In this day and age, agility is a characteristic every company needs to react to market changes as quickly as possible. This also means it is necessary for strategy and execution to work hand in hand and for all employees to know and understand their shared path. OKRs are one tool to ensure just that. The following signs can help indicate whether your company could benefit from this goal-setting method.
OKR stands for Objectives and Key Results. It is a goal-setting framework enabling results-oriented work. The Objectives indicate the value proposition for internal and external customers, while the Key Results measure whether or not the respective value proposition was achieved. If you would like to learn more, you can find detailed information here.
Company strategies are often determined by a few executives and communicated to all teams using a standardized presentation. But strategic changes do not have the same impact on all employees. How can they know how the announced strategies will affect their own work?
OKRs help to show each overarching strategy as a measurable outcome for every individual employee.
If strategy and execution are dealt with as separate entities, it is not possible to properly measure their success. More precisely said: The management level defines the strategy, the execution level executes it, and someone else measures its success. But is that enough?
Better would be to have a central information platform for the entire team. In this way, the execution level knows exactly what it should do and the management level can make changes on short notice.
Do you know the difference between output and outcome? If not, you can find out here. If your execution measurements are based on aspects such as budget compliance or efficiency, they are purely output driven. However, the outcome is more important. This refers to results that have real added value for your customers.
OKRs can help define these for your team.
Does the following situation sound familiar? Execution is happening faster than the development of new strategies, often resulting in idle time between work steps. If this is the case, your strategy development and execution are not working synchronously. But this must be the case if you want to react agilely to spontaneous changes.
OKRs are reviewed at the start of each new quarter and can be quickly adjusted to current circumstances.
Did we catch your attention?
If you can already relate to the points mentioned above but are interested in learning about others signs, you can read more in our detailed checklist.
If the information provided is enough for you, we look forward to defining tailor-made and results-oriented goals together with you.