How to Sustain OKC

While OKC principles seem simple, sustaining the process is harder than you think. Organizations implementing OKC will run into three issues:

1. The novelty wears off in about 8 to 10 weeks. Team members will lose interest without reinforcement.
2. The internal or external conditions may change. New opportunities or threats emerge that may impact an objective.
3. The team’s assumption and predictions were wrong for their objective and key results. With OKC, you are making both strategic and execution bets. The process requires the belief that the team will achieve the objective if they execute on the key results. Setting the target number for a key result is both an art and science.

We recommend two additional meetings to sustain OKC and make it a habit for your organization: The Halfway Check-In and The OKC Summit.

The Halfway Check-In

The Halfway Check-in led by your OKC Shepherd and team leader is a more formal status review than the commitment meeting. This meeting occurs at the halfway point for a team’s objective. For example, if the team has a quarterly cadence, the meeting would take place mid-quarter. The Shepherd and the team will discuss progress for the key results and the team’s current confidence level in achieving the key results. In additional, the Shepherd and the team will score each key result on a scale of 1 - 10. Depending on the outcome of the discussion, the team will:

• make any necessary adjustments to the objectives and key results,
• confidenceapture priority action items for the remaining weeks,
• clear organizationational impediments for the team,
• celebrate individual and team progressgress to date and process consistency, and
• reinforce accountability towards the OKC process and objective.

The OKC Summit

The OKC Summit is a meeting where each team shares their results with the organization. For a typical OKC implementation, an organization would schedule the OKC summit every quarter. Before the meeting, the team will determine their final score for each key result completed since the last OKC Summit and create a rationale for the final score. The organization will allocate 5-6 minutes for each team to share these results along with any triumphs and challenges. In addition, the team will present their finalized objectives and key results for the next period. The outcomes for the OKC Summit are to celebrate accomplishments, identify and apply key learnings, and move immediately onto the next set of objectives and key results.

Here are some tips to ensure successful meetings:

1. Schedule the meetings in advance for the year and stick to the schedule. Coordination of a large number of schedules will become a challenge with a shorter notice and will reduce participation. By sticking to the schedule, the organization will reinforce the importance of the process. In addition, the organization will establish a milestone that will create focus and accountability for results.
2. Be inclusive. We recommend you include everyone on the team. Transparency is an important part of the OKC process. The meetings will help your team members learn about all aspects of the business. Encourage the team member to ask questions and encourage dialogue. Leadership should listen first and speak later. When thanking and recognizing the team, leadership should thank the team and not just the leader.
3. Commit to Learning. We learn from failure. Use the meetings as an opportunity to improve when a team misses expectations. Leadership should encourage honest dialog in a non-threatening environment. By focusing on learning from mistakes, you will drive improvement across the organization.
4. Manage your expectations. Adoption of the OKC process will take time. At first, your team may not meet your expectations. Some teams will miss their targets. Some team will do better than expected. Focus first on adherence to the process, then the results. Scoring low on key results is likely at first. You should examine why and learn. If a team scores a 10, celebrate, but again, examine why and learn so the team can recalibrate their key result targets going forward. This will ensure the right level of challenge.
5. Give awards that recognize achievement, mastery of the process, and reward consistency. Consider printed certificates suitable for display.

Make your OKR process stick. Contact us below so we can help you maximize your effort and realize the value of OKRs.