What is OKR? Learn how you can manage projects more efficiently

n addition, your deliveries will also be affected if the team is not following a roadmap, or parallel demands arise, scenario changes and lack of alignment between the strategic, tactical and operational levels. To overcome these challenges, we can use OKRs, which raise the efficiency of your deliveries, ensuring alignment at all levels in pursuit of the goals outlined, in addition to maintaining a cadence of follow-up and impacting on intrinsic motivation within operations, since about 60% of OKRs are defined from the bottom up.

What is OKR?

OKR stands for Objectives and Key Results, a framework that prioritises what matters most to the company at any given time. Through this methodology, an organisation is able to drive engagement and alignment between measurable organisational objectives, which can be broken down to individual levels.

While Objectives define what you want to achieve, Key Results are metrics, usually ambitious, that ensure the objective is achieved. In general we can simplify OKRs with the following phrase: I am going to (goal) measured by (set of key results). All companies operating with OKRs focus on goals aligned with specific objectives, and two to four key outcomes for each objective. This structure advocates transparency and acts as a communication tool to enhance employee engagement, meaning everyone within the organisation can see the goals and key results from all areas, and even individuals.

It is important to underline that objectives are generally qualitative and aim at changing levels within an organisation or market. They are "dreams" of the company, teams and employees. They are defined in simple sentences according to the vision and expectations of the business.

The main function of the objective is to communicate: language is the main tool to mobilise teams, through proposals for concrete actions.

Incorporating OKRs into project management

OKR and project management can complement each other: every project has a set of tasks that are defined on a regular basis to track the progress of that project. To drive the project forward, these tasks can be linked to the achievement of a key outcome, which in turn will be linked to an objective. Be careful not to confuse the creation of tasks within a project with key results.

How to make OKRs successful?

Committing to objectives is the surest way to achieve them, according to the principles that underpin SETEC's work with OKRs. Using it as a means to achieve these objectives provides a structure that must comply with certain points. These are:

Clarify the objectives: there is no way to achieve what is not clearly defined. Therefore, reducing the objective to its essence makes it easier for everyone to understand and easier to achieve.

Make goals inspiring: in addition to building clear and simple goals, they also need to be able to inspire. It even helps to set higher goals, which is usually called a 'moonshot'. This not only inspires teams to give more, but also helps make them think outside the box to achieve the high standard that is expected.

Keeping OKRs public and transparent: everyone's OKRs are known, which helps each team member to see how their individual goals are aligned with more general ones, linked to the company as a body. This allows them to see how their work is part of the bigger picture, which improves engagement and focus.

Evaluate progress: after defining an OKR, the path to achieving it is still missing. To achieve it, you need to track the progress of each step, which can be done using metrics or indicators built during the construction of the project. Within the framework there is a cadence for assessing progress that is dictated by constricting check-ins and feedbacks.

Accept possible mistakes: when high goals are set, it is common that failures are part of the process to achieve them - and therefore should not be punished, especially in a moonshot goal, where 70% achievement can often be considered a success. In the OKR framework it is important to deal constructively with failure. Generally, there is a lesson embedded in every failed project that is the key to future success, i.e. there is continuous improvement based on the cycles of OKRs, feedbacks, check-ins and lessons learned.

Benefits of OKRs

OKR is designed to keep the vision, goals and objectives of the company, team or individual at the forefront. People know what is expected of them and how their work fits into the larger tasks of the team, department or company.

Through this framework, everyone understands their goals and those of the company, and while employees have a closer relationship with their progress and are accountable for their tasks, they also understand what steps the organisation hopes to take - and that it is counting on them to do so.

This article is republished under the partnership between Nova SBE Executive Education andSetec Consulting Group » Read the original article