Are OKRs the secret to achieving your business goals?
OKR is an abbreviation for objective and key result. The term was created by Andy Grove who introduced the strategy at Intel once he realized that the goal management styles at the time were limiting. Today, big names like Google and Spotify use this method to achieve their own success. Here we talk about the strategy and why it is the ticket to your company’s success.
The Added Layers
The first reason that this strategy is more successful than alternatives is that it not only asks what needs to be accomplished but how itwill be accomplished. This additional component requires businesses to think deliberately and come up with specific plans to ensure that the goal is practical. Many companies choose to create company wide goals that have a span of three months. These months usually link with quarterly calendars, so they are good markers for the majority of goals. That being said, the amount of time dedicated to a goal will vary depending on the complexity of the goal and how it is being addressed. Part of OKRs is understanding that every player affects the overall output of the company. In this way, we understand that every player has an active and important role within the company and that no task is too small. This is precisely why employees feel a greater sense of inclusion and purpose when OKR strategies are implemented.
The Strategy that Makes you Focus
OKRs are the golden ticket for company success because they induce a great sense of focus in all team members. With more focus, employees do their jobs correctly and efficiently. As a result, the work output is greater and of the kind of quality that a business can be proud of. The focus is partially attributed to the understanding that everyone in the company is depending on one another to accomplish the individual tasks that allow the objective to become successful. The key results also play a role in this because they require certain measurements to be met to feel that the goal was actually successful. This added sense of pressure is positive because it challenges employees to work harder and to ensure that the work that they are putting in every day is directly in line with the overall goal of the company. Whatever business you own, finding a way to get your employees to demonstrate greater focus will ultimately benefit you. This is why OKRS are a great way to induce company success because they create this sense of focus regardless of the business or industry. If you feel that OKRs may be a great option for your business, you can look further into tools to navigate this strategy online. See profit.co for more information on strategy and software related to OKRs.
The Strategy that is Universal
We’ve mentioned that OKRs are applicable to any business and industry. But how exactly is this the case? A good way to understand this is to think about the commonalities of businesses, regardless of their differences. All businesses want to accomplish their goals. They also want to have a reliable workforce that they can count on to see things through to completion. Initially, seeing the big picture and then breaking down this overall goal into small steps is a very practical and widely used way of conducting business in the first place. To be frank, OKRs are not very complicated, and they simply map out the way human beings tend to think when they are acting deliberately and intentional towards their goals. Taking things in baby steps, dividing work up, and directing these tasks to individual employees most competent to complete them is fairly straightforward. Unfortunately, it’s difficult to remember to carry out this process when business is hectic and you’re not sure what your next move should be. Ultimately, OKRs give you the right strategy on paper so that you can carry out what is probably the most common-sense approach to goal manifestation that you can think of. So, if we take these universal desires and this framework that allows goals to manifest successfully, and we place them in the context of a business, we have no choice but to see the success of that business ultimately come to fruition.
There are some common approaches to OKR integration that many companies repetitively borrow from one another. These commonalities are applicable to many different businesses because they relate to the financial end of things as well as the maintenance of customer and employee satisfaction. When you think about the big picture, you may be drawn towards objectives that regard an annual initiative or a quarterly breakdown of goals. In either case, you were looking at a broad and a specific framework for your business. Having the current position, where it’s going, and the ultimate outcome you want projected, you have all of the pieces of intention that are required to achieve your business goals. Outside of this realm of common sense, what sets OKRs apart from other strategies is that it requires the help of everyone. Not everyone in business understands the benefit of integrating the bottom line as well as the rest of the company to achieve major goals. What this strategy shows us, however, is that when everyone has a task to complete, they are ultimately contributing to the greater goal of the company. Remembering to act with inclusion will be a major indicator of how successful your goals turn out to be.
The best kept secret to all business success is really no secret at all. When you look at the basic approach of OKRs, you see that breaking things down into bite-size pieces and including everyone in the company to play an active part are the main factors that contribute to a business’s success. If you follow these basic OKR guidelines and consider the details of your business, OKRs will absolutely get you where you want to be.
