Goals/OKR Cycle
By: Erica Olsen
A guide to establish a quarterly rythm for OKRs.
In this guide, we will cover:
» Why OKRs Create Agility
» Pro-Tips for Managing OKRs
» How to Create an OKR Cycle for Your Team
» How to Report & Plan Simultaneously
» How to Run a Great Review
» A Canvas to Build Your Own OKRs
Phone @OnStrategyHQ
Main: + 1-775-747-7407
@OnStrategyHQ
Online
@OnStrategyHQ
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.OnStrategyHQ.com @VirtualStrategist
Goals/OKR Cycle
Why OKRs
Create Agility
The expectation to run teams and organizations in a more agile, fluid
manner is continuing to grow and become the norm, not the rule. The best
part of the growing popularity of OKRs (Objectives & Key Results) is how
this practice creates agility because it’s based on managing and planning in
quarterly increments.
As we’ve noted in other guides, OKRs are all the rage, made popular by
Google, as a methodology for goal setting and driving accountability
throughout high-growth organizations. While you may not be using OKRs
specifically, you can adopt the agile process of establishing a quarterly
rhythm.
Driving agility comes from the management cycle of revising results and
refreshing goals quarterly, with annual company-wide priorities backed by
monthly progress reporting.
Standard Rhythm
Our best practice is to fit the management rhythm with organizational pace
and market demands. Here are the most common increments:
» Weekly Update: Starting with the shortest time period, weekly reviews
shouldn’t just be focused on OKRs. Instead, we recommend integrating
a component of the OKR review process into your regularly scheduled
weekly tactical meetings. These weekly tactical meetings cover the
operational elements and weekly priorities of your team, their activities,
and what needs to be accomplished during the next 5-7 days.
» Monthly Check-In: Monthly reviews are purpose-built sessions to
review the performance of your OKRs and decide what are the critical
actions you need address in the next 30 days.
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Goals/OKR Cycle
» Quarterly Review & Refresh: Quarterly reviews are sessions designed
to review your performance and articulate focus for the next 90 days.
We consider quarterly strategy reviews table stakes when it comes to
the OKR process. The absence of quarterly strategy reviews is a surefire
way to lose focus on how your organization is trending towards its
goals, quarterly, annually, and long-term.
» Annual Review & Planning: Annual planning is designed to look back
on performance of your team during the past 12 months and articulate
the bigger focus for the coming 12 months. This is the most traditional
planning sequence. We still recommend leveraging this cycle, but it
should be accompanied by another review sequence.
Don’t Over-Plan
Once you’ve determined the rhythm and schedule for which you want to
manage against your OKRs, you’ll need to work with your Executive Team
to set annual company-wide Goals/Objectives. Then, work with their teams
to set quarterly Key Results/Deliverables. You can read about how to create
OKRs here!
Measuring the performance of Key Results is [traditionally] assessed
quarterly.
The purpose behind this is to create agility and not “over-plan” work.
Instead, you’re planning and managing results quarterly, which helps create
a more exciting and dynamic goal setting practice than setting annual goals
you forget about.
Keeping the Rhythm
We know the “pro” of this approach is building agility into your organization.
The “con” is the process can buckle under its own weight if not managed
simply and seamlessly. Here are a few tips:
» Rigorous Consistency: Establish the cycle and dates for the year.
Publish them and commit. Do not cancel meetings.
» Company-wide Visibility: Not only do you want to discuss results at
a team or company-wide meeting, you also want to publish results
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Goals/OKR Cycle
physically via dashboards or other reporting mechanisms.
» “Aspirational” Commitments: As a team, you win and lose together.
The act of making quarterly commitments (via setting individual OKRs)
and reporting on them can feel punitive. Remember that achieving
around 70% of key results is the idea. In other words, some “reds” and
“yellows” are OK.
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Goals/OKR Cycle
How to Create an OKR
Cycle for Your Team
A Typical OKR Cycle
Below is an illustration of a quarterly cycle. To make this work for you, here
are a few questions to answer. Use your answers here and the worksheet on
Page 11 to build a quarterly process that will fit your team.
1. What system or tool will you use to capture and manage OKRs?
2. Will monthly check-in be conducted as part of 1:1s or included in your
monthly staff meeting?
3. Will your Quarterly Business Review be part of an existing meeting or
a new meeting?
4. Do you want to include dedicated time for strategic topics at your
Monthly/Quarterly Business Review or will those be handled at
different meetings?
1. Establish 6. Evaluate Q1
Companywide Performance & Set
Priorities & OKRs for Q2 Company/Team
20XX and Q1 OKRs
4. Report 4. Report 7-9. Present Q1
2. Establish Q1 Progress Progress Performance
Ind.+ Team OKRs and Q2 OKRs,
5. Monthly 5. Monthly Publish Results, &
3. Rollout
Check-In Check-In Recalibrate OKRs
Q1 OKRs
Month 1 Month 2 Month 3 Month 4
Quarter After Quarter
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Goals/OKR Cycle
Step-by-Step OKR Cycle
Milestone Who? How? When?
Kicking off the Year & Q1
Establish Company-wide CEO & No Later than 1
Annual Leadership
1. Priorities & OKRs for Leadership
Team Offsite
Month Before
20XX and Q1 Team the New year
No Later than
Establish Team & Regular Team
2. Individual OKRs for Q1
Everyone
Meetings & 1:1s
the 2nd Week of
the Quarter
No Later than
Rollout Company-wide & Company-wide
3. Team Q1 OKRs
All Staff
Meeting
the 3rd Week of
the Quarter
Managing Results Month 1-3
No Later than
Report on Progress of Individuals Update the end of the
4. OKRs To-Date
Everyone
the OKR Tool 1st week of the
month
Individual No Later than
Contrib- Team Meetings or the End of the
5. Discuss OKR Progress
utors w/ 1:1s 2nd Week of the
Managers Month
Reviewing Q1 Performance & Setting Q2 Goals
Individuals update
Evaluate Q1 Performance No Later than
the OKR Tool &
6. &Set Q2 OKRs - Team & All Staff
Review in Team
the 2nd Week of
Individual Level the Quarter
Meeting or 1:1s
Present Q1 Performance Quarterly Business No Later than
7. and Q2 OKRs - Company- All Staff Reviews (Exec & the 3rd Week of
wide & Team Level Team Level) the Quarter
Communicate
CEO & Right after
Publish Quarterly Results to Whole
8. Performance Results
Leadership
Organization & to
the Quarterly
Team Business Review
Board if Appropriate
No later than
Recalibrate Individual Individuals Update
9. OKRs if Necessary
Individuals
the OKR Tool
the 3rd week of
the quarter
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Goals/OKR Cycle
How to Report on Performance
& Plan Simultaneously
Report & Plan
The trickiest part of streamlining an OKR cycle is reporting on performance
and establishing the next quarter’s goals at one time. Here is how we think
about this process to make this easy. For every key result, goal or initiative,
think about the three “C’s”:
1. Close Out: Close out the key result by reporting on the actual
progress or metric achieved at the end of the third month.
2. Carry Forward: Determine if this key result will continue into the next
quarter. If so, extend the end date to the end of the third month and
establish the desired target.
3. Create New: Determine if any new key results need to be established
to achieve the objective. If so, write new key results; establish the
target and set the end date for the end of the third month.
For whatever OKR software tool you are using, you need to output the
Performance Report for the previous quarter and the Action Plan for the
upcoming quarter.
Refreshing OKRs Pro-Tip
While you are “refreshing” your goals and objectives every quarter, most
of the time you will carry forward the objective and most of the key results
(specifically quantifiable outcomes). What you will “refresh” is establishing
the target for the next quarter and likely new key results that are efforts or
initiatives.
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Goals/OKR Cycle
Running a Great Monthly/
Quarterly Business Review
How to Run a Review
The heartbeat of a productive Goal/OKR Cycle is a Monthly or Quarterly
Business or Strategy Review. There are many different ways to run this
meeting, however here is a tried and true agenda to start with and evolve to
your culture.
» Time Allocation: Monthly for 60 mins or quarterly for 2 hours.
» Attendees: Executive Team or Directs if running a team review.
» Preparation: All Goals/OKRs have current performance data through
the end of the quarter.
» Purpose: To review company-wide performance goals/OKRs driving
Strategic Priorities and calibrate focus for upcoming quarter. (NOTE:
This meeting is NOT public shaming for non-performance. That is
handled in 1:1s, of course.)
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Goals/OKR Cycle
Review Agenda
Lead Agenda Item Time
CEO/Leader Setting the Stage
Strategic Priority #1
2 mins per
Objective #1 (objective owner reports as follows)
objective
» Overall progress of the objective
» Progress for each key result & next quarter
Objective commitments. 80% forward
Owners looking
· What was achieved and why? What was not
achieved and why?
· What is the focus for upcoming quarter & 20% backward
specific targets/deliverables?
looking
***Repeat for Each Objective.
Objective Strategic Priority #2-X
Owners ***Repeat for each priority as noted above
Strategic Topic Deep Dive
30 minutes
Topic Owner (time
Use this time for specific topics that have potential
permitting)
implications on shifting your strategy.
Evaluation
» What did we learn from our implementation last
CEO/Leader quarter? 5 minutes
» What changes/ adaptions will we make to our plan?
» Recap company-wide goals/OKRs
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Goals/OKR Cycle
Using the OnStrategy App to
Manage OKRs
The OnStrategy App for
OKR Management
The OnStrategy Team built our application to holistically and easily manage
organizational, team and individual performance. You can easily:
» See a quick view of your team’s performance.
» Collect performance updates in 15 mins or less.
» See company-wide performance and pre-built dashboard to run
quarterly reviews.
» Everyone sees how they contribute to the bigger picture.
» Quickly refresh and reset OKRs quarterly.
Click here to talk to a Senior Strategist to look under the hood!
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OKR Cycle Canvas Org Name:
Use the table below to articulate your OKR Cycle. Once you’ve completed Dates:
the table, also fill out your management timeline below.
Our OKR Cycle
1 How will we commit to integrating OKRs into our regular business cycle? Use the reference on page 5 to complete this table.
Milestone Who? How? When?
Kicking off the Year & Q1
Establish Company-wide Priorities
1.
& OKRs for 20XX and Q1
Establish Team & Individual OKRs
2.
for Q1
Rollout Company-wide & Team Q1
3.
OKRs
Managing Results Month 1-3
Report on Progress of OKRs To-
4.
Date
5. Discuss OKR Progress
Reviewing Q1 Performance & Setting Q2 Goals
Evaluate Q1 Performance - Team
6.
& Individual Level
Present Q1 Performance and Q2
7.
OKRs - Company-wide & Team Level
Publish Quarterly Performance
8.
Results
Recalibrate Individual OKRs if
9.
Necessary
Our OKR Timeline
2 What does our quarterly OKR cycle look like?
Month 1 Month 2 Month 3 Month 4
Before Quarter Quarter After Quarter
www.OnStrategyHQ.com OKR Cycle Canvas
Goals/OKR Cycle
Need help buidling your OKRs? Reach out to
learn how a senior strategy expert can help!
Contact us at [email protected]
Phone @OnStrategyHQ
Main: + 1-775-747-7407
@OnStrategyHQ
Online
@OnStrategyHQ
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.OnStrategyHQ.com @VirtualStrategist
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