Hello everybody. And welcome to the darn good leadership podcast. This show is all about being a strong and effective leader. One that can make positive impacts on your teams and communities in the next 20 minutes. You're going to get ideas, inspiration and practical advice. You can take action on to be a darn good leader. I'm your host, Emily Holting. And in today's episode, I'm going to share three stories to increase your own understanding around the power. Of OKR. Okay. R stands for objectives and key results. Ours is a collaboration goal setting framework, primarily used by companies and teams Okay, ours are made up of two components. The first objectives. Which is what we are aiming to achieve. The second key results, how we'll make progress and measure success of the objective. There are several amazing benefits of OTRs. And I'll list a couple here. It helps companies and teams become incredibly focused with clarity on the outcomes that matter most. It helps them become outcome oriented, delivering results, not just staying busy. It helps them become aligned and empowered with the right context to make great decisions and act it helps companies and teams become truly productive by improving high trust and clear If you want a results focused culture oKR is a great framework to follow. Bottom line when use effectively. Okay. Our strive focus, clarity and alignment on the what, why and measures of success. And therefore in return helps foster more accountability of those doing the work. The OKR framework was created by Intel's Andy Grove, but it was more mainstream by John door's book measure. What matters. This book is super insightful and useful for any person who was interested in learning more about OTRs. However, I will share two things. I've learned myself now that I've been practicing OKR habitually for over a year and I'm in the midst of rolling them out. Company-wide. Reading the book is very useful for baselining, but it does not make you an expert on OKR. So if you're thinking you can just read it and now you're an expert. I've mentioned this in previous podcast, but that is not, what's going to happen. You will never master anything without real experience and consistent practice. And boy, oh boy. Is that ever true with, okay, ours. The second thing is if you read the book, the biggest takeaway is as simple as this. It's not the framework. Or the new terminology or the history about how it got started. All of that's all incredibly useful and helpful. But the biggest takeaway is it's the conversations around the work that matter the most. And having those conversations with the people who are doing the work. So speaking of conversations, if, and as you have interest in trying, okay. Ours or improving, okay. Ours, one of the best ways to give, buy in and help those around you with OKR concepts is through storytelling. So in this episode, I'm going to share three stories to help you and perhaps anyone else you're working with. Better understand the power of OKR. So let's jump right into the first story. Now, this is a little tale about the fastest man alive. You saying bolt? For those of you who don't know about this incredibly talented man. Bolt is a Jamaican sprinter, still known as the fastest man alive. Though he retired in 2017, the eight time Olympic gold medalist still holds the official world record for the bins. A hundred meter. And 200 meter sprints. This guy doesn't run. He freaking flies. What if. You had to place a bet, right? This moment. On who would make it to the finish line faster and a 200 meter sprint. Would it be. Mr bolt. Or me. Now, just in case you are interested in my stats. Well, I've run my fair share of half marathons. Um, I work out on the regular and my fastest smile on my very best day. Is right under seven minutes. I doubt any of this information has swayed your opinion on who was hitting that finish line first. No doubt. I think you bet all of your life savings on Mr. Bolt. And I would say that is a very, very wise However I'm about to change the rules of the game. What if I told you now that in this race, Mr. Bolt would have to be blindfolded. And then the race officiant would move the finish line somewhere still 200 meters away. But the only one who can see where they move the finish line to is me. Not him cause he's blindfolded. Who do you bet on now? Suddenly, it looks like this girl from the Midwest has the leg up. Although I undoubtedly move so much slower than bolts. I now have the advantage because I can see the target. I know how and where to aim myself at the finish line bolt doesn't. So no matter how fast, you know, when that shot goes off and we kind of leap off the, I don't even know those sprinter start pad things. No matter how fast bolt moves and how talented he is and how many gold metals he has, he can take off like lightning. But he is certainly moving in the wrong direction because he has no idea where that target is. Well, little on me. I could probably just slowly walk to that 200 meter finished line. And still beat up. So let's take this example to the workplace. You can hire the best, most productive, most talented individuals. And you can create the most incredible teams. But if you don't give them clear direction of where they need to go. None of that matters. You can yell. You can tell them to move faster, try harder. You can try to incentivize them with a bonus or scare them off by threatening to fire them. If they don't get there faster. But if they don't have clarity of the target, And if they aren't able to focus on the target, well, they're never going to hit that goal. Before you and your teams can start moving fast or really moving at all. You need to understand where you're supposed to go. And this, this is the power that OKR is. Can wield. It's so powerful that a girl from the Midwest. Can casually walk a 200 meters and beat Usain bolt. And I never thought that that would be true, but here we are folks. It is true. That is the power of, okay. Ours. Okay. I thought that was actually a pretty good story. And I have to say. Um, last week I was in Maryland. And there was track and field on the TV. And it gave me the inspiration for this story. So put that little nugget in your pocket. Hopefully you can share it with anyone as you're trying to explain. Okay. Ours and the power that it can bring them. So let's move on to story. Number two, to better explain what objective and key results really are and why you need them as a package deal. So as a reminder, objectives are what you're trying to do. Key results are your measures of success. And I want you to think about. The objective as the center of an Oreo, the cream part. And I want you to think of your key results as your chocolate wafers. They go together. They're a package deal. And when you dunk it into your mouth, that's a slam dunk. You're hitting the finish line altogether. It's a glorious, delicious moment. If you don't know what an Oreo is. I don't know what to tell you guys. I hope you do go look it up. Go try it out at the grocery store. And I have seen that they're selling the chocolate wafer separately. Um, I'm not into that. so let's pretend. That you're the leader and you pull your team together and you tell them. All right. I've got your objective guys and it's to get healthy. So you've got a quarter to get after it work hard. Do your best work. The team is excited. Maybe you even make t-shirts that say get healthy and you've got fireworks and you give everyone apple watches and everyone's motivated They're hitting the ground running and you've got three employees. The first employee, Sarah, she decides, okay, we're getting healthy. I'm going to be vegan for the quarter, and I'm going to try to lose five pounds. Then you've got employee number two, Tim. Tim decides he's going to get healthy by running six miles, three times a week. And he's going to eat at least 200 grams of protein a day. Then you've got employee number three, Erica. She decides she's going to go meditate for 30 minutes during the work week. And she's going to try to see a therapist eight times over the course of the quarter to really work through Uh, issues that she has, that she thinks is going to help her get to her best version of herself and get healthy. So the quarter ends everyone's done their best work has put in a lot of great effort and activity and you bring them all back together and you say, where did we land? And you are incredibly disappointed and confused because this is not what you meant by healthy. What in the world have they done? You said to get healthy. And by healthy, you meant eight hours of sleep at night. You meant that they shouldn't be drinking alcohol. And you meant that they should be getting 30 minutes of movement every day. And when you look at where you've landed at the end of the quarter as a team on these key results, well, my goodness. You've hardly made any progress at all. Well, when you look at the facts, It was you. Who was not clear on the measures of success, your employees did what they thought would help as best as they but you left an objective that was too vague. It had too much room for interpretation. And you left off your key results. So again, you just had the center of the Oreo. You forgot to package it with the chocolate wafer. And just like the bolt example, the Usain bolt example, your people were also left blind to the actual target. So of course they didn't hit what your measures of success in the finish line that you had But good news folks. You are getting a redo. This time when you get your folks together, you're going to give them a packaged OKR. All right. The full Oreo. So, not only are you going to tell them all right, our objective is to get healthy. But you're also going to share a little bit more of the narrative around the Y. You tell them that healthier teams with adequate sleep and movement. Our more creative, productive, healthier, and get sick less. And this is why it's so important to you. And everyone's like, oh, this makes sense now. Okay. We understand why this is important. We get why you've prioritized it. And then you share your key results and there's three of them. You tell people that you want them to get eight hours of sleep each night. You want them to abstain from alcohol. And you want them to move at least 30 minutes a day. Now that the team better understands the why. And the targets for success. And they have a unified goal. They can collaborate on what activities they believe will best progress. To help them hit those define key results. So together they come up with the following plan for the quarter. They agreed to start a practice of no screens an hour before bed to really help them get that eight hours They decide to rotate every Friday, coming up with fun mocktails and hosting a happy hour. That is still alcohol free. That's going to help them abstain from alcohol for the quarter. And they decide to share their daily In their team, slack channel to help motivate each other. At the end of the quarter. When you pull the team back together, they've made solid progress toward the defined key results and measures of success. There were a couple of days that people got less than eight hours of sleep. That the team ended up having a couple of drinks over the quarter and Erica sprained her ankle. So she couldn't do any movement for three weeks, but all in all when compared to our first scenario, They achieved way more results because they understood the goal and their targets. They got a packaged OKR. Or Oreo. Well done. Time for story, number three, to further iterate the requirements of consistent collaboration, conversation and alignment when using, okay. Ours. Okay. So you're the leader again, and you gather several cross-functional teams this time together to share a packaged OKR. The objective. To attract top talent in the industry. Now, this is important because you have a big segment of your people who are ready to retire in one to two years. The three key results. Here are One be listen, and Fortune's top 100 best places to work, to hire two recruiters and three and share comp and benefit packages are greater or equal to. Your top five competitors. The teams understand the OKR and are ready to get after Now each team develops their own plan for the activities they believe will best help them hit their key results and they go their separate ways. At the end of the quarter, you bring them all back together to assess where you landed and you are. Disappointed and confused. What happened? You gave the teams, this package OKR at the start of the quarter, and yet the results are not even remotely close to being met. Somehow, no one started on key result. Number The one about being listed in Fortune's top 100 best places to work. One of the other teams thought someone else was doing it and vice versa. Therefore, no progress was made. On key result, number two, where you're hiring a couple of recruiters, it seems that two teams were working on this. And now you've got like six offers out instead of just the two you were looking to hire. So there's just been massive amounts of redundant work on this KR and now none made on the other. And finally on key result, three. Uh, team made some progress and then got blocked by legal so no additional advancement was made. What happened here? Well, there was no consistent collaboration, conversation and alignment that happened between the teams doing the Or with you throughout the quarter. So how can we prevent this travesty from happening First. Every objective and every key result, KR needs an owner. This is not the person who is accountable for doing all But they are responsible for leading that objective or KR key results. And ensuring the teams doing the work, understand the ask and consistently check in on the progress being made throughout the quarter. Therefore, if something is off like a KR, hasn't started. Or you have two teams working on the same thing or a team is now blocked. You can course correct that sooner and find your way back to making progress on your results. Also with owners being on objectives and key results. The teams now know who to go to when there is a question or issue that arises. Throughout the quarter, the owners of the OKR and the people doing the work should have a minimum of a monthly check-in on the progress. But if an, as there are issues though, should not wait just for the monthly check-in, those should be raised immediately to the owner of that respective key result or that respective objective or both. Without consistent collaboration, conversation and alignment. It's easy to understand how things can slowly start to go off course. They start to unravel. The good news is with consistent collaboration, conversation alignment. You are able to quickly iterate and get right back on track. Okay. These are just a framework, but an incredibly powerful tool when used effectively. You and your teams can do all the motion and actions and tasks and project plans and try your darndest. But if things don't improve, even with all of that effort. That is not success. Hopefully you had some lessons learned without having success. And it's an, a for effort. But it's an F four results. And businesses require results. So let's recap. You learn more about OKR objectives, what you're trying to achieve and key results, how you will measure progress and success. You got a pretty great story about Usain bolt. You also got a story on how an Oreo represents, not just a tasty treat, but how you should think about OKR as a package deal because without clear KRS, your goals will not be met. And finally, you heard a tale about the requirement of consistent collaboration, conversation and alignment for OKR is to work effectively. I certainly hope you enjoyed today's show and that it helps you think about OKR is more clearly. And share them out in a way that can be better understood by all. If you got something good out of today's episode, I would greatly appreciate you leaving a rating and review. Stay tuned as new episodes will be dropping each and every week. So be bold. Be bright. Be a darn good leader who could beat Usain bolt. If he was blindfolded. See you next time