An OKR consists of a goal that indicates where to go. Several key results, which are the measurable results you need to achieve to achieve your goal. And initiatives, which are all the projects and tasks that will help you achieve your key results. OKRs typically contain three to five high-level objectives, with another three to five key measurable outcomes for each objective.
Even in the largest organizations, it's never recommended to have more than five OKRs at a time. For smaller teams and organizations, it's best to keep them in three. After setting your goals, you'll track the progress of each key result individually and check back on them frequently throughout the quarter. OKRs (objectives and key results) are a performance management framework designed to encourage companies to set, communicate, and monitor overall organizational goals and results.
The framework is intended to be transparent and align business, team and individual objectives in a hierarchical and measurable way. The OKR (Objectives and Key Results) is an agile framework for setting goals in companies. Used correctly, the OKR method can create more transparency, alignment, focus, and agility in your organization. Each set of OKRs must incorporate the organization's feedback and undergo multiple verifications and drafts.
Doerr's OKR formula consists of setting a goal, which is “what I want to achieve”, and the key results, which make it possible to achieve it. Other key differences between MBOs and OKRs are that the latter are quarterly, not annual, and are separate from compensation. OKRs support an objective or vision and, in addition, must be measurable, flexible, transparent and ambitious. Some of the best OKR tools are free, such as Google Docs and Google Sheets, or are even good and outdated, with pen and paper.
OKRs stand for Objectives and Key Results, a collaborative goal-setting methodology used by teams and individuals to set ambitious and challenging goals with measurable results. Due to the coronavirus pandemic and the subsequent trend towards a greater number of home offices, as well as digital and agile transformation initiatives, the OKR method can be expected to become the new standard for performance management in companies. Therefore, OKRs are the strategic link between strategy (vision, mission and medium-term objectives) and operations (tasks, activities and projects). When a workplace uses OKRs, employees are encouraged to set very high goals and must document progress toward successfully achieving key results with data to support them.
There are no strict rules about when to review the progress of OKRs, but it is normally recommended to review them weekly with key stakeholders and quarterly with a wider audience. OKRs quickly became a major topic for Google, and since then, companies like LinkedIn, Twitter, Dropbox, Spotify, AirBnB, and Uber have followed suit. Once you've established the OKRs, you'll need to score them, usually using a sliding scale between 0 and 1, or a percentage between zero and 100. Ask yourself and your team if your goals were ambitious enough, if the key results were measurable, if the OKRs were ignored, if they are still aligned with the business strategy and if the organization has felt committed to the OKRs.
However, an important difference is that OKR objectives have to be very ambitious, and that achieving 100% of key results is not as important as moving towards achieving them. Some think that OKRs are simply a more streamlined version of Peter Drucker's Objective Management (MBO) process, which requires that objectives be SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-bound).
