Here, I’ll cover four OKR “superpowers”: focus, align, track, and stretch.
Superpower #1 - Focus and Commit to Priorities
It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities - J.K.Rowling
- Successful organizations focus on the handful of initiatives that can make a real difference, deferring less urgent ones.?
- An effective goal-setting system starts with disciplined thinking at the top, with leaders who invest the time and energy to choose what counts.?
- No one individual or company can “do it all”. With a select set of OKRs, we can highlight a few things-the vital things-that must get done, as planned and on time.?
- For organization-level OKRs, the buck stops with senior leadership. They must personally commit to the process.?
- For sound decision making, and superior performance, top-line goals must be clearly understood throughout the organization.?
- Leaders must get across the WHY as well as the WHAT. Their people need more than milestones for motivation.?
- As LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner likes to say, “when you are tired of saying it, people are starting to hear it.”
- Objectives are the stuff of inspiration and far horizons. Key results are more earth-bound and metric-driven. They typically include hard numbers for one or more gauges: revenue, growth, active users, quality, safety, market share, customer engagement. Key result should be a challenge in its own right. If you’re certain you’re going to nail it, you’re probably not pushing hard enough.?
- Clear-cut time frames intensify our focus and commitment; nothing moves us forward like a deadline. So, quarterly OKR cadence is best suited to keep pace with today’s fast-changing markets.?
- For the feedback to be effective, it must be received very soon after the activity it is measuring occurs.?
- There is no one-size-fits-all. A monthly cycle could do the trick for an early-stage company still finding its product-market fit. The best OKR cadence is the one that fits the context and culture of your business.?
- Example of key results paired for quantity and quality:?
Quantity goal: three new features
Quality goal: fewer than five bugs per feature in quality assurance testing
Result: developers will write cleaner code
- Key results should be succinct, specific, and measurable.?
- Completion of all key results must result in attainment of the objective. If not, it’s not an OKR.?
- The ideal number of quarterly OKRs will range between three and five.?
- Larry page would say, winning organizations need to “put more wood behind fewer arrows.”
- OKRs help us to focus on what could move the company to the next level.?
- OKRs help you stay focused. They keep you from backsliding or micromanaging.?
- To inspire true commitment, leaders must practice what they teach. They must model the behavior they expect of others.?
- By definition, start-ups wrestle with ambiguity. So, the team needs sharper focus and clearer priorities, the prerequisite for deeper commitment. The hairier the mission, the more important your OKRs.?
Superpower #2 - Align and Connect for Teamwork
We don’t hire smart people to tell them what to do. We hire smart people so they can tell us what to do - Steve Jobs
- The individuals moving up are the ones doing what the company most values. OKRs expose redundant efforts and save time and money. Once top-line objectives are set, the real work begins.?
- A lack of alignment, according to a poll of global CEOs, is the number-one obstacle between strategy and execution.?
- Connected companies are quicker companies. When goals are public and visible to all, a “team of teams” can attack trouble spots wherever they surface. Transparency creates very clear signals for everyone.?
- OKRs create networks-vertical, horizontal, diagonal to connect an organization’s most vital work.?
- If we have OKRs, we’d be better prepared to make sounder choices when opportunity comes our way.?
- We need to strip it down to the things that really matter.
- We need to keep our goals true to our North Star values. Every decision we make needs to square with our vision. That’s what keeps us walking the walk and connected with the people we serve.?
- Use all-hands meetings to explain why an OKR is important to the organization. Then keep repeating the message until you’re tired of hearing it yourself.?
- Smash departmental silos by connecting teams with horizontally shared OKRs.
Superpower #3 - Track for Accountability
In God we trust; all others must bring data - W.Edwards Deming
- Contributors are most engaged when they can actually see how their work contributes to the company’s success.?
- With an OKR management platform, all relevant information is ready when you are.
- Reflection: what did I learn that I didn’t foresee at the beginning of the quarter? And: how will I apply this lesson in the future??
- The point of objectives and key results is to get everyone working on the right things.?
- There are no judgments, only learnings.?
- We do not learn from experience…we learn from reflecting on experience.?
- OKR wrap-ups are retrospective and forward-looking at the same time.?
- Having a good mission is not enough. You need a concrete objective, and you need to know how you’re going to get there.?
- You have to pay close attention to whether your data is getting you to the ultimate goal.?
- When leaders openly admit their missteps, contributors feel freer to take healthy risks.?
Superpower #4 - Stretch for Amazing
The biggest risk of all is not taking one - Mellody Hobson
- OKRs push us far beyond our comfort zones. They lead us to achievements on the border between abilities and dreams. For companies seeking to live long and prosper, stretching to new heights is compulsory. Innovation is like oxygen. You cannot win without it.?
- The harder the goal, the higher the level of performance. Those who do more than anyone thinks possible…with less than anyone thinks possible.?
- Focus and commitment are a must for targeting goals that make a real difference.?
- Leaders must convey two things: the importance of the outcome, and the belief that it’s attainable.?
- How can your team create maximum value? What would amazing look like?. And the reward of having met one of these challenging goals is that you get to play again.?
- If you set a crazy, ambitious goal and miss it, you’ll still achieve something remarkable. When you aim for the stars, you may come up short but still reach the moon - Larry Page.
- When you set a measurable objective for the year and chunk the problem, quarter by quarter, moonshots become more doable.?
- OKRs are especially useful for young companies just starting to build their culture. When you’re little, with fewer resources, it’s even more vital to be clear on where you’re going.?
- The most important things need to get done first or they won’t get done at all.?
