How to track OKRs in 3 easy steps

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Why should you track OKRs?

Let’s say you set objectives and make a list of key results to follow up. Almost all OKRs have a set timeline. Here are reasons why it is important to track the progress of your OKRs.

• To know if the activities are progressing at the right pace
• To understand if the employees are on the right path
• To ensure they are not spending an excess of resources (money, time, and effort) than they can afford to
• To create accountability and improve focus
• To make sure the processes are transparent
• To monitor if the efforts are focused on the right place

Tracking and monitoring are both important in every task you take up at the workplace. They give a sense of accountability to the employee and keep the management aware about what’s happening.

Now that we have established it is essential to track OKRs, the next question is how to track OKRs. How can you track the progress of the objectives and how often should you do that? We’ll explain more of this in the next section.

Meanwhile, if you want to get started on OKRs for your team, here is a great blog to help you.

How to track OKRs?

According to experts, a good OKR tracker needs these three steps.

1. Defining objectives and key results
2. Creating transparency
3. Achieving the objectives

Let’s start with each of these OKR tracking steps in detail here.

Defining objectives and key results

You need to define two main factors here – objectives (O) and key results (KRs).

Objectives are the goals that you intend to accomplish, while key results are metrics that can help you know how successfully you have reached your goals. You might understand this better with an example.

Ask yourself four questions when you set your objective to know if it will work. If the answer to all these questions is a ‘yes,’ then proceed to fix that objective.

1. Is it precise?
2. Is it engaging?
3. Does it add value to the organization and the people in it?
4. Is it ambitious?

Your objective may be perfect. However, when it comes to tracking OKRs, unless the key results too are scripted well, the objective may not matter.

 “Objectives and key results are the yin and yang of goal setting.” – John Doerr

Keeping this in mind, make sure you spend enough time on creating the right key results too. This will ensure that the next steps of your OKR tracking process are worth the effort you put in.

One of the main factors of key results is measurability. Intangible KRs are best avoided when it comes to OKRs. Check out some of the measurable and vague examples of KRs to understand this better.

Vague OKRs	Good OKRs (measurable OKRs)
Increased customer base	40% increase in customer base
Increased website traffic	50% increase in organic website traffic
Increased user return	Getting 30% of users to return in 2 weeks

Creating transparency

The next step in the list of how to track OKRs is to create transparency. What is transparency? It lets all employees and managers know about the key results and gets their consent and active participation when you create your OKR tracker.

Here are a few pointers to keep in mind when you think of transparency.

• Create easy-to-understand structures that link objectives with their right key results and keep telling you about the current progress.
• Create different reports and charts that make it easy to track and monitor key results and their progress.
• Make sure to automate the calculations. This will prevent manual errors and stop people from manipulating the values.

How do you do all these? Invest in the right tools to create transparency.

Take, for instance, the OKR PMS from PossibleWorks. Our tool is designed to encourage transparency and set priorities right in your OKR framework.

With the help of our tool, we:

• Actively drive engagement
• Align individual goals with organizational goals
• Establish priorities
• Improve feedback and conversations within the organization
• Remove subjectivity and add-in objectivity

Our tool is agile and can be easily customized to fit your existing setup. The objectives are clearly visible on a company-wide platform, making it easy to cross-verify and share OKRs whenever needed. Tracking OKRs has never been easier and more straightforward than now.

Achieving the objectives

This is the final step in OKR tracking that involves achieving the objectives. When you think about it, this is what matters the most. Here are ways in which you can successfully achieve the objectives.

• Set accountability – Usually, multiple employees are assigned to the same key results diluting accountability/focus. Hence, creating accountability is critical and can help achieve objectives quickly and without confusion.
• Share the OKRs – When it comes to OKR tracking, do understand that achieving the objectives should be a team task, and you cannot do it alone. So, make sure you share the OKRs across the organization. This is because more than one person may be involved in achieving the objectives, or you may need another team to progress at a specific pace to do your task. So, sharing OKRs is a smart move.
• Invest in feedback sessions – As your team progresses with the OKRs, make sure you invest in regular feedback sessions. The feedback can reinforce the right behavior and encourage them to proceed in the same way or redirect them if you see them lagging or focusing on things that are not on priority. Setting calendar reminders for OKR tracking will help ensure the objectives are achieved at the right time in a preferred way.

Also, have you checked out our latest blog on constructive and positive workplace feedback examples? There are so many reinforcing and redirecting feedback samples here for you.

Conclusion

Is OKR tracking worth the effort? Absolutely yes. OKRs are great ways to align individual objectives and goals with that of the company. They help set realistic goals and offer measurable key results for these goals too. If you have been worrying about how to track OKRs, then these three easy steps may help you with the process easily.

OKR tracking is also a great way to let employees know that their efforts are being monitored and measured. This can help improve the efforts they put in. Such a tracking process will help the management to make informed decisions quickly and early on. With OKRs in place, the organization can move towards holistic growth, well-defined accountability, and transparency.

PossibleWorks specializes in custom-designed frameworks and tools that help set and achieve OKRs effectively. If you think you need help with your OKR framework, get in touch with our experts today.