HR teams strive to create workplace environments that promote collaboration and increase employee performance and engagement. Objective and key results or OKR is a framework that gives your team focus and clarity. It also allows your employees to be more responsive to changes and increases their motivation to achieve business objectives. OKR methodology has benefitted several industry leaders, including companies like Google, Deloitte, NASA, The Gates Foundation, etc. This article covers various OKR tips from the top OKR experts in the industry that have shaped HR trends. These tips will teach you how to set effective OKRs in 2022 and OKR best practices, giving you step-by-step OKR software guidance.

Types of OKRs

Industry-leading companies often use different types of OKRs to drive growth and innovation. OKRs can be defined as follows.

• Committed OKRs, which set targets that need to be completed – progress is impossible without achieving these OKRs as they are essential for your enterprise.
• Aspirational OKRs which allow for ambitious goals – these OKRs can be up to 70% complete and still considered a success. They allow for exaggerated outcomes, which allows your teams to meet goals without the fear of failing.
• Cross-functional OKRs allow different teams in your enterprise to work together on shared objectives – these OKRs enable multiple units to be clear about what part they need to deliver regarding the common business goal.

Main purposes of OKRs

Before implementing OKR methodology in your enterprise, you should first understand the primary purposes of the framework. The OKR framework as we know it today had its roots developed by the former CEO of Intel, Andy Grove. In the early 1970s, Andy Grove leveraged an earlier iteration of the OKR framework in Intel. John Doerr, a member of Andy’s team, carried the message of OKR as he believed it would help enterprises execute their ideas. He defined the core of OKRs with the following characteristics.

• OKRs help enterprises focus on what is really important.
• Goal-setting frameworks help with faster alignment and engagement.
• Employees can gain autonomy and align their goals to the enterprise’s goals and vision.
• OKRs are data-driven and enable no-judgment accountability, which eliminates bias.
• Aspirational and committed goals can be achieved through OKR.

The Relevance of OKRs for Today’s Enterprise

After being impressed with the success of leveraging the OKR framework in Intel, Google’s Larry Page and Sergey Brin utilized its benefits to take Google from a small company to the tech giant it is today. They attribute a large part of Google’s success to implementing the OKR methodology. While creating the next Google may seem like an impossible feat, there are many ways your enterprise can benefit from OKR methodology today. A few benefits from the activities of OKR systems are listed as follows.

• Create focus and develop agile teams.
• Set clear and well-defined goals and expectations.
• Enhance collaboration, build trust and improve morale.
• Promote transparency, visibility, and accountability in an unbiased and honest environment.
• Drive growth, innovation, and change.
• Maintain discipline and increase employee performance and engagement.
• Make performance management more straightforward.

The Importance of Ambition

Co-founder of Google, Larry Page, emphasizes how important it is to set motivational or ambitious OKRs. He believes that if you set achievable and easy targets, your employees will easily achieve them and lose interest in the methodology and their work. His philosophy is along the lines of aiming for the stars, so you land on the moon.

“If you set a crazy, ambitious goal and miss it, you’ll still achieve something remarkable.”

 -Larry Page, Co-founder, Google

He also believes it is essential to focus on the mindset of learning when working towards a goal. He believes in encouraging talent and driving growth and innovation by building a workplace culture that is acceptable to fail as long as your employees learn from their mistakes. Following this tip in your enterprise can help you have the edge over your competition.

According to Bill Gates, OKRs help distinguish between a mission and goals. “An objective has a set of concrete steps that you’re intentionally engaged in and actually trying to go far.”

The Importance of Flexibility

Business environments are constantly changing and growing as time passes. It is a dynamic environment that requires enterprises to adapt if they are to stand a chance for success. Goal-setting frameworks should thus be resilient and agile to allow enterprises to be flexible. The global pandemic was unprecedented and shook the business world at its core. Enterprises that stuck to old methodologies and goals found themselves lagging further behind than enterprises that learned to adapt. OKRs make it easy to revise goals, where necessary, for businesses can stay on track towards growth and prosperity.

Many enterprises changed their OKRs in 2020 to account for the pandemic’s impact and digital transformation and meet the customers’ evolving needs. It allowed them to stay afloat and cope with potential business losses when the world was reeling from the effects of the pandemic.

An enterprise needs to be flexible and adapt to unexpected business outcomes and environments. You can implement objective and key results software to embrace change and be ready for any external conditions.

The Importance of Consistency

Once you have set your OKRs, it is essential to follow up on them. Weekly meetings would be ideal for measuring the progress of your OKRs and addressing any blocks if and as they arise. The philosophy of Triple-A has become a catchphrase that denotes alignment, accountability, and autonomy. Whether your business offers a revolutionary product, has top-performers, great leadership, or all of the above, consistent goal-setting is vital for an action-centric strategy with measurable key results to ensure a streamlined path to success.

Final words

OKRs have proven to be effective tools for achieving business success. Industry leaders have utilized them to great effect. Setting effective OKRs requires a specific mindset and understanding of their philosophy. This article explores the best OKRs tips from influencers to help you embrace the mentality behind creating OKRs. Like Bono of U2 says about the role of OKRs in his anti-poverty organization, ONE, “OKRs give us an environment for risk, for trust, when failing is not a federal offense. When you have the right structure, environment, and the right people, magic is just ’round the corner.”

Also Read: Benefits of Having an OKR Software in Your Organization