What is OKRs Independence?
The title and subject of this post are the result of two things that have been on my mind lately. The first is ‘energy independence’, a subject very much in the news these days. The concept – simple in theory but difficult in practice – refers to a state in which a nation has the means to produce enough energy to satisfy local demand without being reliant on other countries, (or become the victim of global supply disruptions!).
The second part of the title stems from recent recollections of a former colleague. This gentleman was among the most efficient people I’ve ever met, and his mantra was concise yet profound – make yourself redundant. Not that he wished to be out of a job, but his goal was to refine and improve everything under his watch until it was honed to perfection and could almost run automatically. Ironically (but naturally when you think about it), his work ethic, creativity, and innovative approach only made him more valuable to the company.
So how does all of this apply to OKRs? As an OKRs Coach with OKRsTraining.com, our primary client commitment is to help you achieve OKR mastery (independence!) without having to rely on perpetual OKRs Consultant support (Redundancy!). Here are a few imperatives to help you achieve just that.
Imperative 1 – Why Are We Doing This Again?
One of the first questions we ask a prospective client is, “Why OKRs and why now?” Most people respond pretty quickly, citing problems such as alignment or focus. But when we dig in a bit deeper, asking for specific examples, we’re often greeted with silence. It soon becomes clear that the real reason they are exploring OKRs is because someone read John Doerr’s book “Measure What Matters” and “It just made sense to me.”
OKRs represent a change initiative and we all know change is hard. Fortunately, the OKRs framework is relatively lightweight and easy to understand, but despite that very positive attribute you’re still asking people to do something new, something unfamiliar. Question – How do you convince them to go along? Answer – You provide a compelling guiding rationale for the change. You must have a specific reason (or reasons) for implementing OKRs now. If your rationale centers on focus, get specific on your challenges, clearly communicating why your inability to focus is causing significant problems. Then make it clear to everyone how OKRs will help you overcome those issues. Once the rationale is in place, communicate it ceaselessly, top to bottom, ensuring everyone understands why OKRs are crucial to helping you navigate whatever lies ahead for your organization.
With the compelling “why” in place you can almost always convince people to engage in the “how” of change.
Imperative 2 – OKRs Champion
What is an OKRs “Champion?” As you might have guessed, this person is the internal subject matter expert, the logistical and philosophical heart and soul of your OKRs program. Your Champion should commit him or herself to a deep understanding of the art and craft of OKRs – reading all of the available books, completing an OKRs Champion Certification program, connecting with other Champions through social media, etc. This person must be a true internal expert. How do I know a great OKRs Champion when I see one? That’s easy, I’d like to hire them for my firm. They’re so steeped in OKRs they’re ready to lead implementations for any and all types of organizations. OKRs Training, facilitation, governance, they can do it all.
When describing this role to clients the first question they ask is, “How much time does the Champion need to commit to this?” If your organization is large, the OKRs Champion should be a full-time role for at least the first couple of years. If you’re a small or midsize company, you should expect your OKRs champion to spend a third to half their time on the effort. If you can’t make that commitment, you should seriously consider whether OKRs are right for you.
Imperative 3 – OKRs Governance
This blog article could stretch on for several more pages if I defined in detail all of the aspects of a robust system of OKRs governance. If you’re interested, I’ve written in extensively on the topic in other forums, including my book – Objectives & Key Results. To whet your appetite, here are just a few governance-related items you must manage should you hope to be successful with OKRs:
- Who is creating OKRs?
- What is the cadence?
- Where do we put our OKRs?
- How do we score our OKRs?
- How often do we meet to check-in on OKRs?
- What does our end of quarter retrospective/reset include?
- Do OKRs link to performance reviews? How about incentive compensation?
These imperatives will take you a long way to becoming OKRs independent! PS – You can still hire one of our Global OKRs Coaches if you want some help! 😉
Paul Niven is the president of OKRsTraining.com, the global leader in OKRs Training, OKRs Consulting and OKRs Champion Certification.