Organizations are confronting the most difficult challenges due to the COVID-19 outbreak. The pandemic has hit harder the start-ups, tourism, travel, and hospitality sectors. It is harder for the leaders even to predict the period these sectors would take to restore normalcy. There are higher levels of uncertainty in the business world. Now, the prime focus of the organizations is to rebound quickly from the damages caused and maintain the position of its product/services in the market. The companies are also looking for ways to thrive in unprecedented situations like the COVID pandemic.  

To make the businesses bounce back, you should adopt a novel goal-setting methodology to focus the people’s efforts toward one common direction. Objectives and Key Results (OKR) makes the business objective clear to the entire organization and also the outcomes needed to achieve the objective.   

Why OKRs are needed in this time of crisis?  

1. Create focus and agility  
2. Set clear expectations  
3. Build mutual trust through open communication  
4. Transparent work culture  
5. Increase workforce’s morale and makes them stay committed to their work  
6. Fuel innovation through engagement  

When you can implement the mentioned qualities in your workforce, it will be easier to emerge stronger post COVID-19.   

Here are a few success stories of OKRs.  

A success story of OKR – Bill Gates’ Testimonial  

‘In the year 2000, Melinda and I put $20 billion into the Gates Foundation. Suddenly it’s both a start-up and the biggest foundation in the world. And the way the payout rules work, it has to spend a minimum of a billion dollars a year. I’d watched Andy Grove manage people on sub-goals [key results], and I watched the Japanese, and I learned how you deal with things when people fall short. I don’t think I invented anything there, but I did watch and learn. Then Patty Stonesifer brought in OKRs, the green-yellow-red approach, and it worked. When we used OKRs with our grant reviews, I felt good about what we were going after. I was still running Microsoft, and my time was limited, and Patty had to make things very efficient between us, to make sure we agreed. The goals process was a big part of that. There were two cases where I turned down a grant in the end because the goals weren’t clear enough. The OKR system made me confident I was making the right call. I’m a huge fan of goals, but they need to be handled correctly. At one point, the malaria team thought we’d eradicate the disease by 2015, which wasn’t realistic. When a goal is too aspirational, it’s bad for credibility. In philanthropy, I see people confusing objectives with missions all the time. A mission is directional. An objective has a set of concrete steps that you’re intentionally engaged in and actually trying to go for. It’s fine to have an ambitious objective, but how do you scale it? How do you measure it? I think it’s getting better, though. Philanthropy is bringing in more people from high performance business environments, and they’re tilting the culture. Having a good mission is not enough. You need a concrete objective, and you need to know how you’re going to get there.”  

-Bill Gates, this is an excerpt from ‘Measure What Matters.’  

LinkedIn Achieved Something Bigger with OKRs  

LinkedIn became a 20 Billion Company through the breakthrough IPO. The goal would have been a mere dream if they have not implemented OKR in the organization.  Jeff Weiner, CEO of LinkedIn, praises OKR for LinkedIn’s success as he used OKRs to create urgency in the organization and align the efforts and goals of talents toward What is important. They conducted weekly meetings to discuss the progress of OKRs of every team member and to ensure that everyone stays right on the track.   

OKR gives a clear picture of what is needed to be done (objective) and how are we going to measure the progress (Key Results). Jeff Weiner describes OKRs as, “something you want to accomplish over a specific period of time that leans toward a stretch goal rather than a stated plan. It’s something where you want to create greater urgency, greater mindshare.”  

HANDPICKED RELATED LINKS: 

• 11 Proven Strategies to Bring Back Your Business in 2020 
• OKR playbook – A guide to ‘How to Implement OKR in your Team?’ 
• A Glimpse into The World’s Best Guide to OKR 

Other successful companies that have implemented OKRs  

You would have heard Intel’s Operation Crush. The crush taskforce set OKRs as they wanted to create a sense of urgency in achieving the objective, dominate 16-bit chip microprocessor market. They eventually achieved it by setting the right key results and measuring progress with regular meetings. It was a very critical period for Intel, and they were able to overcome the crisis using OKRs. Other global companies that have implemented OKRs include Amazon, Dell, Twitter, Spotify, Dropbox, Samsung. If global companies were able to overcome crises with the help of OKRs, every organization can overcome the negative impacts of COVID too.  

Things to do for Successful Implementation of OKRs  

Do not Confuse Tasks with Key Results  

Key results are outcome-based, not output-based. For example, if the objective is to generate 100 leads in the first quarter, the key results cannot be, write 10 blogs and post 50 social media posts a month because they are merely tasks. The key result should be to increase the organic traffic by 10% or increase the number of signups by 25%   

Decouple OKRs from Compensation  

OKRs are not to punish employees, especially in these hard times. OKRs should make them more committed to work and take the organization forward together. OKRs also assure psychological safety, and so employees can speak up for themselves and present innovative ideas for the company’s development.  

Identify Relevant Goals  

In this pandemic situation, economic and political repercussions are greater and serious. Therefore, the goals that have been set before the pandemic might not be relevant. Analyze the situation and set new goals that will enable the organization to rise powerfully. Irrelevant OKRs can cause irrevocable damage.  

Reliable Data Before Planning OKRs  

You need robust performance management software, which can provide you accurate and reliable data. Data and insights help you to make informed decisions, and you can choose the right objective for your organization.  

In a nutshell, OKRs help companies to battle any storm and overcome any consequence. If OKRs are capable of helping you bounce back from a loss, imagine the heights that an organization can achieve with OKR in normal times.