Alignment & OKRs

This article does not introduce the topic of OKRs, it assumes that you're familiar with them and are likely already using them.

Why is it hard to create great OKRs?

On the surface it's easy to define Objectives and measures for tracking progress and completion. But are they providing all the benefits that they can?

Let's start with the easier bits to get right. Your OKRs must:

Provide Transparency & Clarity
Transparency fosters trust.
From a top-down direction, do they help clarify where we're heading and what is important in this period outside of everyone's BAU (business as usual) activities?
From a bottom-up direction, do they provide transparency of progress and more importantly where there is a lack of progress? Is it safe for people to honestly reflect slow progress? Are the OKRs helping to shine a light on where there may be organisational issues, process bottlenecks or other problems that leadership can invest time and resources improving?
Foster a Sense of Purpose
Modern organisational paradigms are based on providing their employees with a clear sense of purpose, that they are contributing to something meaningful and that they themselves will help to make a difference. This has been shown to greatly improve motivation and productivity.

Now let's consider the hard....well, maybe not hard, but the thoughtful bits. It's not simply a case of following a process.

Your OKRs help you focus on achieving your goals. But what are your goals today?

Direct Targets & Waypoints

These are objectives for when you can set a path and your goal is to stay on track by having intermediate points (aka waypoints).

Systemic Improvements

Do you need to stimulate change or to develop new capabilities? Try to define the desired outcome as your objective and not all the parts that need to be in place.

Your waypoints are OKRs over time. There are several sporting analogies such as "keeping your eye on the ball as you hit it and not to look at where you're aiming for" and in 10-Pin Bowling to focus on the lane arrows in front of you, not the pins at the far end of the lane.

Your systemic improvement OKRs are still striving for outcomes but those outcomes may be as much about building the enabling capabilities as it is the defined objective. An example, albiet an entirely made up one, would be that you want your car to have new tyres, an oil change, the washer fluid filled up and confirmation that the the windscreen wiper blades are working well. Each of these are valuable in their own right but you might simply set the objective to someone for your car to be maintained and made ready for a long road-trip next month. You then also have a car that is capable of safely and legally transporting you wherever and whenever you like.

For both types of objectives, it's important to think about the type of behaviours that you're hoping to encourage.

Achievable (and maybe a little ambitious) - these help people to prioritise their effort and to optimise their methods.
BHAGs - these stimulate creativity, step-change thinking where the fundamental assumptions and ways of working are challenged.

BHAGs - Big Hairy Audacious Goals (Jim Collins's Book 'Built to Last')

And of course, the foundations to all of this is to create the right measurement system, ideally KPIs.

See Good KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) here at kpi.org

Top Tip:

It's vital that:

The Workforce don't perceive this as measuring their abilities or performance.
The Senior Leadership Team understand that this is providing them with transparency that will give them actionable insights. I.e. what needs to be done, and as such, how can they better support the people most relevant to the slow or stalled progress of an OKR?
- The SLT must assume:
  1. Everyone wants to succeed (they are WILLING)
  2. Everyone is competent (they are ABLE)

This will then provide the right, safe environment to maximise success.

There are mountains of resources and guides available on the subject of OKRs and KPIs. This page is intended to provide you with a quick and easily digestible 'thought provoker' for those times when you're struggling to unleash the power of OKRs.

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