Setting Key Results is Just as Important as Creating Your Larger Goal
When people begin the process of building OKRs, most seem to get stuck on the “O” of the acronym; they create an excellent objective and then forget the importance of the “KRs”. The key results you create are the steps you need to take in order to meet your objective. In essence, they are a sequence of smaller goals that you need to meet in order to have a chance at making your larger objective successful. Here are three aspects John Doerr believes are necessary to build successful key results:
1. Specific & Time Bound
You need to be as specific and strict with the timeline of your key results as possible. This way, you know exactly when your results need to take place and how long you have to reach those results in order to get one step closer in meeting your objective. What are the exact numbers you are trying to reach? How many days are you giving yourself to get to that number?
2. Aggressive yet realistic
Don’t sell yourself short. Setting small, easily attainable results for yourself doesn’t do you any favors. In fact, that almost guarantees you won’t be able to attain your goal as you won’t make enough progress. The opposite is also true. If you set an unrealistic result in an attempt to reach your objective that much faster, you won’t ever come to a result at all.
3. Measurable & Verifiable
Can you measure and verify the outcomes of the results you’re creating? Your results need to be based in the concrete, not the abstract. For example, if someone has an objective of “giving seriously ill cancer patients access to innovative medicine” a measurable/verifiable key result could be, for example, finding x number of patients who meet the criteria of a specific clinical trial.
MyFieldAudits Can Help You Track Your OKRs
Creating OKRs is one step in a very important process. MyFieldAudits’ standard forms, audits, and checklists can give you an idea of where you may need to start the process. However, you will also need to measure the success of your Key Results once your OKRs are created. MyFieldAudits provides user-friendly analytics that anyone can use to measure, track, and report on any metric that may be needed. To learn more about MyFieldAudits, contact us at info@MyFieldAudits.com.