Aligning Teams with OKRs topics

Viva Goal Access Restriction

SurenderChawla1980 — Thu, 18 Jul 2024 20:51:07 GMT

I am looking to restrict the other users so that they should not see other user goal. Currently users can change the filter in explorer or in My OKR and see other user goal.

Please advise how i can restrict the access.

How Team upload works when uplod team with existing name

Roman01 — Fri, 01 Mar 2024 14:16:46 GMT

We are working on scenario for client, they need to know the scenario if they apload now team via excel upload and they upload new team, but in Viva Goals already exist Team with exactly the same name. From manual we do not see what exactly happens then.

Any detailed description?

Have you tested such situation?

Thank you!

Roman

Viva Goals Creat Teams Bulk Upload fails, but no details

GCale — Thu, 08 Feb 2024 18:43:57 GMT

I am trying to upload a file to use the Bulk-Import feature on Viva Goals Team creation.

I downloaded the template, added my info (including the required columns, fewer than 200 records), did not reformat or delete anything.
I upload the file. The preview shows a correct slice of data, so it shows it can read the file.
But three times now after several minutes, there is an error returned and zero teams created.
When I download the report to see details, there are no additional details beyond "Failed". No error messages.

Because of this, I don't know what to change in order to successfully upload. I've successfully used the OKR uploads in the past, as well as the Team upload. But now I'm not sure how to proceed.

I am using a Windows/Dell PC, Firefox browser, Windows 11 OS.

Visibility of comments in Viva Goals in the organization

Roman01 — Mon, 29 Jan 2024 09:30:38 GMT

Client considering how all comments in Viva Goals (in checking, closing comments etc.) across all organization for all employees. On one hand side organization want to support transparency on the other hand they need to protect personal information in case that personal information is entered.

HELP NEEDED: What is Viva Goals approach/recommendations in protecting visibility of comments for other if they include comments with personal feedback etc.

Executive Report using Viva Dashboard

guilhermezavaneli — Wed, 13 Dec 2023 12:19:52 GMT

Hi Everyone,

Recently I have been struggling in finding ways around the Viva dashboard to give a brief overview to our executive team. It seems that the functionalities of Viva dashboard is somewhat limited.

Has anyone faced this same issue, or it just me not knowing all the features available in Viva Dashboard.

I appreciate any response

Now Available: Export your goals to PowerPoint

Anna_Pope — Mon, 09 Oct 2023 17:35:34 GMT

Hi everyone! We are excited to announce that you can now export your OKRs to PowerPoint so you can save time and energy preparing for your business rhythms. More information can be found in this blog post.

Please take a moment to try it and let us know your feedback. Thanks!

Coming this Wednesday....

Lucy_Hitz — Mon, 18 Sep 2023 20:58:31 GMT

Sneak peek of a slide from our Viva Goals Office Hours happening later this week (How to Build a High-Performing Team with Viva Goals)...join us for specific, tactical examples re: how to use Viva Goals to build a happier, more impactful team and organization. Register here!

Upcoming AMA: Driving a Healthy OKR Program with Viva Goals. Leadership Buy-In and Markers of Succes

Mariavermeer — Mon, 11 Sep 2023 23:47:57 GMT

Join us for a 45-minute Tech Community YouTube Live event with Mike Berg, Partner Director of Data Science on Microsoft's IDEAs team!

During this session, Mike will share his insights on building a visible and successful Viva Goals program as well as share tactical tips to getting buy-in from leadership!

Don't miss out on this opportunity to level up your skills and drive success in your organization! Mark your calendars and set a reminder - we'll see you there!

RSVP now :right_arrow: https://aka.ms/viva-healthyokrs

#VivaGoals #LeadershipTips #SuccessStrategies

ROBs: Why they can Make or Break a Team

JulieMorris — Fri, 25 Aug 2023 20:17:00 GMT

Earlier this quarter, I worked with key leaders to draft up a rhythm of business that we would commit to for the quarter and then actively communicated it out to the team. While this may seem like a rather banal matter of business, it has had significant impact on our team culture, our ability to execute our goals, and overall team morale.

As we planned the upcoming quarter, we vacillated over what to do about August (notoriously difficult to schedule because of so many over-lapping vacations). How could we make an effective plan without losing momentum on key projects? Interestingly, recent employee surveys had shown that people wanted more time freed up for them to prioritize upskilling and learning; this was one of our team culture initiatives for the quarter.

Ultimately, we decided to cancel all standing meetings the last two weeks of August, draw up a optional learning curriculum for employees, and give them time to prioritize learning. Employees also had the extra time to catch up on outlying work and restore themselves before jumping in to a busy September.

By planning ahead and communicating this out to the team, we were able to maintain momentum on our goals while prioritizing team well-being.

Issues with Alignment Function

Jess_Hemingway — Tue, 18 Jul 2023 13:26:18 GMT

We are suddenly having an issue with Objective Alignment. Prior to this week, we were able to align Objectives to any other Objective or KR in the system. As of yesterday morning, we can only align Objectives to other Objectives within the same team. Is anyone else experiencing this? Any ideas on why this is occurring?

Rendimiento de Viva Goals

Juana1355 — Thu, 06 Jul 2023 17:52:45 GMT

Hasta cuántos usuarios concurrentes soporta Viva Goals?, existe una prueba de rendimiento de esta plataforma?

Viva Goals Adoption and Success Momentum!

Kim_Burt — Wed, 28 Jun 2023 18:50:21 GMT

As part of story telling Viva Goals strategies and benefits leveraged by our, HR Digital Employee Experiences (HRDEE) Team, through opportunity and engagement, we are excited to evangelize, apply and share learning experiences with others, and the energy is contagious!

Through personal and interactive engagement with customers such as HRSDEE, CELA Accessibility and LinkedIn, dependencies on Viva Goals OKRs, dependencies and adoption success stories continue to gain momentum, while active users and satisfaction increase month over month.

Tell us your story and let us know what you need! We are here to partner with you and others as we tell the HR story of employee experience success using Viva Goals to align team objectives, provide employees with a sense of purpose and focus for achieving measurable success and leverage the benefits of adaptability, transparency and growth all in one application solution. We are here to help answer your questions or help guide your evaluation in partnership with others through shared experiences!

The HR Digital Employee Experience Team experience and value leveraging Viva Goals

Kim_Burt — Tue, 30 May 2023 20:05:25 GMT

Our mission is all about enabling teams at Microsoft and external customers with awesome Viva customer experiences and that includes Viva Goals, providing a high level of value to achieve more across your team.

Viva Goals facilitates critical alignment across the organization to establish key objectives, helping teams move together with greater purpose, while enabling focus and transparency of contributions and key results across team to thrive and achieve successful goals.

Part of our evangelism of Viva Goals is about telling our lived story from an HR Digital Employee Experience perspective and the high level of value we've experienced in the one slide summary below.

We are committed to help advise, answer questions and guide your experience at any phase in evaluation, test or adoption to discover what Viva Goals can do for you and your team. Please reach out at any time!

Viva Goals Office Hours: Communications Planning for Your OKR Program AMA

BrittHarper90 — Tue, 23 May 2023 23:17:11 GMT

Do you have questions about creating a strong and well-executed OKR communication strategy for team-level and leadership-level OKR planning meetings - including, creating a work back strategy for monthly reviews, quarterly closeouts, and annual financial planning?

If the answer is yes - join us on this thread, on May 31st from 10:00 am - 10:30 am PST as Erin Donoso answers any questions you have about communications planning for your OKR program - post questions below in the thread and Erin will be here live on May 31st answering them!

See you all then!

Three Best Practices for Strategic Alignment

Jeff_Kotz — Tue, 16 May 2023 18:14:49 GMT

Viva Goals is a tremendous piece of software for strategic alignment. It makes your strategy functional to cascaded individuals, transparent to the organization, and actionable against the key results you input to measure. What’s more: the technology is straightforward and easy to use. #itMayAsWellBeAnAdButItsNot

But what does it mean to use the software? Here’s a few best practices as you get started.

It’s as much about the process as it is the result. I work for McChrystal Group, and for years our teams have been helping organizations build their analog plan on a page. A strategic document acting as a written record north star of where the organization is headed and what it wants to accomplish. Note that this is “helping them build their document…,” not because we can’t do it for them, but because the process of aligning leaders in an organization (e.g., voicing their goals and limitations, prioritizing and deprioritizing) is as much a part of the synthesis as is the typing it into Word or PowerPoint. The alignment process is not socializing a document and convincing leaders to execute on it; when done correctly, alignment is achieved in the process of writing of composing the document.

The same is true for Viva Goals. Using the software is about the process of identification and prioritization as much as it is about the key punches and clicks into the platform.

It’s as much about the process as it is the result (again)? Successful organizations who use their strategy would see Viva Goals as an operating system for their business. The platform houses the single source of truth for progress towards objectives and what needs to be done next. Organizations should create what McChrystal Group calls an Operating Rhythm – but you can call it whatever you want. The intentional and purposeful set of meetings cadenced weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly – to perform the Goals check-ins, report ups, and cross-functional awareness briefs to push the strategy forward. A good OKR process flags to all levels things that are working and should be replicated, as well as those barriers that may need support to overcome.

The process of establishing an Operating Rhythm that works for your business, adapting it as necessary, and having the discipline to adhere to it is how you leverage strategy for action and stay aligned to it.

Remember what the purpose of a priority is. If everything is a priority, then nothing is a priority. If you want your company to align around a strategy, try to be parsimonious – you can be detailed, but try not to add too many main goals, or else you run the risk of making your strategy a muddled to-do list. People do well at saying what they will do, but they don’t do so well at saying what they’ll stop doing. There’s plenty of space to assign tasks, objectives and key result owners if you choose to engage with Viva Goals as you cascade your priorities down. However, if your top-level priorities number as many as 9 or 10 (or in some cases, even fewer), senior leadership may not have aligned around one mission. Consider thinking of a simple framework to build the strategy around – perhaps a few major buckets like your people, your product, and your customers. You can still cascade within them, and your major strategies can have aspirational elements. But if your goal is to align the organization, muddying your priorities can muddy your peoples’ vision.

Just because it’s simple and direct doesn’t mean a major strategic goal isn’t powerful. If people can align around it, and it can be used to drive action, it’s far more effective than something intricate and complex that few understand and fewer can execute.

Not too much complexity here: remember process and purpose above all. Did I miss something you think is important? Keeping it too simple? What has been successful and unsuccessful when driving alignment for you?

Team OKRs not pulling Team members' OKRs

arodrigues1355 — Sat, 06 May 2023 14:34:35 GMT

We use OKRs pretty extensively in our org. Works pretty well. Because OKRs are assigned to individual people it's not easy to get a holistic picture of all OKRs the team is working on in a single spot.

I was hoping for the concept of a "Team" to support that. So we have a team defined in Viva. Each of the team members have their own OKRs. But when I got to the Team tab, no OKRs show up. There seems to be some sort of mapping issue.

Viva Goals Office Hours: OKR Alignment Best Practices Q&A

BrittHarper90 — Tue, 25 Apr 2023 19:15:30 GMT

Hey folks,

Join us on this thread tomorrow, April 26th from 9:00 am - 9:30 am PST as WendyPatFong

answers your questions from our Viva Goals Office Hours session: OKR Alignment Best Practices. If you haven't registered for the Office Hours session yet, you can do that here.

See you all tomorrow!

Creating alignment from all levels

Jeff_Kotz — Wed, 19 Apr 2023 17:24:12 GMT

Strategic alignment has been the bread-and-butter of my company for at least a decade. When our President, Chris Fussell, talks about front-line leaders driving the pendulum forward, in some sense he's speaking to the ability of real-time information driving changes to the company's strategy at large. To that end, Viva Goals is not only a reporting tool for objectives, it's also a means for the organization to align to the environment. Leaders driving success with OKRs who fail to review the context of Key Result reporting are missing the evaluative value that Goals feedback provides. At the very least, this is a necessary component of the quarterly close-out, if not worthy of a more frequent review.

Does your organization have any real, tangible and transparent mechanisms to inform your strategy, or do your senior leaders do all the talking? Is your strategy static until the year-end close, or does it live organically driven by the context in which its operating?

Really, are OKRs just for senior leadership?

MdavisExonomist — Wed, 19 Apr 2023 17:08:23 GMT

Hey folks! My name is Michael Davis, and I've been practicing OKRs for...quite some time. I founded Ally.io's strategic services practice, and lead a team of OKR coaches here at Microsoft.

One of the most common questions I've gotten in side conversations with clients and members of their organizations is simply: why should I use OKRs? It seems like something that's really intended for senior leaders who just want more visibility into what's happening

While OKRs certainly help to provide visibility for senior leadership, it does the same for employees throughout an organization. But wait: visibility is not enough, you still haven't answered the question: why should I use OKRs?

Here are some reasons why, and why they're particularly valuable for teams

A quick way to stay aligned on team goals, supporting initiatives
A great way to stay in sync with your manager or direct reports without having to nag people constantly in 1-1 chats or e-mails
You can leverage Dashboards to run team meetings and track notes / action items over time in ONE place
Bonus: Businesses run with a focus on strategic priorities and metrics. Getting into the habit of thinking in these patterns can be extremely beneficial over one's career in the long run!

But practically, how do I get started? Do I have to train everyone on my team on OKRs? The simple answer is No. OKRs are a skillset that gets nurtured over time, and many people need time to really build and hone this skillset. A great way to start with Viva Goals is simply to enter existing goals into the system, and start using it in your team meetings or bi-weekly / monthly reviews. Over time, you can use our plethora of resources to upskill your team(s) at a pace that makes sense for your business.