5 Things You Must Do to Have Disastrous Key Results

Definitely one of the most relevant challenges in the discovery of OKRs is the construction of key results. The recent need (and fashion, why not say it) to use OKRs has led to the use of various models for the construction of OKRs.

Along the way we have found various patterns that have not been so positive and have led to the failure of the key results that I will tell you about below.

1. Not involving your stakeholders.

Defining OKRs is not an exercise for a few, but a collective one. It is vital that you have continuous spaces for synchronizing expectations with your stakeholders. Involving them in the process of choosing key results is vital to reinforce focus, direction and avoid rework due to misalignment with the business strategy.

Create a map of the most important stakeholders (between 3 and 5) and generate an engagement plan. Try to have small sessions of 20 to 30 minutes to steer the ship. Analyze with your team all the information obtained from your multiple meetings and use them as a basis to choose the best possible indicators to build your KRs.

2. Choose key results at random.

Key results are not brought by the stork either. Nor should they be a faithful copy of the examples you find on the Internet or one that came to you by chance. Choosing a KR is a strategic exercise and must contain all the work that is within your field of action, responsibility and direct dependence on the team.

It must involve all the impact aspects of your objectives. It is not a simple exercise and requires time and practice. A lot of practice. It is very likely that the indicators you need are already being used in your company and perhaps you only need to complement one or another.

A big challenge, right? Because you'll have to find out how the company measures its value. An undeniable opportunity to bring the business to the discussion table of the teams. Do you see the importance of using OKRs?

3. Prefer outputs over outcomes.

It is becoming more and more common to understand the business value present in the key results. OKRs seek to demonstrate the value generated to the business over activities, projects, initiatives, epics, features, user stories or simple tasks. We need to scale the value and descale the initiatives as key results.

Choosing an initiative like KRs not only reduces innovation capacity and limits options to achieve the desired value, but also makes it impossible to monitor the evolution of compliance. We do not need transformation plans (means, output), but rather to increase operational efficiency (end, outcome).

If you identify an output as a key result, it is so easy to get out of it with a simple question: What needle (value indicator) do I move if I carry out this initiative (output)?

4. Not linking them to your organizational data management.

Many key results are chosen without knowing the indicators we are monitoring in the company. We do not know the update cadences and we do not define the cadences necessary to make our OKRs useful. This is important. Defining OKRs is a process that takes time and the great challenge is to make them useful.

Not just in a declarative way, but in a truly utilitarian way, to the point where you can involve it with your governance model, operation, structure and culture. If you are going to adopt OKRs, worry about the update cadences of your key results.

Aligning the necessary cadence and organizational capacity to achieve it is a tremendous challenge. Data is power, and if you don't use it to make decisions, your competition will.

5. Believing that to achieve OKRs you only need to meet KRs.

Achieving an OKR involves much more than just meeting your key results. It implies taking into consideration factors that are within and outside of your control. Everything that is within your capacity to act should be included in your key results (and often complemented with KPIs); however, there are things that do not depend on you, nor on your key results.

There are factors that are beyond your control and you have to do something about them. That is why it is inconceivable that you have OKRs and have not complemented your planning with a good risk plan. Key results are a hypothesis in every sense of the word. Achieving them does not guarantee that you have achieved the objective.

It brings you closer, but if you don't contain the external factors, no matter how much effort you've put into defining your OKRs, it will be a frustrating adventure.

The road to mastery in defining OKRs is long. It involves many hours of practice and several cups of coffee; however, the satisfaction of connecting our teams with the organizational strategy is the great reward.

Remember that having good OKRs is not the goal, but the path. Enjoy it.