It has been more than a year since CPDEVICE started to implement OKR, or Objectives and Key Results, to co-create and manage the company's strategic goals. During the process from first-level department trial to full implementation, we've done a lot of common mistakes that most companies would make, such as goal deviation, lack of focus, etc. Finally, we conducted a workshop to dive deep into the value and method of the OKR framework.
If you're trying to manage your business goals and execution with OKR, you will find something helpful in this article. Let's begin with "What is OKR?". The core essence of OKR is a set of rigorous thinking frameworks and continuous discipline requirements. It must include six elements at the same time, and they are: focusing on strategy, focusing logic, alignment, and coordination, bottom-up, openness and transparency, and positive feedback.
"OKR is a rigorous thinking framework used to find the most important point of work, and there is a continuous method and discipline to realize the previous thinking." -- Jason, CEO of CPDEVICE
"OKRs are tools for creating value through focused logical thinking." -- Triple Stone, Head of CP Application Software
"OKR is the creation of value, the cultivation of good methods and good habits, and the use of business logic to find and do things with the highest leverage and highest probability." -- Kelly, CP Head of Finance
"OKR is the goal and key result, and it is the key result of each quantifiable organization and the team. It is the focus of everyone in the team to work towards a common goal, cooperate with each other to execute consistently, and focus on making measurable contributions. " -- Mani, CP Procurement Leader
In the past, we were more inclined to directly undertake the KR of the superior to write our own Objectives (some students regarded this as a "life-saving straw" in the previous internal training, which was used to replace the divergence and thinking of the self, be vigilant!), do this The advantage is that the split of goals has a certain logic, but the disadvantage is that there is a lack of co-creation process of goals at the same level.
In the second step, after establishing O, and learning through the MECE rule, the team exhausted all the KRs that supported the success of O, and then selected several paths of "high leverage and high probability" through the SWOT analysis model. In the week after the workshop, the team did not rush to cover all CPs with the results of co-creation. Instead, by communicating the methods and organizational intentions to all levels, a new round of broader, bottom-up Create KR together. One week after participating in the workshop, CP officially established an OKR for the company from mid-August to the end of December 2022. Immediately after this, we generated an execution plan for this OKR. Compared with OKR software which is more suitable for personal work management, looking at Excel which can be shared and edited online in the team, seems to be more practical for OKR's openness, transparency, and process management.
For enterprises that attach importance to internal management, KPI (Key Performance Indicator) must not be an unfamiliar term. In our usual cognition, KPI = performance appraisal. Obviously, it can be seen from the full name of KPI that there is a big fallacy in this perception. By participating in the OKR advanced landing workshop, the CP team has a new understanding of OKR and KPI.
What is the difference between OKRs and KPIs?
"OKRs focus on the way of thinking about doing things, and KPIs focus on regulating behaviors. OKR is a more overall strategic support thinking, and KPI is more partial to the execution layer." -- Jason, CPDEVICE CEO
"KPI is a measurement project, the pursuit is the result, OKR is the logical thinking, the pursuit is the value embodiment." -- Peter, CP Head of Production Operations
"ORK is a methodology for stimulating group creation, and it needs to find the most suitable creative work method for the team in the process of continuous iteration. KPI is a measure of routine work health, and it is suitable for the quantification of assessment indicators for daily work." -- Linx, Head of CP Platform Software
"OKR is a method of finding high-leverage, high-possibilities paths and applying continuous process management to achieve high-value outcomes. KPI is a method (similar to blood routine indicators) to determine whether each link of the enterprise is operating in a healthy manner by defining enterprise operation metrics. OKR is the "valiant cavalry" who expands territory and conquers cities and villages. Successfully conquered cities should be handed over to KPI, the "local parent official", to manage them at the appropriate time." -- Rill, CP Head of Marketing and Administration
