No matter their size or niche, all organisations need to have a clear strategy for uniting their teams to reach a common goal. Your team members need to understand what you require of them, and they must feel empowered to make their own decisions to achieve what you want. The OKR framework gives you all of this and more!
This article is part two of a pair of articles about the OKR framework and how you can leverage it for long-term business success. Make sure to check out part one and all the essential information included there.
In the previous post, you read about the basics of building effective OKRs for individuals, teams, and your overall company. Read on for the best practices and what to avoid when implementing OKR for your organisation.
4 Tips to Successfully Implement OKR
1. Establish a Routine
The best way to implement OKR within your company is to integrate it into your routine. All individuals and teams should be as proactive as possible when completing tasks, and your OKRs should be central to weekly meetings and individual check-ins. Change can be challenging to implement, but everyone will get used to it soon enough if you make something a habit.
2. Promote Effective Leadership
As you implement OKRs, you should assign leaders and point persons to take responsibility for the project from beginning to end. They will work to keep all individuals in line with the goals you want to achieve and be responsible for checking in with everyone’s progress. For everyone to unite in meeting your objectives, you need specific people to take the lead!
3. Focus on Individuals
Everyone wants to be part of the team. One of the primary motivators of every employee is to feel like they contribute to the overall success of their company. This is why you should ensure that the OKRs you set at the individual level align with the objectives at the team and company level.
4. Conduct Quarterly Check-Ins
Individual objectives and short-term team projects are essential—and they should all coalesce into long-term, overall success for the company. Quarterly planning will help you keep an eye on the larger, long-term goals you want to reach.
4 Things to Avoid When Planning Your OKRs
OKR is a simple process in itself, but integrating it into your business processes will take some adjustment. Here are four things to avoid as you transition into the OKR method:
1. Creating Nebulous OKRs
One of the most critical aspects of the OKR method is to set SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time-bound) goals. Your key results should be measured quantitatively so you can keep track of your team members’ progress. If you can’t measure your results, there’s nowhere for you to go!
2. Creating Too Many OKRs
When it comes to the OKR method, it’s not about quantity—it’s about quality!
Your OKRs are not your day-to-day to-do lists. The most effective OKRs consist of one clear objective and 3 to 4 measurable key results. As a business owner or organisation leader, you surely have many goals you want to meet. It’s all about prioritisation.
3. Not Providing Enough Resources
When you assign OKRs to your team, you have to provide them with all the resources they need to meet your goals. Effective goal-setting and accountability are necessary, but your employees can’t make something out of nothing!
4. Limiting OKRs to Upper Management
Your department heads and team leaders are responsible for cascading goals created by upper management—but your team members should define their OKRs too. Individuals responsible for their own OKR will be more motivated to be successful.
Conclusion
The Objectives and Key Results (OKR) framework is an effective method to set team goals and encourage all team members to meet them. Many companies have employed this method to great success, and it’s worth a try if your organisation isn’t already using it. All you have to do at the beginning of your project or your business quarter is to set clear, measurable objectives and the key results to reach them.
This is part two of two in our blog series discussing the OKR framework and how you can leverage it for your organisation’s success. Make sure to check our blog for OKR basics included in part one.
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