Moving the Needle With Lean OKRs

It’s likely that you’ve heard of Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) before. Several years ago, the book “Measure What Matters” (Doerr 2018) came out and OKRs started gaining traction as readers became familiar with OKR success stories. Many leaders jumped on the proverbial OKR bandwagon and simply rewrote their current goals and KPIs as OKRs with the hopes of seeing similar growth numbers and successes. For many, their results weren’t what they had hoped. It seemed that OKRs only worked for those Silicon Valley tech giants. Was there another factor that these companies had that resulted in hypergrowth?

Lean OKRs

While not every company has access to the resources that tech giants have readily available to them, their secret to achieving breakthrough results is something that goes beyond the scope of budget or even simply luck. It was, and still is today: strong leadership, empowered product teams and relentless focus on customer value.

You see, OKRs only accelerated what was already present. So then it is logical to posit: how can we build up these competencies? By applying Lean philosophy to the existing OKR model. This evolved version of OKRs is called Lean OKRs. It is a streamlined framework for companies of all sizes to see the remarkable impact on their most ambitious goals.

Lean OKRs for hyperfocus

To increase the likelihood of success of OKR implementation in a company, leaders and product teams need to adopt a Lean mindset. This concept is based on the principles of a single strategic, aspirational goal, understanding customer value, continuous learning, autonomy of teams, and a consistent schedule of check-ins.

When a company, be it a small start-up or large enterprise, has hyperfocus on one bold goal, a radical change occurs. Lean OKRs use a lightweight governance model of routine check-ins (weekly, quarterly and annually) that encourages accountability across all levels. Novel to Lean OKRs is the emphasis on creating continuous customer value. It’s like strategy execution on steroids.

Furthermore, there is room to quickly pivot because the “why” of a particular goal is more important than how it is achieved. It is for precisely this reason that companies working with Lean OKRs seem to be working faster than their competitors. When a speed bump appears, teams can troubleshoot independently and realign with other teams.

To be Faster, Do What the Competitors aren’t Doing

The companies that experience exponential growth are not necessarily the ones that are working the fastest, but they are hyperfocused on continually meeting and exceeding customer value. They have done so by applying some basic strategies to their company culture. Here are three easy Lean OKR strategies that you can start implementing today:

1. Focus on one single OKR per team at a time. Use strategic thinking. Focus on behaviour change. Battle it out! Pick one high-performing team to start with.

2. Install a lightweight process to achieve your OKRs based on Plan, Do Check, Act. Study and try scientific thinking with your team. Toyota Kata is a great resource to start.

3. Lean Mindset. Learning and continuous experimentation are used to achieve moonshots with as little excess as possible.

Adapting the behaviours of customers as well as employees is only part of the larger picture of the companies that seem to be growing faster than the speed of light. They understand that to execute an ambitious growth strategy, you need to have hyperfocus on one overarching, visionary goal that all employees within the company, regardless of function, can participate in achieving. Lean OKRs can position a company to do just this and finally see the results that their competitors are chasing.

Resources:

1. Doerr, J. 2018. Measure What Matters. London: Portfolio Penguin.

Bart den Haak, CEO of goal-setting consultancy Moving the Needle and author of the new book Moving the Needle with Lean OKRs: setting objectives & key results to achieve your most ambitious goal