Objectives and Key Results (OKRs), the success secret behind most global companies like Google, Intel, is one of the most popular and effective goal-setting frameworks. Every organization that believes in the power of OKR contributes a part of its success to Objectives and key results. Objectives are the goals to be achieved in the near future, and Key Results help in measuring the progress toward the goals. It is the perfect business partner in these tough times. There is also a proven example. You would have heard of Intel’s Operation Crush.  

What happened to Intel in 1978?  

In 1978, Intel came up with a high-performing 16-bit microprocessor, the 8086 that had the pioneering architecture to be flexible and consisted of development tools and supporting products to ease the work of people. But people were not aware of its potential back then. When the microprocessor industry started gaining momentum, there were many competitors, notable Motorola, for Intel. The sales of Intel microprocessor had gone down.  

To succeed and recapture the marketplace, the team came up with Objectives and Key Results (OKR) to focus all the efforts of marketers and designers in increasing sales and revenue. The strategy was a huge success with fast and effective outcomes. Intel’s Operation Crush brought Intel as the leading seller for the 16-bit processor crushing all its competitors.  

This happened under the leadership of Andy Grove, the former CEO of Intel, who came up with this powerful strategy to make Intel win the competition. During that time, John Doerr was one of the team members of Andy Grove and he became the Evangelist of OKR. “When we smacked Motorola between the eyes, a manager there told me, ‘I couldn’t get a plane ticket from Chicago to Arizona approved in the time you took to launch your campaign,'” says John Doerr. The power of Objectives and Key Results is its ability to support focused and agile planning. If in such a short period, Objectives and Key Results was able to perform such a miracle, why don’t we trust it’s power in this corona-affected period.  

The Evangelist, John Doerr, introduced the sage “OKR” to the Google founders and took them on the path of success.  

Why not leverage OKR in this COVID-19 impacted remote-working world?  

Many employees feel isolated in this remote-working age as it is novel to them as well as to their managers. The managers find it really hard to keep the Employees engaged and also productive. Consequently, employees lack direction and clarity of what’s expected out of them and often forget the purpose of their work. In this kind of scenario, OKR could be a huge support if leveraged in the right way. Its agility, transparency, and focused nature can help managers change goals considering the business environment, relay the changing expectations to the employees, and also bring the best out of the employees with mutual effort and trust.   

Here are a few reasons why you need OKRs in your organization.  

Objectives and Key Results Provide Clarity to the Organization  

In this pandemic situation, the companies, if do not reinforce its vision and mission, might fall apart. The organization, when employees work remotely, needs to bring them together by organizing surveys and events to strengthen the values among the employees and make them live out the core values of the company. Objectives and Key Results help the workforce to align their goals with the mission of the company. The business units, departments, and teams can align their OKRs with the overall business objective. The managers and superiors can help the employees in checking whether their targets are aligned with the business goals.  

For instance, in this COVID situation, the businesses focus on the retention of customers 100%.   

The objective of the sales team would be, improve the customer happiness level.  

Then the key results would be,   

• Call x number of customers per day to check their well-being.  
• Content plan to maintain constant communication with the customers  
• Offer excellent customer service by giving free support until the end of the pandemic.  
• Decreasing the subscription level of the product by 50% to show your support to the clients.  

Note. Key Results should be numerically defined.  

OKRs Promote Collaboration and Transparency   

Objectives and Key Results allow transparency, where everyone knows one another’s goals because OKR is formed in a vertical structure. The OKRs can be set in a top-down approach by the inputs being given from the top management, and the results, progress, and the challenges are shared in a bottom-up communication line. Therefore, everyone in the organization knows the plans and targets of every individual. The Key Results encourage employees to collaborate by sharing their progress in the weekly meetings and discuss solutions to overcome the hindrances in achieving the team objectives. LinkedIn IPO became a great success as they followed the OKR framework and conducted regular meetings to discuss the progress. In this period, bringing in OKR makes employees feel connected with the company and also with other peers.  

Short-Cycled Goal-Setting Framework Helps in this New Normal  

The annual goal-setting process is not effective, and the employees easily forget the goals. The workforce, after the first quarter, will start focusing on the tasks rather than the goals. The companies that have annual goal-setting processes would have definitely taken a great hit in this new normal as it would have been a real and difficult challenge for them to change the goals that suit the current business trends and focus the efforts of the employees toward a new common goal.   

The companies with OKRs have an advantage here as their goal-setting process takes place every 3 to 4 months. The employees would already be accustomed to the changing goals, and they would be more prepared in confronting the new normal and adapting the novel objectives. Instead of focusing on goal-setting and making employees work on that, the companies with OKRs can focus more on business strategies that can help to thrive rather than stabilizing.   

Thus, OKR is needed now more than ever.  

Do you agree? Share your thoughts in the comments.