OKR: converting your vision into reality

We can often see how every New Year Eve we have a new list of wishes that don't get accomplished in the end. We sign for a new gym membership, we start a diet, we update our CV… but we struggle to finalise, to reach that initial vision that we thought about after that midnight.

What if I told you that there is a methodology that many companies use to align and achieve their objectives that could also be useful in our personal life?

Perhaps it's not the first time you heard about OKR (Objectives & Key Results) and this is not the first article you have found on Google about it. A lot of articles have been written about this topic in the last few years, and precisely that's the reason why I have tried a different approach with this post.

OKR characteristics

OKR is a tool that enable us to:

●     Define a series of strategic Objectives at high level,

●     and the Key Results that guarantee the achievement of those objectives.

OKR can also be very useful when applied to our personal life. In fact, I apply them every year to ensure that I am making decisions in order to live my life the way I want. For example, when I started University, I remember that I wanted to live the experience of studying abroad at some point and learn a new language. That wouldn’t happen magically or just by chance if I didn’t do anything about it. Let’s see how I applied OKR in this case.

Why did I choose Erasmus exchange?

One way or another I felt inside myself that living abroad would change my life forever, that I needed to live in another country far away from my family and friends to discover myself and understand what my true potential was.

1. Vision

Vision is long term. What is your aspirational goal?

In my case I saw myself in my vision as a successful profession who felt free, independent and self-assured about himself and his capabilities.

Mathew McConaughey's career is a good example about how to achieve your vision step by step.

2. Mission

What is my responsibility or mission in order to accomplish that vision?

My mission was to get trained to improve and gain new skills.

3. Objectives and Key Results (OKR)

The strategic objectives are qualitative at high level, aspirational and non-numeric (maximum three objectives). That’s why they are broken down into other ones more realistic, specific and quantitative which are called Key Results (numeric and maximum three per objective).

What are the key results that I will deliver to achieve my mission? Here we cannot forget “when”, so we need to set a due date. Whilst the vision is long term (yearly), the objectives are usually short term (quarterly).

4. Strategy

How can I deliver the Key Results?

I understood that using Erasmus exchange was the best strategy to achieve my objectives effectively. On top of that, I had to choose a country where the mother tongue wasn’t English, so I could learn a different language.

5.   Tactics

What initiatives or actions I need to deliver to accomplish the key results?

Following my strategy, my next step was to earn my place as an Erasmus student. In order to secure that I carried out the following actions:

1. I did my best to pass my exams with the best grade possible so I could have a better global grade and therefore more choice in terms of Universities to choose.
2. I analysed what were the Universities with lower demand of students, as it should be easier to get my place if there is less competition.
3. I analysed what were the Universities where the main language wasn’t English.

After getting these actions done, I applied for a place in several Universities in Italy because: my grade should be enough according to the historical data I had checked from previous years; the main language was Italian; there was a low demand from students (most demand was focused on France, Poland, and the UK).

In the end, I earned a place at a University in Italy and I lived my Erasmus experience abroad for one year, which let me accomplish the key results described above. The rest is now history.

I recommend listening to Mathew McConaughey's speech when he won the Oscar to best actor.

How to get my family healthy and fit

Below we can see how this pyramid can be used to achieve a goal from our day-to-day life.

Conclusion

The start of the new year 2021 has finally arrived, a new year that we all hope will be better than 2020.

I hope the reader of this article feels now encouraged enough to use OKR in their personal life and/or their organisation when thinking about the goals for this new year.