The 3 Simple Building Blocks of OKR Success
Things that take no talent but make the decisive difference
“Many people wait to craft the perfect OKR as an excuse to delay setting any goals or taking any action at all.
So it’s far better to write OKRs that are “just good enough” for now.
And this is what makes OKRs different.
They can’t begin to provide value until we develop the habit of setting and checking in on them.”
3 Things That Take Zero Talent That Kill Your Ability to Succeed With OKRs
Can’t believe we’re in the final month of the year!
Hope everyone’s feeling good about the progress against their personal strategies they’ve designed to date.
Let’s strip things down and get back to basics in this week’s edition.
In this edition:
3 Things That Take Zero Talent That Kill Your Ability to Succeed With OKRs
6 Steps for an effective OKR Check-In
A simple shift to take your retrospective facilitation from Good to Great
Let’s go, team!
3 Things That Take Zero Talent That Kill Your Ability to Succeed With OKRs
When we’re new to the Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) framework, we may find them complicated and hard to get started with effectively.
But being achieving goals through OKRs is simpler than you might think.
None of these success foundations require talent or skill, but have the potential to make all the difference in our attitudes and outcomes.
OKRs as our Enabling Management System
Once we start from the basics of designing a set of strategic choices, OKRs represent a powerful Management System to turn our strategy into real results through our people.
As a twice-certified OKR and strategy coach, here are three dead-simple things that can derail our ability to take strategy and turn it into reality:
#1: Not checking in regularly
#2: Not running a retrospective at the end of each cycle
#3: Trying to do too much with our OKRs
6 Steps for an effective OKR Check-In
Natalija Hellesoe over at OKRs at the Center has an excellent resource for running truly powerful OKR Check-Ins.
She uses solid facilitation preparation techniques to set the stage and get the most out of this crucial meeting.
I have been fortunate to participate in workshopping this material with Natalija personally, and can personally recommend her work highly.
Read Natalija’s full guide or download the PDF here.
Retrospective Facilitation: From Good to Great
The esteemed Stefan Wolpers has a great writeup on taking your retrospectives up to the next level via his “Food for Agile Thought” newsletter on LinkedIn.
It’s simple & effective.
Read his perspective here via LinkedIn.
🎉Now you and your team can create your own Four Square!🎯
Figma Template
See the FigJam starter template file in the Figma Community here:
https://www.figma.com/community/file/1228814772812219348
Miro Template
If you’re more of a Miro person, you can find the template in the Miroverse here:
https://miro.com/miroverse/okr-four-square/
Please give them a spin and reach out to me with any advice on how to make them better for your needs!
And use the Four Square for your Personal OKRs
You can also use the templates above to craft your Personal OKRs, as outlined in the Christina Wodtke section of my Personal Strategy / Personal OKRs piece, which you can read on Medium here:
Or on my personal blog here:
Personal Strategy / Personal OKRs was also the main subject of my last newsletter.
That’s it for this edition!
Join me next time as we continue to go Up- and Downstream to explore the Full Value Delivery Stack.
Clear outline of the pitfalls to avoid if you want to effectively implement your OKR (Objectives,Key Results) Strategy.
Thanks Mike!