OKR Implementation - How to Successfully Start with Objectives & Key Results
Korbinian Riedl8/31/2022
We'll show you how to successfully implement the OKR method
Table of contents
- Why is it sensible to introduce OKRs?
- OKRs as a holistic framework
- What benefits arise through OKRs?
- The ideal conditions for introducing OKRs
- Let's go! The OKR introduction
- OKR introduction
- OKR rollout
- Why does introducing OKRs often fail?
- What tools can support the introduction of OKRs?
- So you can benefit from the positive effects as quickly as possible, you should deal intensively with the method and your own organization before the introduction. It's especially important to develop a holistic view, in which you take into account both the methodological, the content-related and the human aspects of the OKR introduction.
Developed in Silicon Valley, made famous by Google, and now found in companies all over the world. The OKR method has spread like wildfire over the last few years. Today, you can hardly find a company that has not at least once dealt with Objectives & Key Results.
For good reason: The OKR framework promises to bring agility into corporate management and to involve teams and employees more in the process of setting goals. Companies hope for a stronger focus on the most important goals, better alignment of resources and greater engagement of employees.
To really achieve all these benefits, the implementation of OKRs requires - depending on where you start - more or less large changes within an organization. In this article, our guest author, Korbinian Riedl, describes his experiences, common mistakes, and tips for successful introduction of OKRs.
Why is it sensible to introduce OKRs?
The OKR framework can - with good implementation - bring many benefits to an organization. Companies start to engage with OKRs for various reasons. Here are a few typical examples:
- Lack of clarity about the "Big Picture" in daily work
- No traction in the implementation of strategies
- Important topics are not advancing (fast enough)
- Zigzag course and constantly new topics (-> opportunities)
- Poor alignment between areas & silo thinking
- Employees are increasingly dissatisfied.
Of course, OKRs do not solve these problems single-handedly. It requires a holistic view of the framework. Only then are the many positive effects touted in connection with the OKR framework realized.
OKRs as a holistic framework
So what does it mean to use OKRs as a holistic framework? In practice, many different interpretations of OKR can be seen. Unlike, for example, with Scrum, there is no central OKR instance and consequently no uniform definition of the framework.
Instead, various interpretations have developed over time, some of which even contradict each other. If you have ever tried to get an overview of OKRs on the web, you have probably noticed this in one place or another.
Accordingly, the OKR method is sometimes used only in individual projects, sometimes as a performance management system, and sometimes to control strategic initiatives. While this may bring some initial benefits, major changes are often lacking. A holistic view is needed for these.
With a holistic implementation, the OKR framework becomes the central control and prioritization system for all topics within the organization. The most important goals are worked out from all possible goals through the OKR process and brought in line with the available resources.
As a result, you can identify goal conflicts early on and develop a better sense over the quarters of what is possible in an OKR cycle at all. Dependencies between areas/departments/teams are made transparent before the implementation begins. This way you can make a conscious decision about which are the really important topics and which ones need to wait for now.
What benefits arise through OKRs?
Introducing OKRs thus has the potential to fundamentally change the way goals are set and collaboration occurs in your organization. The process is very transparent and picks up impulses from the entire organization. This results in many positive effects for the whole organization and for individual employees.
The biggest benefits from using OKRs include:
- Clear focus on vision, strategies & company goals
- Structured process for decisions about scarce resources
- Avoiding the impulse to seize opportunities immediately
- Clear decisions, before the quarter starts
- Goals are worked out transparently and agreed to in a cross-functional way
- A feeling of working together on important goals arises
- Stress and overwhelm are reduced
The ideal conditions for introducing OKRs
The initial OKR implementation in a company can be a complex undertaking. Depending on your individual starting situation, there can be quite different challenges. For an assessment, you should take a look at the following areas and anticipate the challenges that may arise.
The guiding principle of the OKR introduction
The corporate guiding principle defines the content framework for all goals. This should be formulated, communicated, and understood in the organization so clearly that employees and teams are able to develop goals for their areas of responsibility independently. If the content framework is lacking here, it will show in the OKR process: Instead of dealing intensively with the most important corporate goals, you will have your hands full trying to tie up the many loose ends.
You should definitely put this level to the test. Above all, your strategies must show a clear path to the future, allowing teams to make decisions about the use of their time and energy. If you see major deficiencies here, it is worth creating clarity at this level first. This will not only help you in introducing OKRs but will also have a direct positive effect.
The corporate culture
OKRs are an agile framework for corporate management. Correspondingly, working with OKRs requires an agile mindset. Because although it may sound good to you at first, you do not always find open doors with topics such as radical transparency or bottom-up goals.
In environments such as startups, where everyone is keen to develop their own goals and contribute to the development of the company, there are usually no major challenges.
Large and medium-sized companies with structures that have grown over the years often face major cultural changes, and introducing OKRs quickly becomes a transformation process.
So try to develop a feeling for what resistance there might be in your organization and think in advance about how to counter it. But don't be deterred at the same time! The OKR process offers a good structure to develop further quarter by quarter.
The structures in the OKR introduction
Clear structures are an important prerequisite for introducing OKRs, because the structure of the OKR sets by departments, teams, etc., is also based on them. Ideally, your structure is set up in such a way that the individual units can largely achieve their goals autonomously.
Dependencies will of course always exist. However, too many dependencies increase complexity and coordination effort. If your structure is very complex, it will already be difficult to bring the dependencies under one roof during planning. Based on experience, it doesn't get any better during implementation.
So pay attention to clear team affiliations of employees and check if you can't structurally resolve system inherent dependencies. The clearer the structures are, the easier the coordination via the OKR process is.
The more clarity you can create in the three areas before the start of the OKR implementation, the faster the positive effects of introducing OKRs will become noticeable.
At the same time, this is not about perfection, but about already solving as many of the deficiencies as you can foresee before you get started. Because if there's one thing the OKR process is really good at, it's consistently showing deficits.
Let's go! The OKR introduction
You have looked at the guiding principles, corporate culture and your structures. Now you are confident that these provide enough orientation and clarity to derive and coordinate goals? Then gaining experience is now the most helpful thing.
To give you a good overview here, we divide the OKR implementation into three phases: Preparation, introduction and rollout.
Preparation of the OKR introduction
The decision for OKRs has been made and you now need to define how the OKR implementation should proceed. You should definitely pay attention to the following points:
- Clarity about the OKR framework
- OKR training for the entire organization
- Training one or more OKR champions
- Create a digital home for OKRs
- Timings & deadlines for the start of the first OKR quarter
Clarity about the OKR framework
As mentioned above, there are different interpretations and examples of OKRs. To prevent confusion, it's important that you clearly decide on a framework and use this as the basis for your OKR introduction. Otherwise, different ideas can emerge, which you will then have to harmonize later.
OKR training for the entire organization
One of the most important factors for a uniform understanding of OKRs is the training of executives and employees. Here, the use of online courses is a good way to efficiently and uniformly convey the content. In smaller organizations, you can also offer live training. Again, remember to ensure that the training or courses match your framework. An OKR at one company might be something different than an OKR at another company.
Training of OKR champions
To really establish the OKR process in the company, you should train one or more OKR champions depending on the company size. As a rule of thumb, you should have at least one OKR champion for every 100 employees. For multiple locations, it is worth having an OKR champion per location. The OKR champions are the central contacts for all questions about OKRs, they moderate the OKR workshops and coach executives and teams in formulating and applying OKRs.
Create a digital home for OKRs
Think about how & where you want to manage your OKRs. There are many different options for this, from a simple Google sheet, to a solution with tools like Asana up to special OKR software like Workpath, Perdoo or Mooncamp.
You can find an overview of popular OKR tools in the OKR category on OMR Reviews:
Timings & deadlines in the OKR introduction
Plan enough time for preparing the first OKR quarter. The method is new and there's often a lot of uncertainty at the beginning especially when formulating the OKRs. First, you should define the date for the OKR workshop with the leadership team. Plan for two days to allow enough time for the definition and the alignment of the OKRs.
Before and after the workshop, you should give a week each to allow the workshop to be prepared by the leadership team. Afterwards, there should be enough time to break down the goals at other levels.
OKR introduction
Under the point of OKR introduction, we consider here the complete first OKR quarter. The focus here is primarily on getting the OKR processes in the organization up and running and getting used to working with OKRs as an organization. The most important steps in this phase are:
- The first OKR workshop
- Break down OKRs
- Implement OKR meetings & updates
- OKR review
- Planning for the next cycle
The first OKR workshop
Here you are developing OKRs for the company and for the second level of your organization for the first time. For this, the first two leadership levels (e.g., CEO & VPs) meet so that the entire breadth of the organization is represented. The goal is to coordinate the OKR sets on the top two levels in such a way that all dependencies are clarified. Then you can be confident that the goals can be achieved.
Break down OKRs
Depending on how many levels your organization has and how many levels you already want to firmly integrate into the process in the first quarter, the results of the OKR workshop will be broken down even further. In such a way that the units underneath can formulate their own OKR sets. After this step, you start the implementation.
OKR meetings and updates
During the quarter, the OKR meetings will become the central control instrument. Here you should ensure that there is a clear communication structure and the OKRs are used as a basis for exchanging information in regular meetings. Do not plan too many additional meetings, but try to make use of the existing structure.
Getting the meeting structure up and running is a key factor in keeping the focus on OKRs during the quarter.
OKR review
One of the biggest benefits of the OKR process is the continuous learning across the entire organization. Therefore, you should always - and especially in the first cycle - ensure that clean reviews are made based on the OKR sets. This includes the evaluation of the results and a retrospective of the first OKR quarter. You can use these insights directly for planning the next quarter.
Planning the next cycle
At the end of the introduction phase, the OKR workshop for the second quarter is up. Here you can incorporate all the learnings and insights from the first quarter. Also, hopefully, some points that did not go well in the first cycle can be resolved for the second OKR quarter.
OKR rollout
At this point you have gone through all phases of the OKR process once and you can start developing your organization with OKRs continuously. The OKR rollout therefore mainly refers to two things:
- Rolling out and optimizing the OKR process
- Use OKRs to develop the organization further
Roll out and optimize the OKR process
Few companies are at a point after a quarter where everything runs smoothly. Therefore, you should focus on improving the OKR process after the OKR introduction so that it becomes second nature in the long term.
Use OKRs to develop the organization further
One of the strengths of OKRs is that the process makes many other topics visible. So pay close attention when you notice that the process is not working so well at one point or another. Ask yourself where the cause could be. Thus, the OKR framework can be a good help for transformation processes and make you more successful in the long term.
Why does introducing OKRs often fail?
The introduction of OKRs as a comprehensive control system for the company is certainly a challenge. Therefore, we want to give you some reasons here that often lead to the failure of the OKR introduction:
- No clarity about where it should go in the long term A clear guiding principle from vision, values, and strategies are essential to achieving impact in the right direction with OKRs.
- Old wineThose who actually want to continue as before and simply want to do it through OKRs in "new hoses" should rather save themselves and the organization the effort of introducing OKRs. Here you need above all the commitment of the leadership team to really engage with the framework.
- Parallel goal systems next to OKRsIf, in addition to OKRs, other goal systems such as a business plan, budget plans, or individual bonus agreements are active, goal conflicts arise sooner or later. You should urgently try to avoid this.
- Unclear structures and team affiliationsIf the allocation of resources between teams is unclear, or employees belong to several teams, it becomes difficult to get the right match of goals and available resources when defining the OKRs.
- Day-to-day business is not taken into account One of the top reasons why OKRs fail! If you do not take day-to-day business into account, OKRs will always be perceived as "On-Top effort." This leads to more overwhelm instead of less, goals are not reached, and employees rightly ask what the whole thing with the OKRs is supposed to be.
What tools can support the introduction of OKRs?
So that you don't make the already challenging OKR implementation unnecessarily difficult, you should definitely think about how you can support the OKR process with tools. The use of tools is especially useful in the OKR workshop and for managing the OKRs during the quarter.
In the OKR workshop, classic collaboration tools such as Miro, MURAL or Conceptboard are usually used. Especially in virtual workshops, you should not do without these. Also in physical OKR workshops, these solutions are becoming more and more established, because the documentation afterwards is simply much better than, for example, on Post-Its.
The more exciting tool question, however, revolves around the digital home for OKRs. Depending on the size of your company, the affinity for tools and also your existing tool landscape, you can choose from different categories of tools. The tools can be divided into three categories in general:
Basic solutions
Tools where you can simply represent OKRs, but without any special functionality. At the start, they are often a good option to gain experience first before investing time and money in introducing a new tool. Be sure to use a cloud-based solution that allows you to work in parallel.
Typical basic solutions are e.g. Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel 365.
Allround solutions
Solutions that were not specifically developed for OKRs, but are well suited for it. They include functions that are helpful for the management of OKRs. Often, these are already introduced in the company, so that no additional efforts arise.
These tools were specifically developed for managing OKRs and include for example OKR-specific features for the visualization of dependencies, the documentation of check-ins, as well as the creation of OKRs.
Specific OKR tools include
, Workpath, and Perdoo. Ally.ioWhy introducing OKRs is worth it QuantiveWorking and steering with OKRs can solve many of the challenges that companies face today. It helps you to deal intensively with long-term goals and strategies and brings traction to the right topics in the entire organization. So there's a lot to be gained from introducing OKRs.
So you can benefit from the positive effects as quickly as possible, you should deal intensively with the method and your own organization before the introduction. It's especially important to develop a holistic view, in which you take into account both the methodological, the content-related and the human aspects of the OKR introduction.
From then on, experience through the consistent application of OKRs helps, and do not be discouraged by setbacks!
Damit Ihr möglichst schnell von den positiven Effekten profitieren könnt, solltet Ihr Euch vor der Einführung intensiv mit der Methode und der eigenen Organisation auseinandersetzen. Wichtig ist vor allem, einen ganzheitlichen Blick zu entwickeln, bei dem Ihr sowohl die methodischen, die inhaltlichen und die menschlichen Aspekte der OKR-Einführung berücksichtigt.
Ab dann hilft Erfahrung durch die konsequente OKR-Umsetzung und sich nicht von Rückschlägen entmutigen zu lassen!
Author
Korbinian Riedl
Author
Korbinian Riedl
Mit Murakamy arbeitet Korbinian daran, einen ganzheitlichen Ansatz der Führung & Steuerung in Unternehmen zu etablieren, der zu mehr Klarheit und zu weniger Stress und Überforderung in Organisationen führen soll. Korbinian verantwortet neben der OKR Ausbildung, dem OKR-Seminar und dem OKR-Online-Kurs auch die Online-Aktivitäten von Murakamy und liebt es, neue Wege zu finden, Menschen von ganzheitlicher Führung zu begeistern.
