What are OKRs? The guide to the goal-setting framework

How important is transparency in business??

It’s a question that each business owner will have a different answer to. And there are a lot of different things that will factor into each answer.?

But here at Loop, we believe that transparency is key when it comes to goals. Whether that’s for us as a company, or for each of our individual team members – and that’s where OKRs come into play.?

But what exactly are OKRs? And why are they important to your business structure? Read on as we break down the usefulness of utilizing the OKR framework and show you how we use this tool here at Loop.?

What are OKRs?

“OKR” stands for “Objectives and Key Results”. They are a goal-setting and leadership tool that is used across a wide variety of industries and businesses. Utilizing the OKR framework allows you to accomplish a number of things, such as an effective and constant communication channel that runs throughout your entire organization.?

Specifically, OKRs can be used to communicate three key things:

• Your objectives: What you want to accomplish. Your objectives should always be asking where the company currently is, and where does it want to go??
• Your milestones: How will you know you have arrived at your destination? What milestones will you need to meet in order to accomplish your objectives?
• Your initiative: The outline of what you need to do in order to achieve your objectives.?

OKRs are used by some of the world’s leading organizations to set and enact their strategies. And here at Loop, although we might not be a giant corporation, we’ve discovered that OKRs also contribute to our way of working.?

Why are OKRs a powerful tool?

OKR is a methodology that really helps to break down your key objectives and measure your actions. With this tool, you can make everything crystal clear to each team – as OKRs work as a visual representation of what point the organization is at, and the direction they wish to move to push things forward.?

There are a number of things to keep in mind when implementing this tool in teams and organizations.?

In practice, using OKRs varies from other goal-setting techniques. This is mainly because the OKR process encourages you to set high-achieving, ambitious goals. When used this way, OKRs can enable teams to focus on the big bets and accomplish far more than the team thought was possible – even if they don’t fully reach the original stated goal.?

OKRs can also help teams and individuals get outside of their comfort zones, prioritize work, and learn from both success and failure. Thinking big is one of our core values at Loop, so this way of working definitely fits us – we’re always aiming for the stars.

How do OKRs work at Loop?

At Loop, we set our company objectives first. This happens at the start of the year, and they are then broken down and revisited each quarter. These objectives are then translated into the key results of what we need to achieve to reach our ultimate goals.?

Whereas the objectives can be inspirational, the key results need to be smart, specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound.?

Every three months we have a Strategy Week. During this week, the company’s OKRs are revisited and discussed with all of our employees. We talk through each individual OKR and question whether we need to tweak them, whether or not they are clear and actionable, or just go over them again to clear up any further details. We find that this way, everybody is involved and can set off again on the same page.?

Now that we’ve set our company OKRs, it’s time for individual ones. Each and every team member makes their own, personal OKRs that outline what they would like to achieve in the coming weeks and months.?

We find that OKRs give a strong sense of transparency across all areas, better cross-team collaboration through alignment, and a better overview for our stakeholders.?

How can you implement OKRs into your organization?

Implementing OKRs into your organization is no easy task, especially if your team members aren’t already familiar with the process. That’s why we’re here to give you some tips to help you kick off your own set of OKRs.

Start small

Define clear objectives for your teams. The best way to go is to do a test run to see if the objective will work or not. Keep in mind that not all departments/teams could need an OKR and not all companies’ OKRs should be the same!

Start quarterly?

Start implementing OKRs on a quarterly basis. This way you can slowly bed the process in and allow everyone to get the hang of it.

Set 2-3 goals

It’s super important that you set goals. Implement between two to three goals at the beginning of the year so your team is able to realistically reach all of them successfully – and ensure that their efforts are not being diluted in achieving more/other goals.

It’s also important to make sure that they are fully communicated to the wider team so that everyone is on the same page, and fully onboard with the process.

Check their progress

Check in on your goals every once in a while. This allows you to monitor what progress has been made and see if they need tweaks or re-adjustments along the way.

Define your objectives and key results from the beginning

Define your key results right from the beginning alongside your objectives and try to set measurable key results – a maximum of three per objective.?

Don’t mix your OKR reviews with your Performance Reviews

Setting and measuring OKRs is great for your teams and your organization. However, keep in mind that OKR performance is very different from employee performance. Why? OKRs are not designed to be used as a weapon against your employees – they are a tool for motivating and aligning people to work together.?

They increase transparency, accountability, and empowerment.

OKRs are A-OK

OKRs are a wonderful tool that can be used to create a throughline of consistency, goal-setting, and accountability throughout your organization. By having a defined set of objectives and key results, every single employee should have a clear direction of where they should be heading.?

But remember, this tool is all about teamwork and motivation, and it shouldn’t be used as a way to criticize your employees. Instead, it should be used to make sure your employees are always clear on what they’re aiming to achieve, and that you’ll always be behind them to springboard them to success.