Top Five Common OKR Challenges

There is a surge of start-ups in this era, some of whom start generating large sums of profits within a few years of foundation. Are you wondering how these companies manage to hit success so early?

Well, it’s not a very well hidden secret. The answer lies in the management framework these companies follow. OKR is definitely an important aspect, which stands for Objectives and Key Results. The Objectives are the end goal that you want to reach, and the Key Results are measurable ways by which you can get there.

Some of the top companies to use OKR include Google, Twitter, Intel, Sears, LinkedIn, Oracle and Zynga. OKRs essentially help bring teams and the entire company together.

Why Use OKRs?

Gives A Sense Of Direction:

Imagine the outcome when a collective of dozens or hundreds of employees, all moving as one towards a common objective. It’s surely to derive fantastic results.

Improved Focus:

OKRs allow you to revisit objectives on a frequent basis and measure where you stand in comparison. This enhances focus and personal growth.

Increases Collaboration:

Every employee has certain set skills and if you have to make things happen in your workplace, you need to work with different teams that can move different aspects and finally get you to the finishing line.

Most companies have different layers of OKRs. There are entire company objectives and key results followed by the different departments such as Marketing, Product, Engineering, IT and Data, HR, Customer Service, Sales, Ops, etc. Breaking these down, each individual has their individual OKRs.

If your OKRs have not been fetching the right results, you might want to look into the following pointers.

Have Well Thought Objectives

When your team is achieving the OKRs too quickly, it might mean you are setting goals that are too easy. Objectives need to be ambitious, yet not impossible. If you achieve 70-80% in a given time period, it’s a positive progress. If you don’t, you need to re-evaluate.

Weekly Check-Ins

Most often teams set OKRs only to forget about them after some time. To tackle that situation, have weekly meetings to discuss team OKRs and the progress. Otherwise you might lose sight of the finishing line and go completely off-track.

Also Read: Why OKRs Are Crucial When Onboarding New Employees

Have Limited OKRs

Too many OKRs can completely mislead the employees and leave them utterly confused. Plan a maximum of 3 Objectives per timeframe and about 3-5 key results per objective.

Number Your Key Results

Key results make objectives measurable. While objectives are the bigger goals, Key Results measure how far you have achieved those goals. So it’s important to specify in numbers, what is your target and how you will get there.

Also Read: What To Look For In A Goal Setting Software

Don’t Miss The Bigger Picture

It might be easy to keep the key results in sight and keep working, don’t forget to keep the bigger picture in mind. Make sure to mention the objectives often, so that employees know where they are heading and if there are any diversions, they’ll identify and correct themselves.

OKRs definitely help in creating a sturdy process wherein thinking out of box is necessary in order to solve company problems. It’s easy as long as you know where you are headed and what are the measurable steps required to get there.

Do you want to know how Engagedly can help you with implementing OKRs? Then request for a live demo

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Author

Chandler Barr

VP of Sales

Chandler Barr is the VP of Sales at Engagedly and is focused on driving a culture of progress over perfection in a no-fault environment where employees are secure and encouraged to think creatively to solve problems. Chandler is a seasoned leader that has scaled sales teams for SaaS startups and multibillion-dollar publicly traded tech companies, as well as, led Marines to accomplish the mission during hardships overseas.

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