Know How to Tackle OKR Challenges

by Abhishek Feb 9,2020
Engagedly

There is a surge of start-ups in this era, some of whom start generating large sums of profits within a few years of foundation. Are you wondering how these companies manage to hit success so early?

Well, it’s not a very well hidden secret. The answer lies in the management framework these companies follow. OKR is definitely an important aspect, which stands for Objectives and Key Results. The Objectives are the end goal that you want to reach, and the Key Results are measurable ways by which you can get there.

Some of the top companies to use OKR includes Google, Twitter, Intel, Sears, LinkedIn, Oracle and Zynga. OKRs essentially help bring teams and the entire company together.

3 Reasons Why You Should Use OKRs

Gives clear direction:

Imagine the outcome when a collective of dozens or hundreds of employees, all moving as one towards a common objective. Its surely to derive fantastic results.

Enhances focus:

OKRs allow you to revisit objectives on a frequent basis and measure where you stand in comparison. This enhances focus and personal growth.

Increases inter-team dependency:

Every employee has certain set skills and if you have to make things happen in your workplace, you need to work with different teams that can move different aspects and finally get you to the finishing line.

Most companies have different layers of OKRs. There are entire company objectives and key results followed by the different departments such as Marketing, Product, Engineering, IT and Data, HR, Customer Service, Sales, Ops, etc. Breaking these down, each individual has their individual OKRs.

Also read: What You Need To Know About OKRs

If your OKRs have not been fetching the right results, you might want to look into the following pointers.

Rethink your objectives:

When your team is achieving the OKRs too quickly, it might mean you are setting goals that are too easy. Objectives need to be ambitious, yet not impossible. If you achieve 70-80% in a given time period, it’s a positive progress. If you don’t, you need to re-evaluate.

Revisit your OKRs frequently:

Most often teams set OKRs only to forget about them after some time. To tackle that situation, have weekly meetings to discuss team OKRs and the progress. Otherwise you might lose sight of the finishing line and go completely off-track.

Don’t line up too many:

Too many OKRs can completely mislead the employees and leave them utterly confused. Plan a maximum of 3 Objectives per timeframe and about 3-5 key results per objective.

Also read:Why OKRs For New Employees?

Key Results must have numbers:

Key results make objectives measurable. While objectives are the bigger goals, Key Results measure how far you have achieved those goals. So it’s important to specify in numbers, what is your target and how you will get there.

Don’t lose sight of the Objectives:

It might be easy to keep the key results in sight and keep working, don’t forget to keep the bigger picture in mind. Make sure to mention the objectives often, so that employees know where they are heading and if there are any diversions, they’ll identify and correct themselves.

OKRs definitely help in creating a sturdy process wherein thinking out of box is necessary in order to solve company problems. Its easy as long as you know where you are headed and what is the measurable steps required to get there.

 


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Abhishek

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