background

At present, some enterprises are facing some common problems, such as disjointed strategy and execution, and the creativity and productivity of employees are not stimulated and released

One. What is OKR

1. The concept

OKR (Objectives and Key Results) is a set of management tools and methods for tracking the achievement of Objectives and clearly defined achievement criteria

  • O (Goal), which is responsible for clearly communicating the purpose and intent of the action and is closely linked to the company’s strategy. At the same time, it should be objective, specific, convenient for people to communicate with each other, and easy to tell whether an O has been reached

  • KR (Key Results) is used to describe the necessary conditions for achieving the goal. It is specific and measurable so that we can know the progress of the goal by tracking the progress of the Key Results

2. The role

The meaning of OKR is to make the organization focus on “goals” rather than “tasks”, thus changing the thinking and behavior patterns of the entire organization. By focusing on goals and adhering to SMART principles, you can help organizations achieve the following goals

1. Effectively deliver strategic objectives to the grass roots

Problem: In large enterprises, multi-tiered and long chains lead to the loss and distortion of strategic goals

Solution: OKR makes target description clear, target (not task) decomposition up, down, left, right alignment (not pure task reception)

2. Can make cross-functional collaboration efficient

Common goal traction, avoid buttocks determine the head

3. Unleash employees’ creativity to increase their motivation

Shorten hierarchies, pull together goals, not just tasks

Note: SMART rule

3. Application scenarios

1) Traditional & large-scale organization (multiple layers, relatively stable goals, focus on cost and speed)

  • Alignment of goals at all levels (top-down & Bottom-up)

  • OKR = KPI under certain circumstances

  • Treat innovative and non-innovative sectors differently

2) Internet & Start-up organization (flat hierarchy and full of uncertainty)

  • Objective (O) is always aligned with corporate strategy

What is the company’s strategy?

What is the underlying logic that companies rely on for survival and development?

Who are the users we’re trying to serve? What are the user needs?

How much do the goals we set contribute to corporate strategy?

Example (🌰) :

VS

  • KR response changes are higher than following the plan

Fast response to complex and changeable environment, not random change

  • Key outcomes remain flexible (” Unchanged goals, variable key outcomes, iterative evolution “)

  • Set challenging goals (jump to reach, evolve iteratively)

  • Continue to focus on priorities (focus and deliver with relatively limited resources)

How to land OKR

1. About goals

Difficulties: Due to the complexity and rapid changes of the environment, the traditional KPI approach may fail to achieve the target after the task is completed

1.OKR focuses on purpose and value, and the “O” must represent the purpose of value

Counter example (🌰) :

2. Value mining

2.1 WHY (five questions)

Goals after excavation:

O1: “Make up for the loss of cash flow to the company caused by the epidemic.”

O2: “Build a healthier, more resilient sales network”

2.2 fill in the blanks method

For doing “O”, I got ______

2. About KR

Definition: describes the specific and measurable conditions necessary to achieve a goal. By tracking the progress of key outcomes, we can know the progress of our goals

2.1 Key Results vs Tasks (Key Actions)

Example (🌰) :

 

2.2 Quality measurement of key results

  • There is a direct causal relationship with goal achievement

Think: How will I know that I am achieving my goals? How do I know I’m not doing something wrong?

  • Just the right challenge

Ability to appropriately meet team or individual ambitions and stimulate creative thinking

  • Measurable, preferably with quantitative indicators

  • Focus, quantity (team quarterly OKR, recommended no more than 12 key results)

MoSCoW Prioritization

3. Process closed loop

3.1 Quarterly/monthly process

  • Establish a more accurate annual and quarterly OKR at the beginning of the year, and the following three quarterly OKRs describe a broad range. Then, at the appropriate point in time, start to develop detailed OKR for Q2, Q3 and Q4. OKR sets the meeting to focus only on the goal

  • Specific tasks can be carried out quarterly/monthly

3.2 OKR trace management tool

3.3 Checking A Check-in Conference

  • Check the rest of the OKR

  • Check people’s confidence (on a scale of 1-10, below 6 requires coordinated resources)

The frequency (weekly/bi-weekly/monthly/quarterly) is determined according to the level of job certainty

Meeting duration (15 min weekly, 30 min monthly)

3.4 Quarterly review meeting

  • Team level review (review + review + ReCheck)

Collect data and materials related to quarterly OKR progress, make reasonable arrangements for unfinished work, timely communicate with superiors, and help superiors to complete their OKR review

  • Individual level review

Collect data and materials related to the quarterly OKR progress in advance of the 1 to 1 review meeting

3.5 PDCA process

Target Source:

  • Goals decomposed from the top down

  • Self-directed goals from the bottom up

Strategy decoding

Strategy is a plan to realize the vision and mission of an enterprise. It is a choice based on the overall situation and the future with limited resources. It is a choice to find its own positioning constantly adapted dynamically

Correct thinking leads to correct strategy

Business: Why do enterprises exist

Humanity: The relationship between business and stakeholders

The Way of Heaven: The relationship between enterprise and environment

2. Level by level decomposition of strategy (for what) and tactics (how to do it)

3. Think dimensionally

Direction, Business, Organization, Talent, Change (Process and IT Planning)

4. Strategy and tactics development process

5. Extraction of key measures

  • System Bottleneck analysis

  • Stakeholder (objective, stakeholder, mission)

  • Process segmentation, value chain

Reference: Hook education – “Minimalist OKR Combat”