“Objectives and Key Results are the yin and yang of goal setting”.
– John Doerr
The requirement of a system to align goals and track progress increases when there is a need for an organization to bring agility in meeting deadlines or improving the overall productivity of the team. The use of OKRs, or Objective & Key Results, is an excellent way to keep up with the fast-paced work environment.
Wikipedia‘s OKR definition is “a goal-setting framework used by individuals, teams, and organizations to define measurable goals and track their outcomes.”
In other words, OKR is a management methodology used in organizations to ensure everyone in the team is headed in the same direction. With the help of OKR, an organization can map out its priorities and work towards achieving the goals.
OKR software gained popularity owing to John Doerr, who introduced the tool to the then young startup Google. This practice became immensely beneficial for Google over its growth from “40 to 100,000+ “employees whilst achieving goals consistently.
OKR serves as the efficient framework for goal-setting and has been consistently considered a radical and robust management methodology that revolutionized Silicon Valley. This framework allows the team to track and measure the acceleration in progress reports, goal achievements and other monetary matters. To this day, OKR is one of the core management techniques used by prominent organizations like LinkedIn, Uber, Twitter, and Atlassian.
What are the benefits of OKR and OKR software?
The emergence of remote and hybrid work models, ever since the onset of the pandemic, has made employees feel disconnected from the work environment. Lack of motivation to work and being disengaged/disconnected during work hours began to have a detrimental effect on the productivity of most employees.
With a defined OKR framework, employees can focus on their goals, leading to better productivity. OKRs help track progress, create alignment and motivate individuals and teams to deliver their best.
According to research conducted by the American Psychological Association, “90% of the field studies confirm that challenging goals boost performance and productivity”.
– American Psychological Association
The usage of spreadsheets as a tool to monitor OKRs and the progress towards goals are becoming obsolete. Organizations are now exploring better tools for tracking team productivity and fostering accountability. OKR software make it a much easier task to organize and recognize key results.
How to choose the right OKR Software?
Knowing how to choose the right OKR software is the key here. Here are a few points you need to consider —
- Your OKR should well integrate with your Enterprise systems – Your OKR solution should out-of-box integrate with your Workspace (i.e., Microsoft or Google) and offers you to manage OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) for your entire Enterprise functions.
- OKR software should connect with your existing systems and link KPIs – Manual check-ins, integrations are not practical. Your OKR solution should integrate well with your existing systems (e.g., CRM, ORM, HRMS, ERP) and offers you to link your OKR with Work KPIs. Without this, everything remains ‘Subjective’, and you do not really get the true benefits of the ‘Objective’ in OKR (Objectives and Key Results) framework.
- Consider the Ease-of-Use – The OKR software should not be cumbersome to use. You should be very particular about learning curves for your new software. It is highly likely to be one of the key blockers for your organization in adopting and thus benefiting from your new tool.
- Your OKR software should benefit everyone in the organization – Your OKR tool should not be useful only to a limited area – like the alignment of functional leaders every quarter. It should not be just a better version of the excel sheet, that too, amongst the management members. It should enable you to connect your entire organization with an effective work framework. Everyone (including employees at the bottom of the pyramid) should be benefiting – with the new clarity as they gear up their efforts to impact ORG goals and Objectives.
End Note
OKR software makes it easier for the people in your organization to align tasks, set goals, and measure progress. It becomes a one-point solution for the company that benefits all. While choosing the best OKR software, it is imperative to keep in mind that it aligns with your business goals and strategies.
