10. OKRs and Strategy Implementation

Transcript

OKRs assist in bridging the gap between strategy and execution. They create alignment internally through transparency and by empowering and offering employees autonomy in the work they are doing.

Fundamentally, empowering people is one of the greatest achievements of any leader within an organization.

The OKRs develop more than that though – They develop a measurable framework that helps everyone in the organization see where the organization is heading and how their work is contributing to that overall sense of purpose.

Without a doubt, OKRs boost the morale of individuals in the organization. They motivate people to produce and do more. In an ideal scenario, they create a sense of empowerment in people that goes beyond the paycheck. This is so important in the modern business environment. We expect organizations to be flexible, to embrace change, and develop new strategies as threats and opportunities arise. Strategy realization and execution are a critical component of organizational performance.

The fundamental misunderstanding and very often Achilles heel of organizations is over-investing in strategic planning and under-investing in strategy execution.

A plan without execution is worthless.

We continually see research study after study, and regardless of industry or global location all research studies typically identify the gap of abyss between strategic planning and execution.

If we look back to a famous piece of research on strategy done by Kaplan and Norton in 2005, it identified that nine out of 10 organizations are failing to execute their strategy.

More recent research shines a light on the role of middle managers as the main driver in implementing and executing strategy. But most are unaware of what the organization’s strategy is! That’s a frightening thought – the greatest driver of strategy execution is middle managers and most are unaware of what the organization is trying to achieve.

Other studies have indicated that up to 90% of employees do not understand or know the organization’s strategy. And this is where OKRs come in. OKRs can be used as a strategy implementation framework to create engagement across the organization, and alignment at all levels of the organization around strategic goals.