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OKRs: Objectives and Key Results III
First revision: Oct.8, 2024
Last change: Oct.15, 2024
Searched, Gathered, Rearranged, Translated, and Compiled by Apirak Kanchanakongkha.
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WHERE TO DEVELOP OUR OKRs
At first glance, OKRs appear to be very simple: Determine what you want to do, and how you'll know when you've achieved your goal. However, the actual creation and overall implementation of OKRs will require serious delierations on a number of topics. We described one earlier in the chapter when we examined your rationale for using the framework. In this section we'll look at another early implementation question: where you'll create OKRs. This section outlines the primary choices awaiting you.
Company-Level Only
For many organizations, this will be the most logical choice. Starting at the top has a number of inherent benefits: It clearly communicates what the organization is most focused on, demonstrates commitment and accountability on behalf of the executive team, and provides the means for later development of OKRs at lower levels of the firm. This approach "eases" the company into OKRs, giving all employees the time to digest the idea and witness how it can help transform results. There is actually a scientific basis for the notion of easing in, which is called future lock-in. Behavioral scientists Todd Rogers and Max Bazerman coined the term to describe the proclivity of people to be more amenable to a change (assuming it aligns with their values) if it will be implemented at somepoint in the future. Especially if you've had difficulty launching charge efforts in the past, this alternative has merit because it will be less threatening to employees. You're only rolling out at the corporate level initially and employees will have time to adjust to the idea as you show early benefits.
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The critical enabler of success should you choose this option is executive sponsorship. A lackluster rollout, followed by anemic interest on the part of executives, will doom OKRs from the outset. You'll require an enthusiatic champion (or champions) to create the initial momentum for the program and prove to the entire team that it is not just another "flavor of the month," destined to soon disappear.
Company and Business Unit or Team
A more ambitous approach is to launch OKRs at both the company and business unit or team level. By business unit or team, we are referring to any group that reports to a senior executive, your terminology may differ. The implementation would not be simultaneous. Rather, we would expect overall company-level OKRs to be created, and once they have been widely communicated, business units or teams will create their own OKRs that demonstrate their alignment to overall goals.
Most important with this method is ensuring that the company-level objectives have been carefully selected and are well understood, since they will provide the critical input for business unit or team OKRs. And once again, from the broken-record department, sponsorship at the executive level is vital. additionally, this choice entails some significant prework in the form of deployment parameters. Before you allow units or teams to create OKRs, you'll want to ensure that you have outlined key principles such as any maximum number of objectives or key results, agreement on terminology, scoring, and so on. We will be covering those topics in Chapter 3.
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