strategy in their company – with success. As per the article the well-known company has between four and six goals every quarter. “Google encourages its employees to set targets as often as they can be. One of the advantages of the OKRs system is that everybody in Google is focused on the same goals.”

Why do you think Google attributing their success to OKRs? Based on these important aspects, Google has been successful in keeping their business focused on teams and their overall goal. Let’s look at the following:

• Clarity: Make sure that your company’s objectives and goals are clear. Sometimes, when goals or objectives aren’t met, it is due to a lack of transparency or poor control in your OCRs.
• Alignment: Each OKR should be a part of the overall business’s OKRs This is to ensure alignment between all and simplify the process.
• OKR Renewal: When the quarter is over it also ends its set of OKRs. New ones are being developed. “When goal management is continuous of an event, incredible results begin to occur.”
• Formulaic: The procedure to establish OKRs within a business isn’t easy initially but in the end, it will help any business remain on the right course and has also helped Google to achieve their goals.

How can you incorporate OKRs into your company?

Integrating OKRs into your team isn’t an easy job particularly if nobody is familiar with OKRs. To sum up there are a few tips to start the OKRs mission:

• Begin small: Set clearly defined goals for your team. Perhaps the most effective approach is to conduct the pilot and see whether it is successful or not. Be aware that not every department or team will require an OKR. Also, not every company’s OKRs must be identical!
• Begin by using OKRs on a weekly basis until you get the hang of them.
• Set 3 goals: Start implementing them in the beginning of the year. Establish goals and communicate them to your team to ensure that everyone is on board.
• Examine their progress: Visit every once in a while as they progress, and check if they require adjustments along the way.

Establish your goals right from the beginning

It is crucial to have goals set – no more than four, so that your team can succeed in achieving all of them and that efforts aren’t diminished by achieving other objectives. Make sure you are clear about your goals to help teams reach each of them. According to a report it is recommended not to set goals like “maintain our position on the market,” “continue doing this, or that.” Make them clear, so they can be achieved easily.

Determine your Key Results

Set out your key performance indicators starting from the beginning with your goals and establish measurable results for your key goals up to three per goal. For instance, increase the conversion percentage by 50 percent or increase the number of likes by 35 percent. If you include numbers, you’ll be capable of seeing at the end if this amount was reached, or not, making your main results quantifiable.

What are the things you should be aware of when setting your primary outcomes per goal?

• Do not use words like”consult, analyze or even evaluate. These are more like tasks/activities rather than actions that are quantifiable.
• Be sure that your key outcomes are in line with your goals
• The key results of all tests must provide the proof of the completeness

Do not Mix OKR review and Performance Review

The process of setting OKRs and measuring these is great for your organization and teams But, keep in your mind this: OKR performance is quite different from that of employees’ performance. Why? The Swipley’s Chief Executive Officer, Angus Davis, explains:”OKRs are not meant to be used as weapons towards your staff,” he says. “They serve as a means of encouraging and coordinating people to cooperate. They improve accountability, transparency responsibility as well as the ability to empower.”

It’s crucial to distinguish the two groups so that employees can be inspired and not judged based on OKRs ‘ performance, no matter if it’s positive or negative. Davis says: “Let’s say we bring OKRs to a performance review and then slap the person for scoring less than they expected and they are not awarded the bonus. This will only encourage the person to take a sandbag and slash their OKRs and move out. They will not extend. They won’t push too hard.” In other words they’ll stay safe. That’s why startups fail.”

OKRs are the team’s and the effort of the company be aware of that. The management of OKRs is essential to determine if they’re being fulfilled or if they require to be discussed more.

How to use them in conjunction with Holaspirit

1. You can modify your OKRs and look over

You are able to go over your OKRs by using Holaspirit during the Tactical Meeting during the Metrics rounds. It’s your choice and your team to decide if you want to go through this every week or as often as you’d like.

2. Change your OKRs, and then adjust them to the extent you’ll need to for each OKR card.

• Key results are added to the spreadsheet.
• Add members
• Add roles

3. Connect your OKRs easily so you won’t skip any, and you’re capable of keeping track!

4. How do you make an OKR

• Every member of an organization can join or remove OKRs for their group on Holaspirit.
• The members of a circle may be placed in an OKR.

Within the module OKRs select”Add” OKR button:

On the right-hand left

• Give a Title to the goal (which is both a highly ambitious and qualitative)
• Select the circle that is in charge of getting the OKR
• Choose a frequency of the OKR (Annual or quarterly, or annually …) depending on the OKR cycle that is in place within your organization.
• Include a description in the OKR to explain the process and provide important details
• Create Key results (quantitative and quantifiable) by clicking Add Key Results. Edit the line by simply clicking right on the lines.

Now that we’ve provided you with the facts about OKRs and the best way to use them are you prepared to use this powerful tool for your team?

Have a go!

Begin using OKRs and find that you are in alignment with your team as well as your organization – schedule a meeting!

Dirk Schmellenkamp helps you to implement successfully the OKR framework in your organization.