Win with Quarterly OKRs

For your business to survive and thrive, how often should you set your goals?

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1. Businesses often have many priorities and work hard at meeting them, they pack the boxes, ship the goods, launch new products, hit their numbers…these priorities are the general day-to-day functions of any business. These are not strategic objectives that ensure the survival and possible future success of a business. Click here to understand the importance to your business of focusing only on strategic objectives.

2. What actions can you take to ensure you are working strategically on your business and not just getting the day-to-day work done? These actions happen when you bring your attention and focus to a primary goal or objective. Working on too many goals or projects at any one time means the focus is diluted and you’ll be swamped.

Click here to learn how one objective will inspire you and your team and means that it becomes the one focus for your whole business.

3. Taking yourself out of the day-to-day running of your business for even a short period of time to focus on your future strategic objectives can sometimes seem like a dream and not reality. But this time will allow you to focus on the key priorities to ensure your business can build sustainable success, this time will allow you to work out your OKRs. Click here to learn more.

4. I am sure you’re are busy dealing with your team, customers, suppliers and emails to even think about the important strategic priorities of your business. But click here to learn while setting strategic objectives might be difficult, it is invaluable to the future of your business.

5. Click here to learn how thanks to OKRs Google started late but soon overtook all their competition to lead the way and dominate their market sector and how your business can benefit, even in tough times from using OKRs to focus on the right priorities for your business.

6. How long would it take you to write down a handful of strategic priorities for the future of your business? How long would it take you to make this handful just one priority?

Click here to discover how OKRs force you to focus the future of your business and your team on what matters most.

7. Choosing the objectives for your business is one of the most crucial yet challenging tasks you will undertake as a business leader. Click here to learn that when you get it right, your business survives; get it wrong, and you’ll need to rethink and re-assess.

8. When you remove all the doubt and ambiguity from your team about where you are heading and what needs to be done to get there, you will ensure their support for what your objective is. Click here to learn how to do this by using OKRs in your business

9. When you set a single strategic priority for the next 13 weeks, it means most of the day-to-day work can still get done, and ONE important change priority can also get done at the same time. Using OKRs in your business is as simple as making a priority focus for 13 weeks, sharing it across all your team and setting up ways to track activities and results. Now, it sounds achievable. Click here to learn more.

10. Click here to learn more about Google and Intel and the success OKRs brought them, and how, with the same single-minded focus to your priorities, you can determine the future success of your business.

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Click here to learn how one objective will inspire you and your team and means that it becomes the one focus for your whole business.

6. How long would it take you to write down a handful of strategic priorities for the future of your business? How long would it take you to make this handful just one priority?

Click here to discover how OKRs force you to focus the future of your business and your team on what matters most.

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BLOG 1 – A simple message, a simple approach, one priority – use ‘without fail’ OKRs in your business

What exactly is a priority?

Here is the dictionary definition:

‘the fact or condition of being regarded or treated as more important than others’; ‘a thing that is regarded as more important than others’

Businesses often have many ‘priorities’ and work hard at meeting them – they pack the boxes, ship the goods, launch new products, hit their numbers…these make up the general day-to-day functions of any business.

However, these are not strategic objectives that deliver sustainable success for your business.

So, what is the difference?

What actions can you take to ensure you are working strategically on your business and not just getting the day-to-day work done?

These actions will happen when you bring your attention and focus to a primary goal or objective. Working on too many goals or projects at any one time means the focus is diluted and you’ll be swamped.

One objective will inspire you and your team, becoming the one focus for your whole business.

This focus is needed in your business, and, in times of uncertainty, your business's survival may depend on it. Beware of being sucked into operational challenges and not making the time to step back and work out your strategic priorities.

Andy Grove, leader, teacher, and previous CEO of Intel, believes that when it comes to achieving an objective, ‘it does not matter what you know and what you don’t know, it’s the execution that matters most.’

Andy used a system for achieving objectives called OKRs – Objectives and Key Results. This system has proved successful for many types of businesses, from massive corporate entities such as Google and Apple to small pizza delivery and freelance businesses.

Click here to learn exactly what OKRs are and how you can use them to achieve and measure the objectives for your business, whatever situation your business is currently in…

BLOG 2 – Single-minded focus on OKRs is the secret to your business success…

Taking yourself out of the day-to-day running of your business for even a short period of time to focus on your future strategic objectives is usually a dream rather than a reality.

You are likely too busy dealing with your team, customers, and suppliers to even think about the important strategic priorities of your business.

But while setting strategic objectives might be difficult, it is invaluable to the future of your business.

In his book, Measure What Matters, John Doerr explains OKRs – Objectives and Key Results. His passion for OKRs is based on their simplicity and on their power to help teams identify and accomplish their goals.

OKRs are basically a simple goal setting system that provides a structured way for teams and individuals to set and achieve their goals.

OKRs help to create clarity, focus, accountability, alignment, and momentum to deliver real results.

OBJECTIVE – This is the WHAT – What do you want to achieve?

The objective should be significant, concrete, action-oriented, and inspiring.

The objective should also be challenging – the point is to push yourselves as a team. As Doerr writes: ‘When properly designed and deployed, they’re a vaccine against fuzzy thinking and fuzzy execution.’

KEY RESULTS – This is the HOW – How you are going to achieve your objective?

Key results should be specific and time-bound, aggressive yet realistic, measurable and verifiable.

They enable you to set measurable milestones to monitor your progress.

Used correctly, ‘Without Fail’ OKRs will help you work out the objectives of your business and execute them.

Click here to learn that the true power of OKRs comes from setting the right strategic objective for your business and team, then working together to track and measure its progress.

BLOG 3 – How did Google go from late starter to pack leader?

Late in the 1990s, 17 different search engines were fighting to dominate the web.

Then the 18^th search engine started up – Google.

Normally, someone arriving so late to the party would not stand a chance, especially having given all the others time to establish themselves.

So how did Google race on with repeated annual growth and become rated as the best place to work more times than any other this century?

Google did this by using a method that guaranteed company-wide focus on a handful of priorities: OKRs (Objectives and Key Results), introduced to them in 1999 by John Doerr, business icon and author of Measure What Matters.

Google had (and continues to have) a quarterly focus on specific strategic objectives and measurements.

Every single person in the business is clear on Google’s objectives for that quarter and the key measures to evaluate progress.

These OKRs are not used as financial incentives for the team, but for a higher purpose – to get collective commitment from every employee to truly stretch goals.

How clear are the people in your team about the objectives of your business?

When you focus on one priority, you can manage the workload and build the momentum and enthusiasm of your team as you all work together towards that one goal.

How long would it take you to write down a handful of strategic priorities for the future of your business? How long would it take you to pare down this handful to just one priority?

OKRs force you to focus on the future of your business and your team on what matters most.

Click here to learn how to implement OKRs successfully in your business – identifying a single objective and then tracking the activities and results to ensure that you and your team achieve it.

BLOG 4 – Are you serious enough about your business to put your ‘super suit’ on?

Choosing the objectives for your business is one of the most challenging, yet crucial, tasks you will undertake as a business leader.

Get it right, and you build sustainable business growth; get it wrong, and you’ll need to rethink and reassess.

To help you focus on the right priority, John Doerr, in his book Measure What Matters, recommends that you use the OKR (Objectives and Key Results) method. It’s a system that will help engage your team to focus on what matters the most – the Objective – and then to continuously measure progress – Key Results.

When you remove your team’s doubt and ambiguity about where you are heading and what needs to be done to get there, you will ensure their support for your objective.

OKRs are not a silver bullet and are not going to be a substitute for a strong culture or strong leadership, but when you have those fundamentals in place, they can take you to the top.

So, what can you achieve with OKRs? Doerr believes you gain 4 ‘superpowers’ as a direct result of using OKRs:

Superpower 1 – Focus on and Commit to Priorities

Build a list of the things you should or must do to improve the performance of your business. When you have your list, choose the ONE priority that will get your full attention for the next 13 weeks.

Superpower 2 – Align and Connect for Teamwork

OKRs allow the entire business to prioritise. With your priority clearly identified, work with your team on the actions and identify who is responsible for each one.

Superpower 3 – Track for Accountability

OKRs are driven by data. Work out the activities and measures that will help track performance.

OKRs are transparent, and regular check-ins allow employees to discuss progress and see the impact an individual’s work is having on the overall objective. This can often encourage greater collaboration in your team.

Superpower 4 – Stretch for Amazing

Bringing ambition to your quarterly objective creates an energy within your team and a striving within their thinking and actions, meaning they work harder and more efficiently.

Click here to learn how to ensure a future for your business when your team agree on one objective for the next 13 weeks and then use their superpowers to achieve it.

BLOG 5 – Four helping hands to help your business build measurable and sustainable success

Achieving the goals for your business requires focus.

You might have ambitious goals, and you might have grand plans to achieve them, but you are so busy running your business day-to-day that you just can’t seem to get started.

Sound familiar?

An inability to focus on your goals can lead to disenchantment and frustration, making it even harder for you to focus on the future.

When you set a single strategic priority for the next 13 weeks, most of the day-to-day work can still get done, but the ONE important change priority can also get done at the same time.

Something as simple as making a priority focus for 13 weeks, sharing it across your team, and setting up ways to track activities and results now sounds achievable.

Here are 4 helping hands to get you started:

Write out the list of business growth goals you have for your business.
They can be anything from sorting the filing out to hiring a new member of the team. Anything that is either holding you back from growth or that, with implementation, would help your business grow.
Choose one priority Objective for you and your team to focus on in the next 13 weeks. Leave the other goals for now; you can deal with them in subsequent quarters.
Discuss the Objective with your team and ensure buy-in.
Make sure everyone is clear on the handful of KEY RESULTS that together will deliver your OBJECTIVE. Work out who will do what, and measure and monitor the activities.
Make sure your leaders are seen and heard giving your business OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) their wholehearted approval, support, and diary time.
This sends a clear message to your team of the importance of the OBJECTIVE and the KEY RESULTS in place to achieve it.

Agreeing to one core objective for the next 13 weeks means you are doing what Google has done over 80 times since 1999. Worth your time and attention, don’t you think?

Click here to learn more about the success OKRs brought Google and Intel, and how, with the same single-minded focus on your priorities, you determine the future success of your business.

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