09/12/2024
OKR implementation mistakes.
1. Masking of objectives.
disguise their current activities as objectives. It can be preparation of training system, revision of approved plans or changes in regulations and other activities that we have to do regularly to ensure the approved financial result.
Putting current activities into system, we essentially substituted the concepts and received only additional burden in the form of reports. Therefore, it is important to realize that OKRs are incremental that enable strategic value creation and breakthroughs. For example:
CRM implementation and process automation in the company will be of strategic value as it will make processes more mobile and transparent for management.
Opening an office in foreign countries and a new market is a global challenge and can be included in the bottom line.
2. Involvement of all employees.
We tried to introduce the new system to all managers, including those who play a significant role in maintaining current operations. This resulted in starting to get confused about goals and objectives, distracted and losing focus.
It is important to realize that this system is not relevant for all managers, but for those who are close to solving the strategic tasks of the company: director, director, director, in other words, the top level of .
3. Motivation Shift.
The previous mistake leads to the fact that financial motivation is provided for achieving the result specified in OKR, and it becomes higher for the performer than the current activity. This leads to “holes” and losses for the business. We encountered a similar problem during the implementation process, when we started to see a shift of activity towards personal results, which, of course, created a violation of the usual algorithms.
4. Exaggerated indicators.
The absence of a single template for filling out the form led to chaos of perception, and the unregulated number of goals led to non-fulfillment, lack of prioritization, and, of course, another garbage.
Consciously overestimating metrics in OKRs is considered important and necessary, and there as you will. However, I believe that any goals must be realistic and achievable, or it will become a profanation.
To avoid the above misunderstandings you need to follow a few important OKR rules:
The system concerns additional projects taken on by the company's executives, the purpose of which is reduced to strategically important decisions for the .
The plan contains no more than three goals per quarter and is paid based on the results of their achievement. It is important that the goals are in line with the principle.
Work on additional projects does not relieve from current activities and does not replace their results.
The projects must contain an model showing the costs and revenues from realization.
The initiator defends the project according to a pre-prepared template, which is entered in CRM for the discussion of the project committee. The project committee can return the project for revision, accept or reject it as a goal.
In order to control the fulfillment of the goals, sprints are introduced every two weeks, where the committee evaluates the dynamics of achievement. In case of negative dynamics, the project can be terminated.
Every three months there are defenses of the goals based on the established regulations.
Bottom line:
60% of ideas do not reach the committee, only because the author failed to formalize them properly, which reduced the time for .
10% of ideas did not make it to the project committee because they did not show relevance.