As we\u2019re all sitting at home managing work from our sofas, kitchen tables, home offices, or really wherever the kids aren\u2019t right now, we\u2019ve had to learn new ways to manage our work and home lives. Because of this shift, Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) have become increasingly important, since we have less visibility in the organization, and far fewer impromptu conversations in the hallway where you might get a key piece of information. With an increased reliance on OKRs, it\u2019s important to make sure we\u2019re actually measuring the right stuff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s the best Key Result you\u2019ve ever seen?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019ve been asked this question more times than I can count\u2026 What makes a key result great? What was the context? What was the need it served? It\u2019s impossible to even know the best key result I\u2019ve seen, because it could have occurred anywhere in the organization, at a point in time where that information was critical. What I do <\/em>know is how to determine what a great KR is. In my career, the single most important feature that any great KR has is\u2026 available data<\/strong>. You would think data availability is a relatively low bar, but this can be the biggest hurdle when determining what you are going to measure. You can\u2019t measure what you don\u2019t have, but frequently there will be another KR that would work as a proxy for whatever you are trying to measure anyways. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Every organization has an abundance of data, the challenge is finding what is the right data to use as a measure. Once you\u2019ve grabbed your list of available measures, there needs to be some way to filter the list down the optimal group. This is where I like to use a concept called signal strength. Think of the WiFi bars on your computer or data connection on your phone – they tell you what the strength of your device\u2019s connection is; an indicator of how fast you can download, or even how far you are away from the source (router or cell tower). Applying this concept to business, we can measure the signal strength of KRs using 5 different criteria:<\/p>\n\n\n\n The reason those 5 criteria are important is they solve the need of KRs – is the KR relevant to the objective, can we rely on its values, will others believe us, can it highlight comparisons, and does it inspire us to hit those goals. Once you score your potential KRs on each of the above criteria (generally from 1 to 5), you get a distribution indicating which are the great KRs, and which ones maybe aren\u2019t so great.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Don\u2019t be worried if your favorite KR doesn\u2019t have a high signal strength – a KR may have a weak signal strength for one objective, but a strong signal strength for another. You can always check if your KR fits in better with another objective. That being said, successful OKR systems have as few KRs as possible provided they cover the essence of what you\u2019re trying to achieve. So if your favorite KR doesn\u2019t make the cut, be happy that you\u2019ve improved the business!<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are of course cases where you don\u2019t have any high signal strength KRs. The good news is that a few lower signal strength KRs can usually act as a proxy until you have the data for a better KR. Don\u2019t let your OKR solution be held ransom for \u201ca better KR\u201d \u2013 use the highest signal strength ones and allow your team to surface better KRs once they begin using the OKR solution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One KR that we see companies wanting to track is NPS (Net Promoter Score). This could be internal or external NPS, but either way it can be difficult to collect the data. A proxy that these organizations collect instead is the number of complaints received. The idea being: if the number of complaints goes down, there\u2019s a pretty good chance people are happier with your product. <\/p>\n\n\n\n So what makes a great KR? A great KR is one that is available, and scores highly on the 5 criteria of signal strength. What\u2019s the best Key Result I\u2019ve ever seen? Call me up and I\u2019ll tell you my favorite for this week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" How conversations, feedback, and recognition (CFRs) have become even more important for a post-pandemic workforce.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":78210,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","content-type":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[236],"tags":[],"featured_location":[],"industry":[],"class_list":["post-7205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-employee-engagement"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n