Designing a winning strategy in a self-managing organization is one thing, but executing it and monitoring progress is quite another.
A great way to make a strategy actionable and monitor its progress are OKRs: they help you break down your strategy into strategic goals (Objectives) and these strategic goals into smaller projects (Key Results). Because objectives are ambitious, they tend to feel unattainable. Key Results are smaller, measurable and lead directly to achieving the objective. OKRs work great in self-managing organizations because the smaller projects (Key Results) can easily be assigned to individual roles, while the goal can be a team or circle responsibility. With the right tooling, it is quite easy to create a real-time dashboard that allows you to closely monitor the progress of projects and strategic goals.
Here are 5 lessons we've learned about successfully implementing OKRs in your self-managing organization
Don’t trust anyone who says OKRs are simple or easy. Chances are you’ll need support. Learning OKRs is like following a new diet or exercising regularly. Having a coach—someone who understands your unique needs, customizes the program for you, and holds you accountable—makes a HUGE difference.
“OKRs are not a silver bullet. They are not a substitute for sound judgment, strong leadership, or a creative work culture. But if those basic principles are in place, OKRs can lead you to the mountaintop.”
– John Doerr, Legendary Venture Capitalist and author of 'Measure What Matters'
OKRs aren’t just a business methodology that promises success. They’re a proven philosophy, used by big-name users like Intel, Adobe, Google, and CNN, as well as small businesses.
OKRs can undoubtedly drive meaningful change, but change doesn’t happen overnight. Only when you are committed to following OKR best practices can you bridge the gap between strategy and execution.
“OKRs have helped lead us to 10x growth many times over”
– Larry Page, co-founder of Google
When writing an Objective: dare to think big. For people who use 'Scaling up': use 'Rocks'. Think of John F. Kennedy who said: “We are going to the moon” . Then determine which projects will lead to achieving the Objective (Rocks) and attach a clear timeline to them, such as 'this quarter'. In John F. Kenny's example, that would be: “We will build a rocket powerful enough to send astronauts and their spacecraft to the moon in ten years” .
When you are determined to do what you love most (your Objective) and determine how you are going to achieve it (Key Results) you will experience an enormous sense of peace. You take that sacred goal and break it down into small, easily achievable pieces. It’s hard to believe, but it’s true. OKRs give you the confidence to say NO to everything that is distracting and irrelevant. They give you, your team and your company focus. Our team decided that we will only work on projects that relate to the Key Results that we want to achieve this quarter. Only after those Key Results are completed will we work on other things.
Deciding what not to do is as important as deciding what to do
– Steve Jobs
5 OKRs That Work Great for Self-Managing Companies
We first came into contact with OKRs when we started using Holacracy and Holaspirit in our company.
For our strategic plan we use a 'Scaling-up OPSP' and use OKRs to chop 'the Rocks' into workable pieces. During our weekly tactical meetings we track the progress in the OKR dashboard of Holaspirit. And it works great.
By now, most of our self-driving clients have implemented OKRs, with the goal of making their strategy actionable and tracking its progress. And even though they are self-driving, they feel completely 'in control'.
Feeling inspired?
Contact Us
Check out the new OKR module in Holaspirit
