How to build a high-powered execution routine

After you create the right goals, the real work begins to achieve them. It’s important to create an OKR habit so that it becomes second nature and embedded into your workflow. Below you’ll find tips and tricks to easily embed OKR into your company’s routine and culture. 

Document your OKR process

You can’t assume that everyone will know what is expected of them and when to create, update and close their OKRs. Make sure this is documented in a central location and shared with the rest of the organization. 

Perdoo supports you with these reminders too. Enable the following settings:

• Reminders to create OKRs at the beginning of a new Timeframe
• Update reminders

Pro tip: Our calendars are often our source of truth, so adding calendar reminders for creating and closing helps to get these important processes on everyone’s radar. 

Build a team of OKR Ambassadors 

Change is not easy and there is only so much one person can do, so there is strength in numbers. For this reason, it’s best to have a team of OKR Ambassadors who can help you hold their departments and teams accountable. Recruit anyone who has immediately seen the value of OKR and give them the responsibility of making sure their team is creating, updating and closing their OKRs on time. 

In Perdoo, the Health Report empowers Ambassadors to keep a finger on the pulse of your OKR program. Designate these people as Ambassadors so that they can access this invaluable insight for their teams and take action.  

Update progress regularly

You won’t know if you’re making progress unless you regularly update your goals. How often is “regularly”? A weekly or biweekly frequency is usually best since it creates a sense of urgency and focus. Monthly can work too for some organizations, but be sure there is enough structure around the execution so that the month is put to good use. 

What about KPIs that are updated monthly? Certain goals, like KPIs, are naturally updated monthly and that shouldn’t change. The benefit of a weekly or biweekly update frequency is related to Initiatives you’re completing on your quarterly OKRs.

Configure your update frequency here. 

Be agile, learn and adjust

Initiatives are hypotheses of what you believe will make an impact on the Key Results. You’ve created a list, prioritized them based on impact and effort, and started executing them. As you complete these Initiatives, you’ll update your Key Results to see if they’re having a positive impact. This feedback loop will help you identify what’s working and what isn’t. Don’t be afraid to abandon Initiatives that are not working and apply any takeaways to test another idea. You’re also not limited to the original list of Initiatives you created, you can (and should) add new Initiatives at any time based on what you’ve learned along the way.  

Abandoned an Initiative? Archive it so that you can record important learnings. You can also customize this archive template. 

Integrate OKR into the agenda of existing meetings

Meetings are a great way to hold goal leads accountable and ensure they’re focusing on achieving their goals. If you have to speak about something, you’ll be motivated to work on it and prepare for it. Likely no one is complaining that you don’t have enough meetings, so there’s no need to create a new meeting. Instead, integrate OKR into the agenda of your existing meetings. We want to make sure the content is relevant to those involved, so the agenda should be customized based on the audience. The smaller the audience, the more granular the information and the broader the audience, the more high-level the information. 

1:1s

‍The most granular meeting where you can discuss the direct report’s goals. Celebrate wins, get status updates on specific goals and discuss any potential blockers. 

With 1:1s in Perdoo, we make it easy for managers and their direct reports to collaborate on talking points, keep track of action items, and exchange feedback. You’ll also have quick access to their goals, progress reports and kudos. 

Team meetings

‍An execution-focused meeting where teams celebrate wins, and share progress, upcoming focus, and learnings. 

Use the Team page to walk through the goals individually or a saved report in All goals if you want to only talk about specific goals (e.g. at risk). Tags are a great way to identify specific goals you’d like to add to the agenda. 

Leadership meetings

It’s an opportunity to celebrate OKRs that have been achieved and discuss goals that are at risk and require additional or cross-functional resources.

Use the Team Reviews as a meeting pre-read and foundation for any points that require discussion. 

All hands meetings

The most high-level meeting where the CEO provides an update on the company’s goals, including wins and learnings, as well as highlighting notable updates from the teams. 

Close OKRs

OKR values learning and closing memorializes these learnings. At the end of a timeframe, close your OKRs to assess if you’ve achieved them, record learnings and determine next steps. Knowledge is power and reflecting on past efforts empowers you to make better decisions going forward. This exercise not only helps to create the next quarter’s OKRs, it also stores these learnings so that you can reference them again anytime in the future.

Want to ensure certain information is recorded in the closing notes? You can customize the closing template.