What are the possible reasons that OKRs are not working effectively in your organizations?

In the previous edition, we looked into why companies are apprehensive about adopting OKRs. If you've not checked our previous newsletter yet, make sure to check it by clicking here.?

In this edition, we’ll talk about what causes those concerns and how we can nullify them.?

So to start with, do you aspire to establish a culture of superior performance in your organization? Do you think that your organization lack a goal-oriented culture in your organization? If yes, great because then OKR is just the right medium for you. OKR serves as a platform that will keep allow you to establish a culture of alignment and superior performance in your organization. It's? widely known fact that leaders than want to drive their organization towards high growth and revenue take the route of OKRs. Well, why would they even not? The OKR methodology is one of the most effective way to bridge the gap between strategies and its execution.?

In order to reap the benefits of OKRs, organization have to implement and utilize them in the right manner. If not OKRs, might not work well in your organization and hence, will never fulfill its purpose of boosting the performance and revenue of your organization.?

Reasons why OKRs fail for some businesses

1. Improper framing of OKRs

Not framing the OKRs in the right manner is one of the main reasons why some business fail at implementing OKRs. While rolling out your OKRs, ensure that Objectives reflect what you are aiming to achieve. While the Key Results should indicate how those Objectives will be achieved.?

2. Way too many OKRs

It is recommended that each objective should never have more than five time-bound and measurable key results. Hence, when it comes to OKRs, less is always more. Having way too many OKRs will kill one of the major purposes of using OKRs - boosting focus and productivity of your organization. Your teams will rather waste their effort and time juggling way too many balls at once.?

3. Setting and then Forgetting

Starting with OKRs but not coming back to it on a consistent basis is where the orgaizations go wrong. The ideal way is to have the management and leaders to set the OKRs and then cascade them down to the teams. It is mandatory to have weekly or monthly check-ins to see the progress made on the set OKRs.?

4. Not knowing your current baseline?

An organization cannot drive forward when it is unfamiliar with the current baseline of its operations and management. For instance, without knowing the traffic of your company’s website you cannot make it a goal to increase your company’s website by 20%.?

5. Not having a? transparent work culture

One of the primary reasons and benefit of embracing the OKR methodology is to have a transparent work environment. If the leaders don’t make sure that everyone understands this concept and are no longer willing to work in solios, no matter which approach the organization uses, it is bound to fail.?

These were some of the major reasons that cause OKR to fail, among many others like setting OKRs and not focusing on them,and not being able to convince teams to be positive about using OKR system, hence not having success in using OKRs.?

THE STRUCTURE

You should consider the following two questions when following the best practices for OKR. These questions are:

Which place do you want to take your company to? (goals)

How can you accomplish the same? (Metrics to measure success)

Working on these two questions will enable you to create the ideal structure of your OKRs. Then this will ensure that the OKRs serve the purpose of establishing alignment between the departments of the organization. When your teams are properly aligned and are on the same page, your entire organization will work unitedly to attain the ultimate goals of the organization.?

THE PHILOSOPHY

It is highly important to ensure the established objectives are ambitious and measurable, so that progress can be tracked which is the major aim of OKR setup. Also, OKRs should be as transparent as possible. Every individual’s OKR should be visible to each team member, to have clarity towards where each one is heading.

Understanding how to set and implement OKRs through best practices assures company-wide adoption and effective implementation of the OKR framework. At JOP, our experts offer OKR services and hold your hand throughout the rollout of OKRs in your organization. We’re always invested in the growth of our customers and work as their partners throughout the process.?

We assist businesses in embracing the OKR methodology in the ideal manner so that they do not miss out on any benefit of this tool. You’re intrigued, right? Get on a consultation call with us rightaway!