VIDEO
HIGHLIGHT
Log InSign up
Common Pitfalls in OKR Execution and How to Overcome Them
SummaryTranscriptChat

Common Pitfalls in OKR Execution and How to Overcome Them

Introduction

The co-host welcomes the audience and introduces the topic of the webinar.

Welcome and Introduction

  • Alex Bartholomas, one of the co-hosts, welcomes the audience to the webinar.
  • The topic of the webinar is "Common Problems When Implementing OKRs and How to Overcome Them."
  • People Stretch Solutions is a management consulting firm based in Washington DC that focuses on OKR consulting, sales account business NC level advisory across North America and email.
  • Henrik, CEO of Purview, a goal management platform that covers both OKRs and KPIs joins as a guest speaker.

Why Organizations Engage in OKRs

The speakers discuss why organizations engage in OKRs.

Importance of Alignment and Accountability

  • The OKR framework helps organizations get high alignment and accountability.
  • There is often a gap between strategy and execution due to lack of alignment, accountability, priorities or even global pandemics.
  • Many organizations are struggling due to going virtual without proper preparation.

Disseminating Strategic Priorities

  • Some organizations do not do a good job disseminating strategic priorities.
  • According to MIT Sloan Business School's survey across five years (2013-2018), 125 enterprise companies had very little visibility when it came to strategic priorities.

What are OKRs?

  • The structure goal framework stands for O for Objectives KR for Key Results.
  • It helps bridge the gap between strategy and execution by providing high alignment and accountability.

Common Mistakes Made During Strategic Planning Phase

The speakers discuss common mistakes made during strategic planning phase.

Number of Teams & Conversations

  • Leadership often does not set the expectation for the number of teams and conversations during strategic planning phase.
  • The trend is that the number of conversations does not go up together with the number of teams as they are increasing, and average conversations per team are actually decreasing.
  • A lot less information is being shared, and information continues to be shared within certain silos.

Key Variables

  • There are two key variables in strategic planning phase: the number of teams and the number of conversations.
  • Companies commonly get these variables wrong.

OKR Cycle Phases

The speakers discuss the three phases of OKR cycle.

Three Phases

  • There are three phases in an OKR cycle: strategic planning, execution, and retrospective.
  • Strategic planning generally takes about two weeks, execution takes ten weeks, and retrospective happens at the end of a quarter.

Importance of Alignment & Accountability (Execution Phase)

  • The OKR framework helps organizations get high alignment and accountability during execution phase.

Common Mistakes Made During Retrospective Phase

  • Companies often do not spend enough time on retrospective phase.
  • It is important to reflect on what went well or wrong during previous quarter to improve future performance.

Variables to Consider in OKR Implementation

In this section, the speakers discuss two variables that organizations need to consider when implementing OKRs: the frequency of team reviews and one-on-ones, and the importance of retrospectives.

Frequency of Team Reviews and One-on-Ones

  • The frequency of team reviews and one-on-ones is a critical variable to consider in OKR implementation.
  • More check-ins with OKRs, whether it be through progress meetings or team review meetings, have been connected to goal attainment.
  • Companies that do not conduct frequent enough team reviews make a common mistake.

Retrospectives

  • Retrospectives are an essential part of the strategic planning cycle.
  • Doing a retrospective ensures capturing learning from objectives achieved or not achieved.
  • Many companies do not conduct retrospectives well despite their power.

The Importance of Retrospectives

In this section, the speakers discuss the importance of retrospectives and how they can help organizations move forward.

Reflection and Retrospective

  • Weekly reflections are important for executive performance.
  • Agile software development has done an amazing job of creating visibility around retrospective practices.
  • Retrospectives are important for businesses that use OKRs to execute their strategy.

Using OKRs to Bridge Strategy Execution Gap

In this section, the speakers discuss how OKRs can be used to bridge the gap between strategy and execution.

OKR Writing Pitfalls

  • Objectives need to inspire as many teams as possible.
  • Objectives should be easily understood by everyone in the organization.
  • Objectives should be relevant to all teams in the organization.
  • When creating an objective, it's important to answer two questions: why is it important and why is it urgent?

Benefits of Answering Two Questions

  • By answering these questions, people are forced to back up their objectives and justify why they're a priority at that moment for the organization.

[CUTOFF_LIMIT]

Video description

We have seen firsthand how organizations spend valuable time creating a detailed strategic plan, only for it not to come to fruition at the end of the year. This gap between strategy and execution derives from a variety of factors ranging from conflicting priorities, inadequate communication, lack of alignment, and accountability. OKR is a collective goal-setting framework that allows organizations, teams, and individuals to set measurable goals on a regular cadence. The process of following the framework enables companies to engage in more frequent strategic conversations across the entire organization related to the goals that will make a positive impact on organizational success and growth. Implementing a framework that boosts participation in the middle and lower levels of companies improves alignment and transparency across the organization is the best way to begin closing the gap in execution. In this webinar, we will take a close look at common obstacles organizations have when implementing OKRs and how to overcome them. This comes down to 8 principles of success which we will review: Top-level objectives must inspire as many teams as possible Leadership must encourage OKR conversations early and often to make them a team sport The organization must be ready for transparency Success requires reviewing and committing to OKRs in public Review OKR progress at the Team Level Master the Weekly Check-in The Quarterly Retrospective https://www.peoplestretch.com/webinars/common-pitfalls-in-okr-execution-and-how-to-overcome-them%e2%80%8b%e2%80%8b/