webinar slides with paul niven & ben lamorte “okrs: best practices from the field”
TRANSCRIPT
Our Guests: Ben Lamorte & Paul Niven
Objectives & Key Results (OKRs) Best Practices from the Field
(Pronounced: A-Team)
NEW 2017 Expert Series
(800) 735-4071 [email protected] www.Atiim.com twitter.com/AtiimHQ
Moderated by Zorian Rotenberg, CEO @ Atiim
for OKR Goals & Ongoing
Performance Management#1
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Our Agenda
1. Introductions
2. OKRs – Fundamentals and Best Practices
3. The OKRs Adoption Framework
4. List of Emailed Questions
5. Open Q&A
Paul Niven
• Practitioner first, then consultant, and writer
• Consulted with Bearing Point and CSC
• Author of 6 books and many articles on the subjects of Strategy, BSC, and OKRs
• Speak at conferences and seminars around the world
• Clients include: Panasonic, Anheuser-Busch, U.S. Navy, D&B
Ben Lamorte
• Education: Management Science and Engineering at Stanford
• Started career as a Management Consultant
• Next 10 years: Driver-Based Planning & Financial Models • Led multiple teams (Sales/Marketing)
• Last 5 years: OKRs Coaching and Training
• Helped 100’s of managers draft and refine OKRs
• Current OKR clients in: UK, Germany, France, US and Canada
• Clients include: Sears, Zalando, CareerBuilder, eBay and D&B
1950s Management by Objectives (MBOs) (Peter Drucker/GE)
• Not Ambitious: Linked to compensation
• Too static: Annual cadence
• Top-down and bureaucratic
1980s Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) (Andy Grove/Intel)
• “Where do I want to go? How will I get there?”
• Ambitious: Decoupled from compensation / public
• Agile: Intel monthly; Quarterly cadence is default
1990s: Google begins using OKRs w/just 40 employees
2000s: 100s of companies (Twitter, LinkedIn, GoPro, Zalando)
History of OKRs
Benefits of OKRs
• Easy to understand: Simple terminology that enhances
buy-in, understanding, and support. Rick Klau: “When
OKRs are working well it’s as if everyone has acquired
fluency in a new language.”
• Shorter cadence: Reduces the lag between planning and
action, increasing agility and change readiness.
• Focus on what matters most: Separate the signal from
the noise and isolate the most fundamental priorities.
• Transparency: Everyone sees all OKRs (recall the Google
quote).
• Drive engagement: Teams and individuals have a say in
creating OKRs, and can engage in meaningful discussions
on results.
• Promote visionary thinking: OKRs are meant to stretch
the organization’s thinking on what is possible.
Benefits of OKRs
Companies that do goal setting quarterly are
3.5x more likely to be top performers in their industry.Source: Stacia S. Garr, “High-Impact Performance Management”, Bersin by Deloitte, December 2014
“For the group who used OKRs we saw an increase in their average
sales per hour of 8.5%. This increase is not only statistically significant,
but practically significant.” - Chris Mason, Ph.D., Sr. Director, Strategic Talent Solutions
Source: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/sears-holding-company-study-shows-okrs-impact-bottom-line-ben-lamorte
ROI of OKRs by the Numbers
OKRs:
A critical thinking framework and ongoing discipline that seeks to ensure employees work
together, focusing their efforts to make measurable contributions.
Ongoing discipline:
Don’t “Set it and forget it.”
Ensure employees work together:
OKRs must maximize cross-functional alignment and collaboration
Focusing their efforts:
OKRs are not a task list. They must represent what is most important
Make measurable contributions:
Key results are quantitative
Critical thinking framework:
Drucker: “The truly dangerous thing is asking the wrong questions.”
Definitions of OKRs
Objective - A statement of a broad qualitative goal, designed to propel the organization forward in a desired direction.
• “What do we want to do”
• Example: Delight customers with relevant offers and communications
Key Result - A quantitative statement that measures the achievement of a given objective.“How we will know we’ve met our objective?”
Increase revenue per email sent by 10%
“Add 3 new fields to marketing database”
“Send Better Emails”
“Improve Email Open Rate”
Key Result
Examples
Baseline – Used when you need to gather baseline
information in order to set a target.
Example - “Obtain a baseline for coupon
redemption.”
• Metric – The most common. These track quantitative
outcomes designed to gauge success on your
objectives.
• Positive: Increase, grow, build, etc. Key results is framed in
positive language.
• Negative: Reduce, eliminate, lower, decrease, etc.
• Threshold: Used when you require a range. For consultants:
“Maintain a consultant utilization rate between 70 and 80%”
• Milestone – Often used to convert a binary outcome
into a key result. Rely heavily on scoring.
Example - “Release push notification.”
Types of Key Results
Characteristics of Effective Key Results
MUST HAVE
1. “Key” not “all” - Is the key result just “business as usual” or is it a “key” result
2. Specific - Using specific language improves communication and avoids ambiguity
3. Measurable - Progress should not be subject to opinion
4. Results are not tasks - Key results are results/outcomes, not tasks
5. Clear - Use High School English with only standard acronyms
6. Aspirational - You achieve more when you set the bar high
7. Scored - Use 0-1 scores to clearly communicate targets, manage expectations
SHOULD HAVE
1. Vertically Aligned - OKRs align with higher level OKRs
2. Horizontally Aligned - OKRs that depend on other teams are jointly defined
3. Progress - Should be possible to make progress on a key result every 1-2 weeks
4. Owned - Most should originate from OKR owner, not corporate mandate
5. Positive - Create metrics where “bigger is better” where possible
Characteristics of Effective Key Results
1. Start at the top and determine why OKRs
2. Create clearly defined roles for the program
3. Agree on deployment parameters
4. Provide OKRs training
5. Communicate OKRs
6. Create OKRs with a coach
7. Own key results, mostly bottom-up
8. Conduct a mid-quarter review
9. Document and share what you’ve learned
Sources: Objectives and Key Results: Driving Focus, Alignment and Engagement with OKRs, by Niven & Lamorte• Making OKRs part of your DNA (OKRs.com Blog)• Framework for Adoption, Felipe Castro of Lean Performance
OKR Adoption Framework - 9 Steps
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Questions You Asked
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You Emailed Us These Questions…
1. How do we figure out what our Objectives should be? And then, how to figure out the Key Results for each Objective? How do
we make sure Objectives sound different (are not the same as KRs)?
2. What to do when Key Results cannot be quantified? Can they just be measurable, but not quantified?
3. Should every goal in the organization be aligned to the top goals? When is it OK not to align?
4. What is truly different between MBOs or SMART goals vs. OKRs (they all look very similar)?
5. Should goal-setting (OKRs, MBOs, etc.) be used as part of performance management?
6. OKRs are recommended to be set quarterly but what if we want monthly goals?
7. Is there a real ROI on using OKRs or setting objectives company-wide?
8. Are OKRs just a passing fad or a niche concept that will go away?
See the Answers (after the webinar) on our blog!
Today’s FREE Gift: 10 People Win this Book:Go here https://www.atiim.com/win-the-book/
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Open Q&A
Thank You!
If you have any other
questions, please feel
free to contact us at:
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About Atiim Inc.
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Atiim is a 2-in-1 integrated goals and performance management platform that aligns organizations to achieve maximum
performance and stellar results.
(Pronounced: A-Team)
for OKR Goals & Ongoing
Performance Management#1
See How All Company-Wide Goal Align
• How are all the goals connected throughout our organization?
• To what are my goals aligned to?
• What goals are contributing and aligning to my goals?
• What contributing goals are affecting my team goal’s progress?
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Start All Team Meetings With Goals
• How is your progress on your top goals?
• Do you think you’re on track overall?
• What are the small wins you’re proud of?
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Identify Problem Areas Early
• Where are you stuck?
• What are the bottlenecks where I can help you?
• What goals are “At Risk” (in the red)?
• How can I help you attain these goals?
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Cross-Functional Alignment & Collaboration
• Are teams aligned?
• Is there cross-functional collaboration?
• Are people commenting on each other’s goal progress, praising goal attainment, nudging the effort, offering feedback?
Set, Align & Track Your Organizational Objectives. Accelerate Your Results.