OKR Consultants

The under-appreciated skills of an OKR Consultant

Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) are more than just a corporate buzzword; they are transformative tools that, when implemented effectively, can drive a company’s growth and success.

OKR consultants play a pivotal role in this transformation, offering much more than just routine training sessions. Reflecting on two days of intensive OKR consulting in the UK, it’s clear that the value delivered by these professionals extends far beyond conventional expectations.

At face value, OKR is a simple framework. It connects a qualitative objective with quantitative key results. This is a very short lesson! Success requires us to understand the behavioural building blocks. We’ve found the best approach is to start with those building blocks before introducing OKRs themselves.

In this short article we will share the under-appreciated skills and building blocks that a great OKR consultant brings to the challenge.

1. Exceptional facilitation skills

No two contexts are the same and the first job of a consultant is to understand the people hoping to adopt the framework. This starts with discussions that help workshop and training design and it continues with focused facilitation.

During the workshop a great consultant will listen intently. They will pick up on non-verbal cues and dive deeply into high value insights. This helps get the most out of attendees and keeps them engaged for the OKR journey they will share.

The consultant allows for engaged, productive discussion but keeps everybody focused on the outcome needed.

2. Evolved teaching skills

Building the right skills for OKR success requires a blending learning approach. At the heart of that is learning by doing, focusing on the foundations of the framework.

Using a range of teaching styles helps the whole group learn and makes the skills more applicable. A great teacher doesn’t just rely on lectures. They will bring discussions, exercises and group work to the session.

3. Strategic awareness

OKRs are often described as a strategic execution framework. A good OKR consultant can review a strategy and assess its strengths and weaknesses.

Even better, a great OKR consultant can help develop and refine a strategy and ensure it follows a hypotheses driven approach. This involves forming and testing assumptions to guide decision-making and strategy, using data and experimentation to validate these assumptions.

Writing a strategy is one thing, making it adaptive and informed by new insights is where it comes to life.

4. Data and analytics literacy

Quantitative key results are at the heart of the framework, making data literacy crucial. Being able to explain the difference between leading, lagging and proxy metrics is fundamental.

Helping build data models and identify novel and underused data sources is the province of the expert consultant.

5. Evidenced based mindset

Success with OKRs requires decision making that increases our chances of achieving goals. Evidence is best way to make those decisions.

An evidence-based mindset involves consistently using current, best-available evidence from relevant, reliable sources to make decisions. We emphasise the importance of data, research findings, and proven facts over opinion or anecdote.

A skilled consultant values this approach and helps leaders understand and embrace it.

6. Focus on principles over process

The goal of any framework is to help us achieve the goals for our business. Implementing a framework is never the goal.

We assess success on business impact not on a checklist of framework “best practices”. A great consultant appreciates this and can adapt the framework to the context.

By following principles over process they can help the organisation adopt the right behaviours. Knowing where we can and can’t flex is a crucial part of a winning approach.

7. Appreciation of cultural factors

If all organisations were alike, introducing new frameworks would be a breeze. We could build and follow a blueprint or template.

Achieving success with OKRs is a journey where we know the start and approximate end points but not the whole route. The role of the consultant is to understand the company culture and help plot a path to embed the changes needed.

No business has infinite patience or time. When a consultant blends a mindful understanding of a company culture with a deep understanding of OKR principles, they can help identify opportunities for quicker wins and for continuous improvement.

8. Domain awareness

As we’ve shared, context is king for OKR success. Different industries and business models bring their own challenges. When a consultant has a deeper understanding of the industry and model they can help navigate those challenges.

Part of that domain awareness includes the significant impact of technology. From considering opportunities for AI to understanding how to use customer research to build better products, an informed consultant asks better questions and identifies the crux of a problem.

9. Blending performance management with goal setting

One of the thorniest areas for goal setting is the relationship with an organisations approach to performance management. The received wisdom is to not tightly link goals and performance management.

What is not so clear is what to do instead.

The adept consultant can help an organisation rethink performance management. They will help blend goal setting with modern performance management concepts to create a fair but aspirational approach to performance.

10. Leadership coaching

As a discipline that works off of strong foundations, OKRs benefit from continuous improvement in leadership capabilities. A great consultant is also a coach who can help a leader flourish and increase self-awareness.

The most successful OKR adoptions happen when teams are empowered to find their way to success. This doesn’t mean left alone. It means a leader helping create a strategic plan and working with the team to define success.

Many leaders struggle to create this high accountability context. A good consultant can coach them to get there.