We are living in the age of competition, where all of the businesses have to try harder and harder to stay in the marketplace and not be eliminated from the competition. Organizations must incorporate excellent strategies to survive in this competitive world.
On the other hand, an organization’s core goal plays a vital role in its success. It is very important for organizations to set strategic goals and unify employees around those goals and also connect their work towards achieving them.
Goal setting is the process of establishing objectives and ways that can help your employees understand the individual, team, and organization’s wide business goals.
When your organization is looking for a way to set goals, you might hear about OKRs and here is a question:
What is OKR?
OKR stands for Objectives and Key Results. In detail, OKR is a useful goal setting and tracking method used by individuals and teams to set challenging, ambitious goals with measurable key results. OKR helps organizations define goals or objectives and then track the outcome in companies and at all levels. It keeps teams connected and provides alignment to strategic objectives.
Think about it, you can set goals or objectives for individuals, teams, and even your organization, then you can define 2 or 3 key results for each objective and make sure that they are all working right by tracking them.
OKR helps organizations and businesses to create a strong link between the core strategy of the company and execution.
OKR components
Objectives:
Objectives are qualitative descriptions of what you want to achieve. Objectives are challenging and ambitious goals. Notice that objectives shouldn’t be too easy to achieve.
In organizations, objectives are usually defined on a quarterly basis.
Key Results:
Key results are the metrics by which you measure your progress towards your objective. Key results are measurable and you can define 2-3 key results for each objective.
The OKR formula
John Doerr’s OKRs formula about OKR is simple and easy to understand: “I will accomplish ‘X’ Objective as Measured by ‘Y’ Key Result.”
John Doerr’s formula is to set an objective, which is “what I want to have accomplished,” and the key results, which are “how I’m going to get it done.” Thus, with OKR, a goal isn’t just what you want to achieve; it must include a way to measure achievement.
OKRs Example
Objective: Improve understanding of customer behaviors
- KR1: Provide an update for the customer journey map
- KR2: Survey at least 50 customers on what influences their buying decisions.