OKRs: A Primer - Bill ZippObjectives and key results, known as OKRs, is a flexible goal setting system that brings greater focus, alignment, and execution to individuals and organizations

OKRs: A Primer

How to Use Objectives and Key Results as a Senior Leader

by Bill Zipp

Objectives and key results, known as OKRs, is a flexible goal setting system that brings greater focus, alignment, and execution to individuals and organizations.

Usually created on a quarterly basis, OKRs can stand alone, guiding the activities of an individual contributor, or they can cascade from company-wide or division-wide OKRs, set annually and/or quarterly.

OKRs do not determine an organization’s mission, vision, or strategy, but act as a highly targeted tool to help your organization and its people, from senior leaders to frontline employees, fulfill its mission, vision, and strategy.

©2018 Leadership Link, Inc. Used by permission.

What Are OKRs

Anyway?

1. FOCUS: We all have too much to do. Way too much to do! OKRs ask, “What are the most important things of the most important things?” and make us set our top priorities each quarter from the answer to that question.

2. ALIGNMENT: While great for guiding individual contributors, the real genius of OKRs is getting everyone in an organization on the same page, rowing in the same direction, singing from the same hymnal (insert your favorite metaphor here).

3. EXECUTION: The measurement required to create key results for OKRs challenge us to think and act in very specific ways about the outcomes needed for success.

What Are the Benefits

of OKRs?


OBJECTIVEAn aspirational, qualitative statement of what you want to achieve in a given time period, written with compelling and inspiring words and phrases.

EXAMPLE:

Explode out of the starting gate in the first quarter of our sales year, setting us up to rock our revenue goals like never before.

Creating Your OKRs


EXAMPLEExplode out of the starting gate in the first quarter of our sales year, setting us up to rock our revenue goals like never before by

• Populating our sales funnel with 3xs the qualified prospects needed for the year

• Reducing customer turnover by 50% or more by proactively contacting key accounts and addressing any concerns

• Having $2.5 million of new business under consideration by end of the quarter

Creating Your OKRsKEY RESULTS

Measurable, quantitative statements of how you plan to fulfill your declared objective with specific targets that are ambitious yet achievable.

Key results can be stated as a number, a dollar amount, a percentage, or a multiplier that needs to increase over an allotted period of time, or decrease, to achieve the business outcome you seek.


EVERY QUARTER

End the quarter by reviewing your OKRs and scoring them, from 1 (a complete and total failure) to 10 (a raging success).

Take the time to reflect on why you scored each the way you did, incorporate lessons learned, and create another set of OKRs for the coming quarter.

An average score of 7 indicates that your OKRs are challenging enough to stretch you to be your best.

Tracking Your OKRsEVERY WEEK

Unlike strategic plans that get put into a file folder never again to see the light of day, OKRs are an active management tool, helping people win at work.

Quickly check-in each week about:

• Past progress on OKR completion• Future plans for OKR execution• Present problems that may be

getting in the way and how you can help with them


OKRCriticalSuccessFactors

1. VISIBILITY: OKR’s should not be created in a vacuum. Everyone should know what everyone’s OKRs are, from senior leaders to frontline employees, and be able to see them at any time.

2. HONESTY: The process must not be rigged. If an OKR is missed, it’s missed. No hiding, no shaming. In fact, if you’re hitting all your OKRs, you’re probably not stretching yourself enough as a company.

3. FOLLOW-THROUGH: OKR’s should not be your management team’s latest gimmick. Commit to the process, creating OKR’s annually and quarterly, reviewing them consistently every week.



Circles within Circles within Circles

An organization that’s fully aligned with their OKRs is like circles within circles. The outer circle being its mission and vison and the inner circles being organizational OKRs for the year, within which are departmental and individual OKRs for each quarter.

Getting to this degree of alignment takes time and practice. It’s a rigorous, iterative process and requires a commitment to master the OKR process completely. The end result, however, is unparalleled business success.

Larry Bossidy and Ram CharanExecution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done

Execution is a systematic process of rigorously

discussing what’s and how’s, questioning,

tenaciously following through, and ensuring

accountability.

Frequently Asked

Questions

1. Do we have to set OKRs every quarter? The most common way of using OKRs is quarterly, but it’s a flexible system and some companies create them every month and others once a year. Do what works for you.

2. Does everyone in our organization need to use OKRs?The best way to implement this system is company-wide, but you don’t need to wait for full adoption to use them. Get started in your sphere of influence and then let OKRs spread like the flu to everyone else.

3. How many OKRs should we have? Only set two or three OKRs each quarter. The genius of this system is focusing on a vital few priorities and getting them done no matter what.


Frequently Asked

Questions,continued

4. If I only have three OKRs, what about my other work?OKRs are not the only things you do in a quarter, but they are the most important things. Yes, you have other work to do, but OKRs are the big rocks to focus on first, perhaps, even, letting other stuff go. Seriously!

5. We used this system once, and it failed miserably. What’s the point? Like learning a new golf swing, your first attempts at using OKRs may not be very successful. Persevere. The best companies in the world use this system to drive results and have learned from their failures on how to adapt it to their context.


For Further Reading Measure What MattersThe father of OKRs reveals his secrets to this system and shares compelling stories of its implementation, from the early days of Google to Bono’s ONE Campaign.

Objectives and Key ResultsTwo organizational consultants explore the details of using OKRs within the corporate context, giving extensive examples and practical illustrations.

Radical FocusTechnology expert, Christina Wodtke, uses an easy to read business fable to illustrate the in’s and out’s of using OKRs in a rapidly growing start-up company.

ABOUT BILL Z IPP

Bill Zipp equips busy sales leaders—CEO’s, heads of sales, and frontline managers—to motivate and mobilize salespeople to reach their goals and multiply that success repeatedly.

He brings over 20 years of experience in sales leadership and consulting to accelerate sales in high-growth companies and agile start-ups, as well as established businesses that have hit a sales growth plateau.

P. 541.760.2625 E. [email protected]

Documents

OKRs: A Primer - Bill ZippObjectives and key results, known as OKRs, is a flexible goal setting system that brings greater focus, alignment, and execution to individuals and organizations