OKR, an acronym for “Objective and Key Results,” is an effective goal-setting framework. Once OKR tools are implemented in any organization, it automatically brings countless benefits. Therefore, popular multinational companies such as Google, Adobe, Netflix, and Spotify have successfully implemented OKR tools and are repeating tremendous benefits too.
Undoubtedly, implementing powerful OKR tools reaps numerous benefits for any organization. It includes aid in drafting the vision and mission, unveiling the priorities, and boosting employee engagement.
So, if you haven’t decided to implement OKR software yet, here are a few ways in which it can benefit your business. Read on the endless benefits it offers your business to make an informed decision at the earliest.
What is OKR?
OKR is an acronym for “Objectives and Key Results.” A goal-setting methodology helps an organization’s employees set and track measurable goals.
It was originally pioneered by John Doerr. It offers a framework that pairs the objectives the team wishes to achieve with the key results that will be used to measure the progress made so far. In short, your long-term objectives are tied to your employee’s day-to-day work.
5 ways OKR benefits an organization
1. Team Alignment
The major benefit of OKR software is connecting individual and team goals in an alignment toward achieving the organization’s mission. According to a study by the Harvard Business School, organizations with highly-aligned employees tend to be twice as top performers compared to the ones with no alignment.
So, once the objectives are set, the planning process for OKRs shifts to its execution in a day-to-day scenario. For this, the managers as well the employees align their activities to fulfill the company’s wide vision. Here, this linkage is termed alignment and, at no cost, should be overstated.
The overall alignment works like this:
- Top managers set the overall company-wide OKR.
- Depending on them, different teams or departments set their OKRs to achieve the company’s strategic mission.
- Furthermore, dependent on team goals, individual employees set their goals.
So, OKRs ensure that every employee moves in the same direction to achieve the company’s mission. If you want to scale your business and deliver incredible results, we recommend connecting with professional OKR coaches like https://okrquickstart.com to start your journey with OKR quickly.
2. Flexibility
OKRs promote shorter goal cycles. It ultimately allows the team to adapt and adjust to changes. Further, such flexibility reduces risks and wastage of resources.
When strategic OKR is set for 1 year, tactical OKR is set for a quarter. When the designated period ends, the employees analyze the results and make changes in the strategic OKRs, if necessary.
3. Focused teammates
This methodology works on the principle of breaking down a larger picture into several smaller jigsaw pieces. The completion of each piece ultimately leads to the completion of the entire picture.
Even the OKRs can be divided into several periods- weekly, monthly, or quarterly objectives. This way, the short and few objectives can remain in sight of the employees. It further helps them focus on achieving shorter and fewer objectives at a time.
Again, OKRs allow the teams and the individual employees to focus on the most important things first. The experts recommend only around 2 to 4 Objectives for a team or individuals and pair the same with no more than 3 to 5 Key Results.
So, anything irrelevant or associated with the ongoing objectives can be moved freely to the backlog for the upcoming cycles.
4. Drive to achieve beyond expectations
The implementation of the OKR tool encourages team members to think beyond what seems easily achievable. It drives them to look for creative and innovative ways to achieve outstanding results.
The fact is- the average score of success rate to achieve the desired results won’t be higher than 70-80%. The question that strikes your head is- Why so? The OKR framework promotes setting the most challenging objectives, commonly known as “Moonshot Objectives.” These objectives aren’t always achievable, and leaders do realize this. But, these OKR tools are structured to encourage employees to think out of the box and motivate them to achieve the maximum goals.
This way, the OKR framework motivates employees to be innovative and creative. Again, even with the Moonshot Objectives, the employees remain highly focused on doing work to achieve set goals that they hardly look at the scope of failure. The employees, teams, and managers- all work in collaboration to achieve the company-wide vision.
So, the organization should be experienced and mature to understand and accept the results without being upset. However, organizations new to OKR methodologies can get disappointed initially with the inability to achieve set goals at all times.
5. Promotes transparency, autonomy & accountability
Mostly, the top management of any company knows just 4 percent of the problems faced by the frontline. So, when the OKR tools are implemented, it helps melt the iceberg of ignorance.
OKRs offer accountability and autonomy to team members. As it is a result-oriented framework, its main emphasis is on the final results. So, it allows individual employees to set their own goals. However, those set goals should align with the team’s and the company’s goals.
Also, according to the experts, around 60 percent of OKRs must be set by employees and not by their managers alone. This way, when the employees work on the goals set on their own and not forced on them, they remain committed and motivated to achieve their goals.
In addition, this approach offers personal accountability to every employee for their set objectives. Moreover, alignment is only possible when the entire process is transparent. When they work to progress towards achieving their personal set goals, every single employee is held accountable for their achieved output and overall performance.
Endnote
Considering how OKR benefits an organization, it is evident that OKR methodologies are too good to be true. So, such a goal-setting framework is a must-try for businesses.
Undoubtedly your employees would certainly fall in love with this approach. Still, this framework isn’t easy to adapt instantly. It would need a lot of effort to be together as a team. So, it is the best practice to connect with a professional OKR coach to get started with OKRs effectively in no time.
