How to rally leaders around OKRs: test alignment of existing initiatives

Ever struggled to get your full peer group of leaders to the same level of motivation to work together to set good goals? Try this activity.

Photo by Matt Palmer on Unsplash

This activity is great for helping build familiarity and a common approach to drafting OKRs. It also frequently has some surprises which will be eye-opening for the team! More on how we can use that at the end of each ‘Part’.

I walk through each step of this activity on how to run it and get the most out of it. This is a tried and tested activity applied with many teams including multiple Executive teams.

Overall Activity time: 30 mins.
Audience: excellent for C-level or other leadership groups who use or are embarking on using OKRs.

Part 1: Drafting an objective for an existing initiative

Break into 2 or more groups (allow approximately 5 mins to the overall running time for each additional group) so that there are 3-5 members in each group.

Each group:

1. Spend 5 mins discussing an existing strategic company objective or initiative (try to select something already ‘in-flight’)

2. write down the outcome trying to be achieved.

3. As a group, draft a single sentence using the OKR format

Come back together as the whole group to compare drafts
What is similar, what is different?

For the facilitator: It is very likely that the objectives each group drafted are quite different. The reasons they think the ‘in-flight’ initiative is being conducted may differ significantly. This can be very eye-opening for some as there’s generally an assumption that everyone is on the same page. Reflect aloud on what might be the impact of this inconsistency on their teams or other teams being aligned on the goal.

Final step: Synthesise a new draft of the outcome together as the whole group.

Use this opportunity to make choices based on the variations in the objective drafts you reviewed. Decide which options or what logic are the consensus. What does the whole group agree upon is the reason we are doing this initiative?

Part 2: Drafting the key results for that same objective

Return back into the two groups:

1. Now write what might be examples of measures or evidence that we are making successful progress towards achieving this outcome. What would a symptom of succeeding be?

2. Compare the options you have written in your group and select a final set (generally 2-4 key results) you are all happy with as being a coherent set of key results to support the objective we wrote as the whole group in Part 1.

Come back together as the whole group to compare and contrast each group’s drafts.

How similar or different are they?
For the facilitator: highlight contradictions, and try to understand the root of these different perspectives.

Final step: Synthesise into a single set of key results which support the single outcome the whole group drafted.

Again, use this opportunity to use the whole group discussion to decide what is important.

For the facilitator - it’s good to review the variance and the steps that were taken to reduce the conflicting understanding and for the team to bring that veracity to setting the next set of objectives and key results.