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OKR For Small & Big Businesses: What It Is & What It Can Do

Updated: February 25, 2022

Objectives and Key Results (OKR) is a popular framework used by many businesses today. Even if you have an excellent team, employees may still struggle to align the entire company towards a common goal. To grow, you need OKR to establish set a clear direction for each team member that will lead to key results for the benefit of the company.

 

What is OKR?

OKR is a goal management framework that helps companies implement strategies by organizing employees and their work around achieving common objectives. It involves several rules that will help employees prioritize, focus, and measure the outcome of their work.

An OKR consists of an Objective and Key Results. The objective defines a goal to be achieved, while the key results measure progress towards the objective. One thing to note is that a company can have multiple key results for each objective.

 

The Benefits of OKR

A company can enjoy these benefits with OKR:

 

Improve Communication

OKR allows each individual in the team to be aware of the objectives of their colleagues, which allows for better coordination of tasks and collaboration. It also promotes better communication in the workplace because team members need to discuss and help each other to ensure that their efforts are all aligned to meet their key results.

 

See the Bigger Picture

It’s common in the workplace for results to be slow to materialize. More often, this is the result of team members being too close to the project that they fail to recognize the bigger picture. With OKR, team members are pushed to see the bigger picture as they collaborate and see each other’s objectives. Furthermore, it will also help team members understand the purpose of their efforts, which will make them feel valuable to the company.

 

Improve Productivity

OKR ensures that all goals are adequately defined. It then reduces the chances of duplication at work, which makes everyone work at their optimal levels. Additionally, there will be no efforts wasted because each employee will be given a useful task to complete.

 

Better Focus

Without clear goals and useful tasks, chances are that some employees may slack off. OKR ensures that everyone has clear directions for each of their tasks, giving them the focus and motivation to complete their objectives.

 

How to Use OKR

Using OKR is flexible and straightforward. It should align with your company’s goals and initiatives, and it calls for regular check-ins to keep track of the progress. The first thing to do is set an objective and then track the progress of each key result individually.

Encourage your team to set goals that are uncomfortable and ambitious. Have a brainstorming meeting where everyone can establish their goals. After that, you can adjust them according to your priorities, especially when a new project comes up. This will relieve pressure off team members while still keeping them on their toes, allowing them to reevaluate and refocus resources in order to meet Objectives.

 

Conclusion

OKR is a useful framework for small and big businesses today. It helps shape business objectives and allows team members to approach every project with a better understanding. Ultimately, OKRs provide employees with a definitive direction to deliver results for the company’s success.

Here at Skillfire, we help companies in Sydney and Melbourne build excellent work practices, such as objectives and key results for success. Contact us today to get your most important work done—fast!