The key to staying on track and having fun is... OKRs

If all you knew about my leadership style came from my blogs, you might think digital culture is about?handwriting Valentine’s Day cards , being?reverse-mentored by new hires ,?re-hiring veteran employees ?daily, and?poaching gaming developers ?from Xbox.?

However, the key to our fun, dynamic, learning culture?is… a?team governance process. With?a solid Rhythm of the Business,?and?agreed-upon?Objectives and desired Key Results, we create a structure that removes unhelpful ambiguity, and leaves us more time and energy to spend on collaborating towards our highest-priority outcomes and ensuring?employee wellbeing.?It's also an empowerment breakthrough, because OKRs guarantee alignment on prioritization...thereby empowering each team member to truly own and lead their area.

Every year,?every team in?our?group?develops its Objectives and Key Results (OKRs)?aligned to our mission. The Objectives describe what we’d like to get done this year, and help teams resource and?prioritize?their efforts.?Each Objective is?aspirational, and describes?the desired state, even if?it may?not be fully attained within the?year. I?prefer that a team?not?fully?attain?a truly aspirational Objective versus?fully attain?something that was?designed?to be easily within reach.?In fact,?team members and managers can succeed (from an impact and career standpoint) even if they do not meet a tough, aspirational Objective.?OKRs?are both transparently communicated as well as shared with other teams?at Microsoft.?In our group, each?team has about 3-5 Objectives that typically don’t change during the year, and each Objective is supported by 3-5 measurable actions (Key Results, or KRs) that are "quarter-sized" and therefore updated every quarter.?I find that writing KRs per quarter that are docked to year-long Objectives is a perfect balance of long-term goals and high-pace execution.

With Objectives,?supported by smaller?Key Results,?our?group?succeeds by taking manageable small steps.?It’s like we?collaboratively build a new garden wall out of small stones rather than hire structural engineers and concrete trucks to complete a wall by the end of the year.?OKRs?are?agile, because we?prove?our hypothesis along the way, and make?course corrections?to?meet?the objective?in the most efficient manner.?The detailed design and?build of the concrete wall?is a metaphor for the?monolithic?one-year plan, where we’re expected to wait to?see the?completed?result?at?the end.?While?that approach?might work for some situations, I’ve seen?the wall-construction?approach?fall apart along the course of the year?(wrong solution,)?and I’ve?also?seen?beautiful walls?created?in?the wrong place?(right solution to the wrong problem).?

Warning!?Developing?Objectives and Key Results for each fiscal year?is intense.?The first time I did it, I could feel my brain hurting, because I realized that it was a much sharper filter to truly write a goal that described a measurable outcome within a specific time period. It really took several days, and many rounds of rewriting that first time. We?question each other on scope – Too big? Too small??And, wordsmithing is key, since imprecise language?creates problems down the road.?The process takes time, especially when you're just getting started, or have an entirely new charter or team.?However,?once these OKRs are written, I can feel the entire group?breathe a?collective?sigh?of?relief - because the effort majorly pays off. We have a shared sense of purpose, shared prioritization approach, extreme clarity, and content that we then use to communicate status, issues/hot topics, fill in career check-ins, etc.

So – after trying many governance and goal-setting systems, I've found that OKRs are the best combination of vision, execution pace, and clarity that make our team’s collaboration, learning, and fun possible.?I’d love to hear from you what works to keep your groups and teams aligned on goals and priorities.?Look out?for?my next article on how we operationalize OKR management into predictable growth mindset-oriented team reviews and communications – the Rhythm of the Business.?

I just?returned?from?a restful?and energizing?vacation,?and?I’m?looking forward to our next?team alignment meeting, where my fantastic team will share what they’ve accomplished against the OKRs, what they’ve learned, and recommendations they have going forward. ??