Launch / Boost your OKR practice
Discover how to enhance alignment between strategy and execution by mastering the utilization of frameworks like OKRs and Evidence-based Management (EBM). These tools help align strategic priorities and enable multi-disciplinary cross-organization teams to innovate with empowerment.
Typical Engagement
Here’s how my typical OKR launch/boost engagements look like:
- Exploring current management operating system (whether using OKRs or not) and surrounding context – what’s working, what’s not, opportunities, and threats. This will be accomplished via quick conversations with relevant players and reviewing existing artifacts.
- Facilitate an OKR Implementation Strategy workshop to align on improvements for the company/group-level management/operating system.
- This workshop starts by exploring the current context and challenges, objectives, and desired results.
- We then explore principles and practices to help achieve the desired results and create an operating system that takes a pragmatic evolutionary step toward the desired results. This workshop section combines OKR / EBM training and in-context application conversations.
- The last part of the workshop is a conversation about the next steps – we draft a blueprint for the planned interventions, a roadmap for change, and a plan of what kind of support the group will need.
- OKR Training and Coaching
- Based on the outcomes of the strategic workshop, we will co-create and then implement an OKR/EBM training and coaching roadmap.
- Coaching the leadership team through creating company-level OKRs conducive to the right balance between alignment towards outcomes and the right execution autonomy.
- Help prepare and facilitate a broad participation (Big Room) OKR workshop to align OKRs across the organization (based on my OKR Big Room Alignment framework)
- Coach OKR execution check-ins, grading, debrief,ing and retrospectives – Inspect and Adapt several cycles of OKR implementation
You can explore my thinking and recommendations regarding OKRs below:
OKR Implementation Tips
OKRs – Yet Another Silver Bullet It seems OKRs are the new “silver bullet” – VC/PE/GE Investors give John Dorr’s “Measure What Matters” book to their CEOs and strongly suggest that their portfolio companies use OKRs. While the idea of using OKRs to improve strategic focus and alignment with execution is great, things often go …
Exploring the Connection Between Business Agility, OKRs and Private Equity – Interview w/ Yuval on the Quantive Dreams with Deadlines Podcast
If you’re here, you might be interested in OKRs. If so you should check out the Dreams with Deadlines podcast published by Quantive (formerly Gtmhub). I was delighted to accept an invitation to come on the podcast to discuss OKRs, Business Agility, Agile, Evidence-based management and the connection to increasing value creation e.g. in the Private …
Fix Your OKRs – Back to First Principles
Context OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) have become the latest management framework to suffer the fate of becoming popular too quickly, to the point where in many organizations, OKRs are a theater/charade with little useful substance or benefits. That’s a shame because OKRs have huge potential if used effectively. So let’s go about fixing your …
Connecting OKRs, KPIs, OVSs, and DVSs in SAFe® — Scaled Agile
The title of my post may read like acronym soup but all of these concepts play a critical role in SAFe, and understanding how they’re connected is important to success. After exploring some connections, I will suggest some actions you can take while designing, evaluating, or accelerating your implementation. KPIs and OKRs The SAFe Value Stream …
Improving Focus and Alignment by Organizing around OKRs and managing OKR Flow
Today, I wanted to share two quick observations about OKRs. Too many teams working on each strategic OKR I encounter many organizations that use OKRs. Too many of them have this crazy matrix where the high-level OKRs — those that aim to achieve the organization’s strategy — map to too many teams/functions in the organization. This creates a need …
Organizing around Outcomes with OKRs and Scrum
Aligning Scrum Team Topology to Strategy with OKRs and Product Goals Yeah, I know. Could I squeeze more buzzwords into the title? I guess I could include Digital Transformation, Cloud, AI, and Machine Learning for effect. But seriously, I wanted to share some insights around how to align your Scrum Teams to your strategy leveraging OKRs …
Fixing OKR Theater Using Scrum
The OKR Theater I encounter many organizations that are trying to improve the alignment between strategy and execution with the OKRs framework (Objectives and Key Results). There’s good intent there, but more often than not I see anti-patterns like: OKRs that look more like tasks than strategic objectives — especially by the time they reach working teams OKRs …
Entrepreneurial Operating System® / Traction®- How does it relate to Agile/Scrum?
I’m hearing from more and more companies that are using the Entrepreneurial Operating System® (EOS®) and are also looking at or practicing Agile e.g., using Scrum. In discussions with these companies, two key questions surface time after time: My teams want to use Agile/Scrum — is that aligned with the fact that we’re using EOS® in the …