Doomsday Prepping for OKRs

In our last post on OKRs we uncovered the power of implementing Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) across all tiers of a company. We discussed being “broadly aligned” often leads to misalignment and inefficiency. Instead, by adopting OKRs at the Organizational (Us), Team (We), and Individual (Me) levels, organizations can achieve precise, actionable alignment that drives success.

We learned that:

Organisational OKRs serve as the bold, aspirational North Starish that guides the entire company.

Team OKRs break down this vision into explicit, executable goals, ensuring that teams are focused and aligned.

Individual OKRs empower employees by giving them ownership and a clear understanding of how their work contributes to broader objectives.

By fostering a culture of transparency, ownership, and continuous improvement, OKRs shift the focus from merely completing tasks to achieving meaningful outcomes. However, understanding the theory is just the beginning.

So, you’re sold on the idea of OKRs. 

You’ve seen the light, drunk the Kool-Aid, and you’re ready to transform your organization into an aligned, goal-crushing machine. But now what? How do you take this brilliant concept and turn it into reality without causing a corporate meltdown?

Buckle up, folks—we’re about to dive into the nitty-gritty of OKR implementation.

The OKR Rollout: More Delicate Than a Snowflake

Implementing OKRs isn’t like flipping a switch. It’s more like nurturing a delicate plant—it needs care, patience, and occasionally talking to it in a soothing voice (whispers dont worry everything is going to be okay)

Here’s how to get started without wilting under pressure:

Start Small, Dream Big: Begin with an experiment (one quarter maybe) in one department or team. This allows you to iron out the kinks before going company-wide. Capture weekly reflections, questions asked and would be better ifs… these will be great insights to reflection on once your experiment ends and to come to scaling this out… Think of it as a dress rehearsal before your big debut.

Prep like a doomsday prepper: Invest in some training and resources. Everyone from the CEO to the intern should understand not just the what of OKRs, but the why and how. Building solid OKRs isnt easy it, it like a muscle in order to grow it needs reps and practice.

OKR Sherpas: These are the cool people in shiny armor (well maybe not shinny armor) but they are your go-to experts who can guide others through the process.

Keep It Simple, Silly: Start with just a few OKRs per team or individual, we are aiming for quality over quantity. We want awesome OKRs not just a shopping list of tasks

Common Pitfalls: The OKR Hall of Shame

Implementing OKRs isn't all rainbows and unicorns, as with anything they are pitsfall and booby traps everywhere so here four ways how not to faceplate from the get go:

1. The "Set It and Forget It" Syndrome: You can't just set them and come back in three months Regular check-ins and tweaks (especially in the experiment phase is) are crucial. Open a document in 365 title it OKRs 101 and capture everything as a team. I mean everything from the cadence of your stand up to how your feeling about them including any confusion

2. Sandbagging Sloth: Setting easy achievable goals is like abs on a skinny dude its great you have then but when was the last time you did a real hard workout. With OKRs you want to be less like an easy sloth who can easily cost and instead build truely stretching goals. Ones that if an achieved calls for celebration, and if not achieved the learning is the achievement. To do this iterate on your OKRs write them out, then go to four of your trusted friends and ask them to play critical friend and challenge you if your being to easy on yourself. If you hit 100% or a 1 on your OKRs you're sandbagging and not dreaming enough.

3. Metric Mania: Getting so obsessed with numbers that you forget the bigger picture. It's like counting calories but forgetting to enjoy your food. Balance quantitative and qualitative measures. Some of the most important outcomes can't be reduced to a number. Instead really take some time in the design phase and map out your lagging and leading indicators

4. The Alignment Allergy: OKRs even at an individual level shouldn’t be created in isolation, your goal should be to create an alignment across the team. To do that you need to make setting them a team sport and sharing them openly. A simple way I have done this in the past is to create as simple micro board where they OKRs are capture and its open for all to see across the whole of the business. We then share the link of this miro in our email signatures and what not.

Tools of the Trade: Your OKR Swiss Army Knife

Ever wore the wrong type of shoes for a walk flips flops on a rainy day (yuk that squelch) That what it can feel like when your trying to drive a OKRs approach with the wrong type of tools.

Here are some tools that might help:

Tech Approach: Platforms like Lattice, 15Five, or Perdoo can help track and manage OKRs.

OG Approach: Sometimes, a good old-fashioned spreadsheet does the trick. Google Sheets with some conditional formatting can work wonders.

Visual Approach: As mentioned above Tools like Miro or Lucidchart can help you create visual OKR maps.

Agile Approach: If you're already using agile methodologies, tools like Jira can be adapted to track OKRs alongside your sprints.

Note: The best tool ultimately comes down to what works for you and your team, and one your team will actually use especially at the start.

The Cultural Shift: It's Not Just About Goals, It's About Mindset

Implementing OKRs isn't just a process change; it's a cultural mindset shift. It's like trying to get a whole country to work from home overnight… oh wait that happened (covid feel so long ago now)

Anyway here how to try and influence that shift:

• Lead not lag from the Top: Leadership needs to walk the talk. If the top leaders are not on board and interested in how OKRs are progressing then it’s all just as useful as a chocolate fireguard. Leadership should have full transparency of all OKRs they should also be a feature in your newsroom bulletins.

• Celebrate Learning, Not Just Winning: When a team misses an ambitious OKR but learns valuable lessons, that's a win. Treat it like one and dont keep that learning in a box, record a 2 min video sharing your learning and post it out on a slack channel. Be the change you want to see try and create that network sharing effect. Learning doesn’t have to be this forced thing it can be passive and easy consumable.

• Make It Safe to Fail: If people are terrified of missing their OKRs, they'll set easy ones. Create an environment where calculated risks are encouraged. Amy Edmondson has wrote so much on this space around creating a safe space.

The Payoff: Why It's All Worth It

After all this effort, you might be wondering, "Is this OKR thing really worth it?" Well, let me tell you, when done right, OKRs can transform your organisation faster than a shot of adrenaline to the veins. You'll see:

• Increased focus and alignment across teams

• Better prioritisation of work (goodbye, busy work!)

• Improved employee engagement (people actually knowing why they're doing what they're doing – crazy right!)

• A culture of accountability and continuous improvement

In a nutshell

Implementing OKRs is like going on an awesome road trip. There will be highs, lows, and probably a few moments where you pick up a hitch hacker and risk going missing.

But stick with it, and you'll create an organisation that's more focused, aligned, and effective. It will of course require patients, commitment, and a focus on actually celebrating the small wins.

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Bonus: The Best Feedback Ive ever received, and it came from ChatGPT

Here is how to get your feedback, providing you have the memory setting on in the personalise setting on ChatGPT

Step 1: Ask GPT this prompt “what do you know about me, that i might not know about myself. Based on our past interactions.”

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