To run a healthy OKR program, we must first define one. This is similar to when someone says, “I want to be a healthier person”; a personal trainer might say, “That’s great, let’s define what that looks like for you.”
That’s because there are several ways to define “healthy.” This differs from person to person, and, when we’re talking about OKR programs, from organization to organization. While what a healthy OKR program looks like will differ depending on your company, there are still some core characteristics every program needs to get on track.
I’ve worked with dozens of customers as an OKR Consultant, and found there are four key characteristics of healthy OKR programs: adoption, engagement, focus, and efficiency.
What does a healthy OKR program look like, and which metrics should you use to track success?
1. Adoption - An OKR program thrives when it is available to all employees, from senior leadership to individual contributors. Adoption begins with strong buy-in from leadership and has a key “bottom-up” component as individuals see value and adopt OKRs. Leaders should demonstrate how embedded OKR tracking is in the organization and integrate OKRs into the existing rhythm of business.
Recommended metric: Percentage of teams that have created OKRs.
2. Engagement – After adoption is established and people have access to a goal-setting platform, you need to drive engagement, with users actively viewing and checking on their goals on an ongoing basis. This gives visibility and awareness of goals across the organization.
Recommended metric: Percentage of check-ins in the last 28 days.
3. Focus – As engagement and usage increases, teams begin to leverage the power of OKRs to focus on what matters -- and say no to what doesn’t. In a healthy OKR program your employees should come to work knowing the top 3-5 things to work on, and how those are aligned to the overall company strategy. This drives meaningful interactions at all levels toward achieving common goals.
Recommended metric: Percentage of teams that have less than 5 objectives, percentage of objectives that have 5 or less key results.
4. Efficiency – The first three steps can have a huge impact on your business, but not if they come at the expense of feeling burdensome to maintain. OKRs should seamlessly flow into your daily work, and not take up too much time to operationalize. An OKR platform like Viva Goals facilitates efficiency, with check-ins taking just a few minutes a week, and data integrations automatically pulling from a single source of truth to make updates simple and effective.
Recommended metric: Percentage of key results that are automated through integrations.
I could go on for days about all the things you can do to run a healthy program. But if you start with these four foundational areas and recommended metrics, you will be on your way to running a healthy OKR program in no time.
Looking for where to find these metrics? Check out our analytics tab feature!
Looking for more tips on how to build a healthy OKR Program? Check out our series of solutions articles: Run a healthy OKR program with Viva Goals.