Holidays are a great time for reflection. In 2020 we learnt a lot about what makes one company succeed with OKRs and another struggle.
If you need help writing OKRs, reach out to us for coaching or read our Ultimate Guide To OKRs.
So if you’re using OKRs to support better performance in 2021, here are 8 tips aimed at ensuring you’re set-up to succeed with OKRs in 2021.
Check you are using OKRs in the right way – and not ‘in name only’ – it’s clear that too many companies are not using OKRs well (but often think they are) and that’s a real shame! If you’re not sure if you’re using OKRs well or if you are not feeling the benefits in a way you had expected, please get in touch with ZOKRI.
Debate in teams and decide on the most important priorities and opportunities, and make these your OKRs – having the ‘right’ and if necessary ‘difficult’ conversations is how best to succeed with OKRs and it helps you avoid the #1 mistake of having too many.
Define, measure and track progress, problems and opportunities the right way – by this we mean:
- Make sure you’re using the right metrics in your Key Results - lagging indicators and vanity metrics for example can lead to average OKRs. Some of the very best conversations happen when talking though which measurements really matter.
- Track progress for single OKRs and / or the branch of aligned OKRs - OKRs cascade and seeing progress for the branch of OKRs is a great way to track progress
- Create dashboard that track OKR Progress in the many ways possible as well as Business As Usual KPIs - if BAU KPIs need to be prioritized they can then become OKRs
Check-in regularly to update plans, progress and problems – setting the cadence to weekly is most common, and not checking in could mean OKR ‘set-and-forget’ is taking hold. This is the beginning of the end for OKRs and an agile working mindset.
Use ZOKRI’s meeting management features to have meetings with a high return on time invested – where agendas are proposed upfront and voted on, the right OKRs discussed, actions assigned and notes captured. Meetings are where magic should be happening. Put an end to irrelevant, poorly planned, managed and intermittently actioned meetings.
Keep your finger on the pulse – configure your notifications settings and be notified of things like team comments and assignment of Objectives, Key Results, Initiatives or KPIs? You always want to keep your finger on the pulse of what’s going on, not be the last to know.
Achieve the right behaviours at scale – medium and larger companies can struggle to achieve consistent and widespread use of OKR best-practices and related behaviours – we’ve pioneered new ways of ensuring this can be done at scale and quickly. We can get hundreds and often thousands of people succeeding with OKRs at scale – talk to me if you want to know more.
The gift of better OKR education – we wrote a free eBook alongside a number of leading OKR experts to make sure ‘how to plan OKRs’ was shared as far and wide as possible. There is an alarming amount of terrible information out there. Have a read and pass it on.
An OKR Book That Will Teach You To
Learn the right way and help your company, your teams and your employees thrive in 2021.
The book includes OKR examples, mistakes to avoid and how to plan to roll-out OKRs. With advice from some of the world’s best OKR coaches included.
