Human resource departments and managers work tirelessly to ensure a business or company has the right team members in place. There are many strategies businesses can use to end up with an effective team, with the OKR framework being one of them. Objectives and Key Results is a system of goal and strategy management that can help ensure transparency and alignment throughout an organisation.
Understanding the OKR Framework
Objectives and Key Results is a simple strategy. The users and stakeholders in the system decide on a goal or objectives and then define three to five key results they would like to achieve. These results could also be tangible outcomes that can be achieved in the business. If these outcomes are achieved or the results realised, the primary objective will have succeeded.
The OKR framework is used a lot in the tech industry by companies like Google which attributes its success to the use of this effective strategy.
Processes That Help Businesses Achieve Strategic Alignment
The different benefits businesses can get from using the OKR framework begin with ensuring the OKR is set up properly.
Strategic Initiatives
The first step in leveraging this strategy is setting strategic initiatives. This includes considering the long-term strategy and organisational goals of your business. OKRs with the most impact take strategic direction very seriously. The first OKR quarter is an important period because if you start by focusing on the wrong organisational objectives, you will end up with the wrong results.
Strategic planning does not only entail thinking about the projects you would like to complete or the goals you would like to meet in the next quarter. It includes thinking about the next three to five years and where you see your organisation in that timeframe.
Once you have this vision, you can start working backwards to formulate a business strategy that gets you there. Break down these three- to five-year goals into milestones you would like to hit each year. Remember that OKRs are great for setting Moonshot and sometimes highly ambitious goals.
Think about the best-case scenarios and your most ambitious goals and create aggressive goals to meet them. Your vision and mission will be integral to the development of high-quality objectives that you work towards.
Business leaders can benefit from OKR consultancy which helps them with the development of a business strategy that enables them to achieve their goals and objectives. Companies like 1ovmany provide business strategy development coaching and training to help business leaders in implementing their OKRs. You can talk to an expert at 1ovmany.com and start creating the business future you and your employees deserve.
Objectives
The next step in using OKR in your alignment strategy is to identify your objectives. These objectives inform what your employees and team members prioritise in a given quarter. Objectives align with your most important goals for a given period and without them it becomes difficult to strategize with and align your team.
Once identified, you should break these objectives down so that they are understood at different business levels. OKR puts your company in an action-oriented stance, aligning everyone around company targets established at the highest levels. Then, everyone knows to work on the goals that are set at the highest company levels. Once this happens, everyone, including new hires, can contribute to the goals that are most important to the business.
Key Results
You should create your high-level key results following a few rules. First, you should have a list of three to five quantifiable outcomes. These outcomes should not overlap, they ought to be mutually exclusive, and should be exhaustive when taken together. Creating key results with these rules in mind ensures that their completion and achievement means your objectives have succeeded.
What You Get for Using the OKR Framework for Strategic Alignment
Setting your goals and objectives and knowing what results to aim for helps businesses focus on what is most important to and for them. Creating OKRs as discussed above helps business leaders have confidence in knowing they will be dedicating time and effort into working on what matters most for their business. Additionally, OKRs help all employees know what to focus on from the first day.
The second benefit is goal clarity. Once goals and objectives are broken down for each level and transmitted to all team members, businesses can have transparency strategies in place to ensure everyone knows what they should be working towards. Doing so not only puts things in perspective but also ensures smooth communication between teams, departments and different levels.
Lastly, using OKR for strategic alignment ensures maximum productivity. Everyone understands the tasks and projects they should prioritise. This means managers spend little time trying to organise activities, and employees waste little time trying to find out what they should be working on.
Objectives and Key Results (OKR) is one of the most efficient strategies for aligning teams around strategic goals. Using it ensures uncomplicated processes and a business that can achieve its goals and objectives.
