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It’s June already!??
Where did that time go? At this point it is easy to start feeling a little overwhelmed reflecting on business objectives you wanted to achieve by the end of the year and haven’t had a chance to start yet or are starting to feel that they may be unachievable. If this is you, let me say that there is still hope and time so don’t panic!
Back in January I spoke about goalsetting and creating SMART objectives. It is now time to revisit that goals and objectives and set out your roadmap for the rest of year so I would like to introduce a concept called OKRs. OKRs stands for Objectives and Key Results and is a goal-setting framework that can be used to drive focus, alignment, and accountability within a business. Here's a step-by-step guide on how to use OKRs in your business to refocus on the next 6 months:
Dig out your Objectives: Review and re-evaluate which are the key objectives that your business wants to achieve over the next 6 months. Are they still relevant or has your business changed? In which case writes some new ones. Objectives should be qualitative, inspirational, and time bound.
Establish Key Results and Milestones: Key Results are measurable outcomes that indicate progress towards achieving the overall objective. They should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART). Each objective could have 2-5 key results associated with it creating a road map to success. For example, key results for an objective of increasing customer satisfaction could be "Achieve a Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 9 or higher by September" or "Reduce customer churn rate by 20% by December."
Talk about them: Once you have reassessed, reflected, and perhaps realigned your objectives plus written your key milestones in your roadmap then talk about them to your team members. This ensures alignment and creates a sense of ownership and accountability.
Set Priorities: Prioritize the OKRs based on their importance and impact on the business. Not all objectives are equal, so focus on the ones that will have the greatest impact. This helps in resource allocation and decision-making.
Track Progress: Regularly track through a simple and transparent system to see the status of each key result. This could be done through spreadsheets, project management tools or dedicated OKR software. Update the progress periodically, such as on a weekly or monthly basis.
Be a Team: Encourage collaboration and cross-functional communication to achieve the OKRs. Foster an environment where teams and individuals can support each other and work together to accomplish their goals. This can be done through regular check-ins, team meetings, and sharing best practices.
Review and Learn: At the end of each OKR cycle (typically quarterly), conduct a review to assess the overall progress and learn from the experience. Celebrate successes, identify areas for improvement, and adjust your OKRs for the next cycle based on the learnings.
OKRs are not meant to be static. They should be flexible and adaptive to the changing needs of the business so regularly revisiting and reviewing your OKRs can ensure they remain relevant and meaningful.
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