Landing on this page means that you cannot keep your thoughts out of focus, emerging in the interest of the OKRs. However, we hope you are aware of the term OKRs, and even you have implemented it within your organization to get effective results. Knowing OKRs itself is a huge advantage as you would feel one step ahead of your competitors.
Before starting, we must acknowledge the users who are trying to implement OKRs. For those beginners, we are going to define what OKRs actually means and how they can help you increase the efficiency and performance of your business. In this article, we will break down each factor one by one relating to OKRs.
The Term ‘OKR’, What does it actually mean?
The term OKR is a combination of two parts: O, which stands for objectives, and KR, which stands for Key Results. You can say it’s a strategy or one organized methodology that helps businesses grow significantly. When you define objectives and key results for any specific task, it definitely helps you ensure that your entire workforce is moving in the right direction to achieve the common goal.
The OKR you define should not become an example of hectic or intricate activity. Rather, it must break down complicated and lengthy tasks into small parts and day-to-day objectives. The objective should be short, which keeps the person interested in doing the activity with a lot of enthusiasm. Eventually, this will get your job done correctly.
Example of the OKRs
Objective (O)
● Dominate the ZARA Fashion Market
Key Results (KR)
● Increase ranking on Google for the word ‘ZARA Fashion’ by 7 places
● Increase sales by 40%
● Design sponsored posts with at least 10 Zara Fashion influencers
● Ensure that the top five keywords remain ‘ZARA Fashion’
How to Make your OKRs actually work in your Business?
Although now you know a bit about OKRs, the challenging task is how you can implement OKRs into your business. Companies that start using OKRs after getting excited can fail if they do not have proper planning. Even with the start they get, they find themselves in a position where everything seems impossible, and motivation has already gone. They cannot achieve results because of the inconsistency in using OKRs.
Dodge initial hurdles with OKRs
The concept of OKRs runs on an obstacle-free road. However, just like each activity, initiating is the hardest part. In OKR, you need to define objectives and key results, and that’s what you care about. Once you set your goal, the challenging part of achieving that goal is to set the right key results that will be performed by your team members regularly.
It would be great if you define your OKRs as per the priority. However, sometimes, your OKRs can be missed due to essential work. The right way to combat this situation is to review OKRs that you have set and ask your employees what troubles they have been facing while performing on the specific key results. Transparency is key here!
Expect a learning Curve
No one is smart enough to use OKRs at the start. Writing smart goals and key results is a skill that will be developed once you start using OKRs in your day-to-day tasks. It will always be challenging for a new company to introduce such a method to employees; it will be considered a separate task, interfering in their regular workflow.
It is better to experiment with a bunch of people and then apply to the whole organization. There will be in-depth learning of the idea with a small team. They can guide the rest of the company using their personal experience and takeaways. Day by day, you need to move forward until OKRs become an essential element for your organization.
Make a Transparent Company
The ideology of OKRs can only sustain in a transparent environment. With OKRs in use, users can see how everyone is performing and their difficulties in the process. The transparent system allows everyone to be expressive and know each other's performance. Everyone can see the final result and decide about their accountability towards the goal.
There is one downside to being a transparent organization. Employees would think they will be judged in the course of being transparent or more expressive. Nevertheless, you can still combat such over-thinking culture. You can change the culture; you can inspire them to feel valued. Suggestions are always acceptable! You can criticize them, but the language shouldn’t be too harsh.
The output/Key Results must be quantifiable
Descriptive and subjective key results may create an impression of being on the right path towards the goal. However, it will also become a topic for debate whether you have indeed achieved your goal or not. On the contrary, numbers give you an accurate perception; numbers speak of what you have actually achieved. Try to set the objective that delivers the outcomes in the form of numbers. For example, measuring the number of good reviews, measuring successful orders, etc.
Opt for a simple approach
One of the prime highlights of OKRs is their simplicity. It is such lightweight that everyone can set objectives, key results, and make others achieve goals in the organization. It would be misleading if we compare OKRs to micromanaging. OKRs existence must serve its purpose of being a tool for guiding others in the right direction, it should create a culture where everyone shall lean towards one common goal.
Final Say
We hope this article will help you understand how OKRs can actually work in your business. In the above article, we have described what we find best suited for OKRs. At first, implementing and achieving OKRs can be a tedious task for a long process. However, when you put OKRs into practice, you can achieve your goal in whatever you do. If you have any interesting facts related to OKRs, do share them in the comment section below.
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- How To Make Your OKRs Actually Work In Your Business - August 1, 2021
