The Okr Guide: From Strategy To Execution

THE OKR GUIDE

FROM STRATEGY TO EXECUTION

Executives and corporate leaders, it’s time to unite your team, rally towards a unified goal, and actualise the real mission and vision of your company!

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The OKR Framework is a Tool that Will Ensure a Unified Cadence of Progress in Your Company and Build the Gap Between Strategy and Execution among Your Workforce in a Year Without Having the Need to Constantly “Boss Everyone Around”

Your company is not the only one suffering from it. It’s everywhere. The messy and exhausting journey of steering people towards a common goal is palpable in every corporate environment. And sometimes, as a leader, even if you’ve tried everything to take everyone on the same page, most people in your team are still lost in the woods not knowing how they can effectively bring a positive impact in the company. Thus, they perform poorly and use the company’s resources without delivering actual value that will contribute to the goals you’ve set. The truth is, even if your colleagues would want to contribute to the goals that the company have set, they seem to lack the needed directions to effectively help. If not, they are underwhelmed by the degree of undervalued responsibilities that they are given to contribute to the team. And most often than not, the way organisations are structured is often not the most empowering environment to encourage employees to take responsibility and share the initiatives they have in mind. While the most established organisation in the past century have seemingly benefited from this common corporate milieu, the best and most profitable are the companies who make their teams feel valued and the leadership emanates from a top-down and bottom-up structure where the workforce focuses on contributing to the overall strategy, mission, and vision of your company genuinely and without being told to do so. For years, we at Evolution4All, have worked with many companies which had been struggling with a disarray directionless workforce. Throughout these years, the only winning formula that has stood the test of time is having a top-down and bottom-up goal setting mechanism that empowers every member of your team to act based on the best interest of the company. We believe that the Objective, Key Result Framework is the tool that best embodies this framework. Imagine a workforce that works together bringing in cumulative and compounding development and progress in your company’s without the usual leadership strains. Imagine if your team, in their best abilities, proactively try to complement the long and short term goals of your company with the enthusiasm to deliver the highest result possible. Imagine a company where your colleagues all have an internal navigator pointing towards common goals. Think about people who are wholeheartedly putting in the work to reach ambitious goals by regularly monitoring their progress. That is the power of OKR.

OKR Overview

If there is something so distinctive about OKR, it is the fact that it is both a goal setting tool and a management framework that efficiently synchronizes everyone in an organisation to strategically move towards its short and long term goals. In a company that is composed of at least 500 people, keeping tabs with everyone is a common challenge that every growing company faces. A growing workforce also means facing the question of keeping the teams engaged and motivated to contribute to achieving the long term goals of the company. Given the traditional structure of companies where goal setting is a process that is solely exclusive to the people in the top of the organisation, the workforce is left to follow without fully internalising the value of their contribution to achieving the goals set by their superiors. This is a recipe for a disengaged and unmotivated workforce. This is also the reason why many employees cannot perform at their best because of the fundamental disconnect to the work they do. There is no sense of ownership. And when employees don’t feel this sense of ownership, they eventually disengage from the work they do and feel that they won’t make that much of an impact in the company. Also, the plans and goals of a company are often too abstract and high-level that regular employees fail to grasp the concepts. This makes them feel insignificant and further drifts them away from the fundamental direction that their company is heading to. Remember that employees are social and thinking beings. We all have the need to have the sense of purpose. And more often than not, it’s the very reason why we want to work for specific companies. When we don’t understand the the direction that our work or company is heading to, this creates uncertainty that will eventually lead to being disengaged from work. Employees fail to see the big picture and even if they sometimes do, they can barely relate to it. And when they don’t understand something, this creates uncertainty. The uncertainty creates the gap and eventually, the gap becomes the very reason why they can’t perform at their very best. This is where OKR bridges the gap between the very human nature of every workforce of the 21st century and the strategic goals that a company wants to achieve. The framework aims to unify and synchronise every member of a company to understand and internalise its long term objectives by letting each person set and achieve a clearly defined set of targets s/he has to achieve in a period of time. These “set of targets” are obviously in relation to the long term goal/mission/vision of the company. With each person having an individual compass to guide his actions in order to contribute to the main objectives of the company, the workforce operates in a way that everyone complements each other’s work. The workforce, geared with each individual OKRs, is now a functional cog in a wheel that supports the grand scheme of everything that the company stands for.

That being said, here are some of the most common qualities that encapsulate the characteristics of OKR as a framework:

Goals become agile. The goals in OKRs are never designed to be static, stale, or even rigid. The objectives should adapt to many changing factors inside the organisation. The regular reviews also ensure that this framework will never go stale.

OKR is meant to be simple. It’s very straightforward. The simplicity ensures that no one will be confused if they happen to read an OKR in a corridor.

OKR is a bi-directional goal-setting. It’s a top-down and bottom-up goal setting model that everyone should embrace in a company. Top-down because the main objectives of the companies are formulated by key executives. Bottom-up because even though the missions, visions, and other long term goals are formulated from the upper level of the organisational structure, the workforce’s OKR which start from the bottom, ensures that everything will be carried out.

OKR embraces transparency. Since one of the goals of OKR is to embrace alignment and synchronicity, transparency is an essential element.

OKRs embraces ambitious goals. By aiming for the stars, OKRs facilitate the extra stretch that everyone needs in order to grow in a company. So even if an employee falls short from his OKRs, it would still be a performance that will be well-appreciated because it’s a given that OKRs are almost an impossible task.

OKR is dynamic. OKR doesn’t shy away from changes. It sways with the needs of your organisation. Albeit, it also make sure that everyone is on the same page with every change made.

OKRs welcomes failure with open arms. Since the framework is only effective when the workforce stretch their capabilities to the very limit, failure is not something people frown upon. It gives the employees environment they need to grow. By setting ambitious goals and not discouraging failure, progress is achieve without them even knowing it that they’re actually making significant development.

Now that you have a clear understanding of how OKR and impact your company, let’s now dive into the details of creating OKRs.

The Basic Structure

A usual OKR is composed of 3 to 5 high-level Objectives. Under these objectives are 3-5 Key Results which signify that if achieved, that means that the Objective is also accomplished. The key results should be measurable through a defined set of standards, result, indicators, or scores. During the assessment period of OKRs, the key results is best assessed by using a numeric scoring system between 0 and 1.0. Let’s dig further. . .

Objectives The O in OKR stands for Objective. For the company, the whole process of setting OKR starts with creating three to five (3-5) key objectives. These are ambitious goals at the organisational level. Your departments will also set their own objectives and so as the teams under the departments and the members of each team. Structurally, each department, teams, and individuals, should base their objectives in the structural level they belong. For example, a department will base its objectives on how it can help the company reach its main objectives. The teams in that department will also set objectives based on how they can help the department fulfil its objectives. The objectives of each team member is also anchored in helping the team fulfil its team objectives. It’s a trickle down effect with a clear alignment structurally speaking.

Key Results Key Results are signifiers that an objective is accomplished. Ideally, 3-4 measurable Key Results should be under one objective. This enables everyone to evaluate each objectives using the key results. The key results are in turn evaluated using an internal scoring system set by your company. The scoring system for each key result, makes it easier to determine if the Key Result has been achieved or not. But how does it look structurally? Here at Evolution4All, here’s how we see it:

In this diagram you can see the following: COMPANY MISSION – The company mission is a brief description of the company’s vision and purpose, and how they should be implemented. MID-TERM-GOALS – Mid-term goals (so-called MOALS) are the link between the company mission and the OKR. They are usually defined for one year. OKR PLANNING – At OKR Planning the respective objectives and key results become defined for the entire cycle and at all levels. This is done both top-down and bottom-up. OKR WEEKLY – The OKR Weekly helps to synchronise the implementation of the OKR framework and supports self-responsibility as a solid ritual of the teams during the cycle. The weekly should only take about 15 minutes and should give an overview of the current status of the OKR. OKR REVIEW – Review meetings are used to determine the degree of achievement at the end of an evaluation cycle. The scoring should be consistent with team standards. OKR RETROSPECTIVE – During a retrospective, the teams analyse the OKR process from a systematic point of view. What did the team learn? What should be improved in the next cycle? OKR COACH – As experts, coaches, facilitators, change agents are OKR Coaches responsible for the smooth implementation of the OKR framework in the company and support their teams in the Definition of OKRs and other regular events.

These components of OKR implementation makes it easier for your company to adopt and implement the OKR framework. With the help of OKR Retrospective and OKR Coach, the continuous evolution and improvement of your OKRs is ensured.

Step By Step Guide to setting up OKR for your team

1 Introducing the Fram Introduce OKR as a framework and how it will affect and contribute to the growth of your company. Best if you can furnish everyone a copy of this report. Once they have a full understanding on how this will help the entire company, they will be able to adapt quickly.

2 Creating Objectives You can lead a brainstorming session with your teams. Using the predetermined Company Objectives, you can ask the team in each department on how they can contribute in achieving the Company Objectives. You have to encourage them to step out of their comforzones. Their objectives should be aspirational and something that is connected to their role inside the company. The objective, although ambitious, should still be measurable.

3 Identify your Key Results. List down the outcomes or Key Results that will signify or indicate whether an objective is achieved or not. Remember that this is not a To-Do list tasks. The Key Results are real results that the team/individual has to achieve.

4 Review, analyse, and revise. It’s ok to revise the initial draft OKRs. A good way to test if the objective is being too safe or not ambitious enough is if the team is confident that they can deliver the Key Results. If this the general sentiment of the team, revise the Objective and move away from the comfort zone of the team. You can do this by increasing the target or completely refocusing on other aspects of the company’s OKR. For the Key Results, make sure that it’s properly articulated in a way that it can be scored using a sliding scale.

5 Getting feedback. Initiate to get feedback from other department, teams, and other executives. It’s a good practice that will minimise the possibility of having a blind spot.

6 Scoring Scoring is essential for OKRs. Usually, the widely accepted scoring system is a number between 0 to 1. If your team scores a .7 in a KR evaluation, it is better than having a 1. A perfect score means that you’ve set the objective of the KR too low and should be adjusted next time.

The OKR framework is meant to have ambitious yet measurable goals. This keeps a culture of progress and helps everyone to keep aspiring to achieve higher heights.

InfoGraphics: OKR in Bullets

History 1954 - Peter Drucker invented Management by Objectives or MBO. It’s the predecessor

of Objectives in OKR.

1970s - Andy Grove popularised the use of Objectives in Intel. 1974 - John Doerr joined Intel where he learned about OKRs. When Doerr become an advisor to Google, he introduced OKR to Google. OKR was introduced to the founders of Google, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, by Doerr. These two implemented OKR to Google which up to this day is still in use. Soon after Intel and Google, OKR was then adopted by hundreds of companies and organisations follow suit Zynga, Sears, Twitter, Oracle, and so much more.

Composition Objectives - Typical 3 to 5 high-level goals under which 3-5 key measurable results are listed. Key Results are signifier that the Objective is accomplished. The said key results is popularly measured using a sliding scale between o to 1. Organisations should include OKR as part of quarterly planning and progress review. No specific regular time to set OKRs. It can be done on a monthly or annual basis depending on the internal cadence of an organisation. Each cycle has many opportunities for improving teamwork, communication and strategic goals. The following events help: OKR Planning

Weekly

OKR Review

OKR Retrospectives

Science Behind OKR Many studies have shown that committing to a goal helps drive performance among employees. More importantly, setting challenging goals motivate them to perform well to achieve those goals.

40%

24%

Gallup in 2016, only 40% of millennials feel connected to the visions and goals of the company they work for.

24% of “Workers are Actively Disengaged”. Actively disengaged workers - people who demoralise other workers who are making an effort to achieve results for a company.

12-15%

50%

Gallup in 2016, only 40% of millennials feel connected to the visions and goals of the company they work for.

50% of employees quit jobs to get rid of their managers - Gallup survey.

13%

58%

Worldwide, employee engagement is only 13% according to Gallup.

58% of executives see their Performance Management framework fail to increase Employee Engagement

OKR increased overall performance

OKR can save companies

by 11.5% - Sears Holdings

$520,000 a year

Companies That Are Using OKR

OKR is already a household name in many companies especially in the tech industries. Atiim published a long list of companies that are using OKR already. If you’re curious, here’s the list:

Accenture Adobe Amazon American Global Logistics Anheuser-Busch Asana Baidu Bradstreet Box CareerBuilder Capco Cap Gemini Datto Dell Deloitte Department of the Navy Domo Dropbox Edmunds Eli Lilly Eventbrite Facebook FiServ Flipboard

Gap GE Google GoPro InsideSales Instructure Intel ISO Energy Juniper Networks Kelly Services KupiVIP LG LinkedIn Lookout Lumeris Malwarebytes Microsoft Moz Mozilla Nerd Wallet Netflix Oracle Panasonic Paperless Post

Rackspace Salesforce.com Samsung Schneider Electric Sears Siemens Slack Spotify Splunk SunEdison Tableau Twitter Trello The Guardian UpWind Solutions Viacom Vmware Vox Media Walmart Yahoo Zendesk Zynga

OKR at Google In the first year of Google, John Doerr became an investor and proposed the use of OKRs. Fast forward today, Google is a multi billion company with more than 60,000 employees and still uses OKR in their operation. How do they do it at Google? Check out this post from Google Venture Partner Rick Klau.

OKR at Nasa Another ultimate OKR example is the one set by former US President John F Kennedy when they decided to put a man on the moon. The project was called “Moonshot Goal” and their OKR was continuously evolving for 10-25 years until they achieved their ultimate goal in 1961.

OKR at Amazon Amazon is another big company that has adopted OKR in their operation. One of the key driving factor for the adoption of OKR was the sheer number of workforce of the company that often lead to many miscommunication, unmet expectations, management strains and confusions.

OKR at LinkedIn For LinkedIn, OKR is a tool that gives everyone inside the company the sense of urgency. According to LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner, they can focus better on what matter most using OKR because of the short and long term timelines for the respective objectives they set for the company.

OKR at Twitter Twitter primary use of OKRs is on the side of transparency and communication. They make sure that there’s a way for everyone to see and check on what others are working on.

Advantages Of Using OKR

Studies have already shown that companies which use OKR tend to have a more effective workforce. OKR addresses many organisational concerns such as the following:

Awareness Since OKRs are meant to be seen by everyone and should be

put to a conspicuous area, there is a sense of awareness and transparency on that people are actually working on. The awareness of everyone’s OKR in the structural levels of an organisation makes it easier for employees to align themselves with the OKRs. This also helps in reminding employees the the vision, mission, and other ideals of a company.

Communication

OKRs identifies the priorities of an organisation. Thus, the communication is very much open to everyone to contribute to the dialogues in achieving common goals.

Interpersonal OKR becomes and interpersonal mechanism because

everyone has to communicate and work with other people to achieve the key results they’re aiming for their objectives.

Culture OKR fosters many positive culture like: transparency, getting out

of the comfort zone, accountability, and teamwork. This ingredients ensures that there is a high employee engagement and the morale is high.

Accountability The regular review in OKRs make it sure that everyone is

accountable to the objectives they set. There is a focus on metrics and KPIs which also keep everyone in touch with the progress they’re making. The regular implementation of OKRs ensures that everyone is reminded of the long and short term vision of a company. These clarifies any confusion in an organisation.

Proactive Qualities of OKRs

Companies in different industries are religiously implementing OKRs because of its many distinct proactive qualities that guarantees the transformation of any organisation. Strategic goals are cascaded from top-down to bottom up in an organisation. The company are encouraged to share its objectives to the employees and the employees from the bottom are empowered to align their actions to the objectives of the company. OKRs provide organisations with clarity so they can focus their resources. Alignment between the company and the workforce. The performance are always ensured to be measurable. There culture of excellence is encouraged by empowering employees to go beyond their comfort zone. Regular assessments and check ins foster the culture of accountability. People are encouraged to focus on results and not the tasks. This means they are trained to know the difference of providing result rather just doing things blindly. The creation of OKR is a way to tap into the collective intelligence of an organisation.

Proactive Qualities of OKRs

Companies in different industries are religiously implementing OKRs because of its many distinct proactive qualities that guarantees the transformation of any organisation.

Strategic goals are cascaded from top-down to bottom up in an organisation.

The company are encouraged to share its objectives to the employees and the employees from the bottom are empowered to align their actions to the objectives of the company.

OKRs provide organisations with clarity so they can focus their resources.

Alignment between the company and the workforce.

The performance are always ensured to be measurable.

There culture of excellence is encouraged by empowering employees to go beyond their comfort zone.

Regular assessments and check ins foster the culture of accountability.

People are encouraged to focus on results and not the tasks. This means they are trained to know the difference of providing result rather just doing things blindly.

The creation of OKR is a way to tap into the collective intelligence of an organisation.

Some Templates and Examples

Now that you understand the value and power of OKR, let’s seem OKR in action. Below are some powerful and effective OKR templates fe.

OKR Template

Company Name

Company Objective One Measurable Key Result1 Measurable Key Result2 Measurable Key Result3

Progress 10% 20% 40%

Company Objective Two Measurable Key Result1 Measurable Key Result2 Measurable Key Result3

Progress 5% 15% 25%

Objective Fulfillment 23% Objective Fulfillment 15% Objective Fulfillment

For example, if your company’s objective is to develop the business’ reputation and improve the Customer Relation Department, you can say that your objective should include measurable elements that signify those goals. Example: Objective: Increase the company’s reputation by improving the Customer Relation Department Performance score to 95% Key Results that signifies success of the objective above can be:

Key Result 1: implementing a First-Call Resolution policy. Key Result 2: Shorten the Queueing Time by 1 minute Key Result 3: Increase the net customer satisfaction rating by adding a feedback mechanism

Here’s an example OKR from Google’s blogging platform, Blogger: OBJECTIVE:

To improve Blogger’s reputation

KEY RESULTS: Re-establish Blogger’s leadership by speaking to at least 3 industry events Coordinate Blogger’s 10th anniversary PR efforts Reach out personally to Blogger’s users Fix DMCA process and eliminate music blog takedowns

OBJECTIVE:

Increase profit by 10% in 2019

KEY RESULTS: Launch seasonal campaigns by using referral marketing (summer promos, Valentine’s Day, Holiday fares, ) and triple the revenue from the past year. Add the ash discounts on suppliers to save 15% on purchases. Hire other cost effective fleet distribution service provider stores to reduce cost by 20%.

OBJECTIVE:

Create A Superb Customer Experience

KEY RESULTS: Maintain Customer Acquisition cost under Y Raise Repurchase Rate from X to Y. Improve Net Promoter Score from X to Y.

OBJECTIVE:

Delight our customers

KEY RESULTS: Lower order cancellation from A% to D%. Increase Net Promoter Score from A to C. Improve average daily visits per active user from X to Y. Increase Organic traffic from X to Y.

Example By Companies

Company: Deverus Industry: HR Source: https://blog.weekdone.com/deverus-improved-collaboration-combining-okrs-weekly-ppp-reporting/

Company: BMAT Industry: Music Source: https://blog.weekdone.com/bmat-when-your-company-grows-weekdone-lets-you-get-closer-to-everyone/

Company: Humanitec Industry: Saas Source: https://blog.weekdone.com/humanitec-creates-alignment-objectives-key-results/

Company: Exxact Corporation Industry: Hardware/Software Source: https://blog.weekdone.com/exxact-corporation-simplifies-with-goal-setting/

If you want to see more examples, go to this website http://okrexamples.co and see other OKR examples for different organisational departments. To get a copy of these templates, go to this website http://okrtemplates.com

Common Best and Bad Practices for OKR

Here are the best practices in creating, maintaining, and revising your company’s OKR. These are not hard and fast rule but a set of guidance to help you craft a viable OKR for your company.

Failure to achieve OKR doesn’t mean that you have to revise it. You can only do so in times of an extreme event or reason to justify revision. You will notice the positive changes of OKR after 3-4 cycles. Be patient. A well-designed OKR implementation plan makes it easier for your company to adapt to this framework. This is why it’s recommended to work with an OKR coach. OKRs though ambitious and inspiring should still possess the following: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic/Relevant and Time Bound (SMART). Company and departmental OKRs should be clearly communicated down to the very bottom of organisational structure. It’s better for it to be rephrased if not properly understood by other employees. Again, one of the goals of OKR is to communicate the goal of the company to all of its employees. Ideal score for Key Results is between 70% and 75%. Anything above means you’ve set a very easy low goal.

Review the OKR regularly. Most companies would review their OKRs with their regular reports. Annual, Midterm, Quarterly and even Monthly are the most common regular review timeline. Objectives answers the question “What?” The Key Result corresponds to the “How?” When the “hows” are achieved, so is the “what.” Objectives are strategic themes. Key Results are the tactical means. Setting Key Performance Indicators are also a good means to measure Key Results. OKRs are meant to be concise and easy to understand. It is ambitious and challenging but still measurable.

Common OKR Mistakes/ Bad Practices

Avoid the following mistakes in setting your own OKRs. These practices lower the effectiveness of this framework. Don’t use OKR as a task list. OKR measures the value delivered of each employee in an organisation, not the number of tasks accomplished. Don’t set too many OKRs. It will overwhelm everyone in your team and won’t deliver the focus embedded in the system of OKRs. Set only the top three top goals of the company in a period of time. Follow the Top-Down approach when setting OKRs. Team OKRs should be aligned with the Departmental OKR. Department OKRs are aligned with the Company’s OKR. Don’t set and forget. Continuously review your OKR and ask for a progress report on regular meetings. Goals are only goals without measurable actions.

OKRs is just the Begining of the Journey

Our approach towards OKR Consulting is extremely different than what most of the companies out there offer. Most of the companies offer OKR as the holy grail and the toll that will solve all your problems but evolution4all believes that OKRs are just a small piece of a bigger puzzle. In order to design a fantastic product development organisation you as a leader must put in place several other pieces in order to have a high performing product organisation. Our found Luis Gonçalves started his career almost 15 years ago, he believed that many organisational changes could be initiated with a bottom-up approach. He still believes that many changes come from the lower layers of the organisation, but a deep involvement of executive teams like yours is also required for last-lasting changes. He spent years understanding the greatest challenges that executive leaders in digital product companies face, so he designed a complete approach to tackle these issues based on his long and practical experience. Is approached is called Organisational Mastery Blueprint and enables companies to:

Translate strategy into daily operations -> A very small part was explained in this white paper, since OKRs is evolution4all preferred tool. Constantly reduce their time to market Create a culture of continuous improvement Recruit, retain, and share knowledge with the most talented people Enable companies to encourage innovation

He is very proud of what he has created and he believes in its results, as we use the exact same approach to run our own company, therefore this is our approach to help you and your company to become a fantastic product organisation.

The Organisational Mastery Blueprint is designed for Product Development Organisation that understand that the world is ever-changing and that learning and adaptation are critical if they are to maintain a competitive advantage. This product is also optimised for companies that require consistent alignment between their executive leadership and delivery teams, particularly companies that wish to build a coalition that drives change, without disrupting the entire organisation. We believe that successful organisations must have these five pillars in place and we want to help organisations reach this goal, but the needs of each company differ so we tailor our approach to take each business’s current operational procedure into consideration in the form of our Blueprint. The Organisational Mastery Blueprint is ideal for companies that are serious about improving and they want to make an impact in the world.

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