OKR is short for Objectives and Key Results and is a goalsetting framework; like others, you might already know KPI's, S.M.A.R.T, and MBO's.
The brilliant thing about OKR's is that they allow managers/employees to measure real-time progress toward achieving a goal, while for instance MBOs are focused on whether the goal is achieved.
OKR's are set at the company, team, and individual levels. They may be shared across the organization to provide teams with visibility of goals with the intention to align and focus effort.
Why use OKRs?
OKR’s help you shift your business from a culture of reactivity to proactivity, giving your entire team an ‘on the business’ focus. Your team will not only know what direction your business is heading, but they will be active participants in creating it.
The benefits are many, and to recap a few:
Create Clarity & Focus: Everyone knows their few, clearly defined goals and the entire company focuses on the few things that matter most.
Align Your Company: Align everyone's work at your company to the top objectives.
Connect Employees to Your Mission: Connect your employees' work to your company's mission – this impacts your employees' performance and your company's results.
Improve Continuous Learning: OKRs offer your company faster learning and improvement that drive better results.
Create Transparency & Accountability: OKRs bring transparency to your company; everyone can see what others are working on, which drives more collaboration and better performance.
Accelerate Results: With clarity, focus, alignment, connection, and improved continuous learning, your company will accelerate performance and drive better results.
Background
The OKR, or Objectives and Key Results, framework was created by Intel CEO, Andy Grove, and brought to Google by venture capitalist John Doerr and has been used by many companies, including Google, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Uber.
The OKR framework aims to define company and team "objectives" along with linked and measurable "key results" to provide "a critical thinking framework and ongoing discipline that seeks to ensure employees work together, focusing their efforts to make measurable contributions."
Learn more about the OKR framework here!