As most people know, change is difficult, especially when it comes to a new working model, or even a new management model and people's behavior. And change is what you're looking for with the implementation of OKRs. To help you with this initiative, Improvefy has developed a roadmap in a 90-day cycle of what needs to happen in order to guarantee a successful OKRs implementation, integrating it with the organization's culture and management habits, ensuring that your organization extracts the maximum impact from investments in the OKRs model.
Why 90 days? And why this roadmap? Because research shows that more than 75% of people maintain a new goal or habit for a week, but then - little by little - begin to return to old habits and behaviors, but that if these people manage to maintain a new behavior / habit for 90 days, this change is more likely to become permanent, with less chance of returning to old habits.
That's why this 90-day is so important - because in implementing an OKRs project - your team and your company will need to engage in activities and behaviors that will reinforce healthy habits, strengthening your team's "muscle" and - dramatically - increasing the chances that OKRs will help your organization grow and prosper.
Specific OKR actions for the first quarter
Below are specific actions that your OKR team (Champions and Ambassadors) should take on a weekly basis during the 1st quarter (1st 90 days) of your OKR implementation.
1st week:
1. ensure that the "structure" of roll-out of the OKRs - i.e. the way in which the OKRs will be rolled out throughout the organization - is understood by everyone involved. The roles and responsibilities - at this point - should be clear to everyone as to who will create the OKRs and who will not;
2. Make it clear to everyone at what level the OKRs will be aligned. Will it be at team level? Or individuals? Bring clarity - together with your team of Champions and Ambassadors - to ensure a shared understanding;
3. If you and your OKRs team have created an "OKRs Playbook" or "User Manual", ensure that this material has been finalized and distributed and that it is accessible to all teams. If your company - or your team - has not developed a Playbook or Manual, we strongly recommend that you do so;
4. Check and follow up with the teams to make sure that everyone has already drawn up their OKRs and registered / uploaded them to the OKR management platform. If any team hasn't registered their OKRs on the platform, make sure to address with the Champion, Ambassador and team leadership an action plan for immediate registration / upload to the platform;
5. Encourage all teams to check the platform and see the OKRs of other departments and teams. This has two main objectives:
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- Look for opportunities for alignment and cooperation - or even - identify conflicting and inversely proportional objectives and efforts;
- 4x greater chance of achieving an OKR if you declare it publicly - according to research or "in a recent survey of 1,000 American adults, 92% say they would feel more motivated to achieve their goals if their colleagues could see their progress";
6. with the Teams, Champions and Ambassadors (if you are in doubt about the roles and responsibilities in the OKR management model - go to our article that makes this clear);
7. Create a template and a simple agenda for weekly check-in meetings and distribute it to all teams, in order to get feedback on whether the teams have understood and absorbed the check-in methodology and logic;
8. Ensure that OKR-related resources (articles, training, materials) are available to anyone interested in learning more about the methodology. This could be on a management platform, e-learning platform or company intranet portal;
2nd week:
1. Follow up with teams that have not yet finalized their OKRs. Schedule personal meetings with the teams and individuals to understand why the teams have not yet finalized their OKRs. The aim is to ensure that teams finalize their OKRs as quickly as possible;
2. Encourage all your teams to check in - however informally. Note that it is essential to have an official corporate check-in template for the week 3 meetings;
3. Finalize the weekly check-in template and meeting agenda/calendar and distribute to all teams;
4. Ensure that all teams have scheduled and formalized weekly check-ins, mid-quarter check-ins and end-of-quarter retrospective / review processes, integrated into their calendars and those of their teams;
3rd week:
1. Attend and ensure that your teams attend the weekly check-ins of - at least - two teams to "audit" and offer suggestions for improvement;
2. Look for any incremental "quick wins" - an important task that has been completed, for example, or demonstrated / evidenced progress on a KR (key result). Share the gains with the entire organization to continue promoting OKRs. Share and communicate any and all advances throughout the company to continue promoting OKRs;
3. Monitor your OKRs platform and "system" to ensure that all teams are updating results and progress as required;
4. Start working on a template and agenda for the mid-quarter check-in;
5. Send OKRs articles or case studies to the teams - in order to generate motivation and for the teams to understand how transformative an OKRs program can be for the organization and the employees;
4th week:
1. Attend and ensure that your teams attend the weekly check-ins of - at least - two teams to "audit" and offer suggestions for improvement [ideally, these should be different teams from the one you visited the previous week];
2. Maintain the process of looking for any incremental "quick wins" - for example, an important task that has been completed, for example, or demonstrated / evidenced progress on a KR (key result). Share the wins with the whole organization to keep promoting OKRs;
3. Organize a meeting with your Ambassadors and Champions to assess feedback on how the implementation is going. Are people and teams excited about the OKRs process? What challenges are they encountering?
4. Distribute the template and agenda for the mid-quarter check-in to generate feedback from the teams;
5. Meet with the executive sponsor to provide an update on implementation;
5th week:
1.Finalize the mid-quarter check-in template and distribute it to all teams;
2. Look for any incremental "quick wins" - an important task that has been completed, for example, or demonstrated / evidenced progress on a KR (key result). Share the gains with the entire organization to continue promoting OKRs;
3. Monitor progress with the Ambassadors and Champions on challenging items that may have arisen in the OKR meetings to discuss and plan for the identified OKR challenges;
4. Send an OKRs article, case study or any other relevant document to the teams to generate encouragement;
6th week:
1. Finalize the mid-quarter check-in template and distribute it to all teams;
2. Look for any incremental "quick wins" - an important task that has been completed, for example, or demonstrated / evidenced progress on a KR (key result). Share the gains with the entire organization to continue promoting OKRs;
3. Monitor progress with the Ambassadors and Champions on challenging items that may have arisen in the OKR meetings to discuss and plan for the identified OKR challenges;
4. Send an OKRs article, case study or any other relevant document to the teams to generate encouragement;
7th week:
1. Commit to having someone in authority (C-level, preferably) attend all mid-quarter check-in meetings (it doesn't necessarily have to be the same C-level person). Ensure that these mid-quarter check-in meetings generate feedback and recommendations for improvement;
2. Follow up with all your teams to ensure that they have conducted mid-quarter check-ins for improvements;
3. Report OKR progress to the organization;
8th week:
1. Organize meetings with the Ambassadors to assess feedback on how the implementation is progressing. Are people still motivated and engaged in the OKRs process? What difficulties are people facing?
2. Get feedback from the teams on the impact and lessons learned from the mid-quarter check-in meetings. Look for success stories or learnings that can be shared with the organization;
9th week:
1. check in with the teams to make sure they are having their weekly check-in meetings;
2. As always, check and look for OKR gains that you can share - across the organization;
3. Inform all teams that the OKR proposals for the next quarter must be submitted within two weeks;
4. Start by creating a template or agenda for the quarterly retrospective / review process;
5. Meet with the Executive Sponsor(s) to provide an update on implementation;
Week 10:
1. Tell all teams that the deadline for submitting OKR suggestions for the next quarter is next week;
2. Encourage and incentivize all teams to have alignment meetings (if necessary) with other teams to understand points of synergy or points of conflict and how to resolve them - which is fundamental to the success of OKRs;
3. Attend at least one alignment meeting to obtain and offer feedback;
4. Provide any kind of "tip" or "tool" to help the teams. These can be based on what you have learned from the teams - so far;
5. Share any and all OKR gains made by the teams - so far;
6. Share the template and instructions for the retrospective and review with the teams - for feedback;
11th week:
1. Ensure that all OKRs have been entered into your system / platform;
2. Follow up with any teams that haven't provided OKRs and seek assistance;
3. Organize a meeting with the Ambassadors to assess their feedback on how the implementation is going. Are people still motivated about the OKRs Program? What challenges are people facing?
4. Finalize the document and template for the retrospective and end-of-quarter review;
5. Share the gains from the OKRs with the teams;
12th week:
1.All OKRs for the next quarter should be registered on the platform. Follow up with any teams that have not yet completed their OKRs;
2. Share the templates, methodologies and agenda of the retrospective / review process with all teams;
3. Share best practices and OKR gains with all teams and the company;
13th week:
1. Hold the necessary meetings to ensure that all OKRs are approved by the leadership;
2. Share the gains of OKRs with the teams;
3. Prepare the agenda for an OKR closing event, in which the OKR achievement rates are shared, presented and the OKRs for the current quarter are shared;
14th week (1st week of the next quarter):
1Have an OKR closing event during which the OKR achievement rates are shared, presented and the OKRs for the current quarter are shared;
Remember that - like everything else in life - this process gets better and better with practice, with the creation of habits of excellence! Normally, in our experience, an organization will need 4 or 5 quarterly cycles to widely implement the OKRs process and culture and extract the maximum value from the framework, especially in terms of building muscle and maturity in the OKRs management process.
