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jimhopkinson
MicrosoftJoined 4 years ago
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How to write great goals, get six-pack abs, and live forever
Your diet can often seem complicated, but writing great goals doesn't have to be. This blog post investigates how simple rules from diet and fitness experts can translate into writing great goals, ultimately distilling it down to 12 key words. How to write great goals, get six-pack abs, and live foreverHow I did it: 4 real world tips from OKR Champions
If you or your team are in charge of rolling out an OKR program at your company, you might want to check out my article "How I did it: 4 real world tips from OKR Champions to drive long term success." With more than 4,500 views, the reason why I think it's been resonating for people is that it features real world examples. There's a quote from the OKR Champion at Roambee, who provides supply chain visibility and intelligence. When discussing closing out OKRs, I spoke with Michael Davis, who not only was an OKR champ, but also has worked with 100s of clients on their OKR programs. And lastly, we got some great tips from Liz Pierce, who led Microsoft's rollout to forty thousand employees. 40,000!Understanding the connection between OKRs vs. Performance Management
The movie "Air" details the intricate relationships that led to Nike signing a young Michael Jordan to his first basketball sneaker contract, and the creation of "Air Jordans." As part of the negotiation, Jordan's mother pushed for -- and received -- a stipulation that the family would earn a percentage of sales for every sneaker sold. The movie ends with Nike CEO Phil Knight (played by Ben Affleck) pondering how many sales they might possibly generate, which Nike estimated to be $3 million in the first three years. The movie later revealed staggering sales of $126 million in year one for Nike, and Jordan winning Rookie of the Year and making the All-Star team on his way to becoming the greatest player of all time. Talk about crushing your goals! I bring this up because there are a lot of elements of "goal setting" at play here ... Nike as a company, Jordan as an individual, sales targets, CEOs, agents, customers, and other stakeholders. At Microsoft Viva Goals, we often get questions around the intersection of goals and performance management / personal development. After all, we're talking about goals, right? What's the difference between the goals we set as a department, and the goals I talk about with my manager at our 1:1? That led us to publish our point of view: Understanding the connection between OKRs vs. Performance Management Within the document you'll see we present 4 key pillars: OKRs are designed for collaborative, strategic goal setting for your business and teams. Performance Management is used to define individual priorities in support of the larger team effort. OKR output could be one of many inputs into an assessment of an individual’s performance, but it’s important that it’s not the only input. OKR output should generally not be directly tied to an individual employee’s compensation. If we apply these to our Nike story, CEO Phil Knight would have set company-wide OKRs for his entire organization. In addition to goals around their running sneakers and clothing, they might have had an aspirational objective of expanding their market share for the basketball division (people forget at the time, Nike was a distant third to Converse and Adidas), and a key result metric of exceeding $1 million in sales a year of Air Jordans. (Boy, would the percentage results in Viva Goals have been off the chart that year). For the use of this example, remember that Michael Jordan wasn't technically an employee of Nike. A better analogy might be Peter Moore, the designer of the shoe. While he might have had a team OKR around the launch of Air Jordans, his individual priorities would have been judged on a broader basis ... how did he contribute to his team, what was his individual impact, how well did he work with his peers, etc. If he was in his personal review, while the success of Nike selling $126 million in year one certainly would have been one of many inputs to his review, it shouldn't have been the only input. Here at Microsoft, we love aspirational goals. So whether yours is for your company to launch a $100 million brand, or a personal goal to become the greatest of all time at what you do, OKRs and Performance management can lead the way. To learn more, review our document: Understanding the connection between OKRs vs. Performance ManagementNew on the blog: 3 things you need to do in your first 30 days of Viva Goals
If you're just getting started with Viva Goals, you might be wondering exactly where to begin. We recommend the following three things: 1) Get to know the Viva Goals software 2) Learn about Goals and OKRs 3) Enter your first Goal View our blog post to see resources that will show you exactly how to get up to speed on each topic quickly and easily. 3 things you need to do in your first 30 days of Viva Goals (microsoft.com)Did you know? OKR Program Analytics Feature
Did you know ... Viva Goals offers users with admin access OKR Program Analytics at the organization and teams level. You can use this dashboard to see statistics around adoption, engagement, and best practices as you build out your company's goal setting program. To see your analytics, navigate to the ‘Analytics’ tab on the organization or team page: To improve your analytics, visit the Microsoft Solutions area to discover Best Practices for running a healthy OKR program with Viva Goals. Articles in that help area give tips on how to: - Write effective OKRs that inspire action and deliver results - Align your OKRs to deliver transparency, visibility, and accountability - Check-in OKRs and make updates with Viva Goals Check out your Program Analytics today to see your metrics.Re: OKRs vs KPIs
Great take Kevin! Totally agree that OKRs and KPIs need to work hand in hand. One example we often give is a stat like website uptime as a KPI. Yes, it's something that is totally necessary, and must be monitored. But in terms of being a true OKR and setting a stretch goal, there are other metrics that might make more sense. Or the fun example we used to give is a road trip. If you're driving from Seattle to San Francisco, your OKR -- your ultimate goal -- is like a GPS. But along the way, there are KPI metrics such as monitoring your speed, your miles per gallon, and fuel levels, which are more of a dashboard. And of course, the projects/initiatives to get started are loading up on fun snacks and music playlists. 🙂
