Objectives are essential for the success of an organisation, as they define the direction to be followed and guide the team in relation to what must be achieved. In the Team OKR, a well-defined objective is essential to ensure that everyone is working towards a common and measurable objective. For this, it is necessary that the objective is aligned with the mission and values of the organisation, be clear, challenging (but achievable), inspiring and deadline-oriented. In this article, we will explore each of these aspects and understand how they can be applied in practice to create effective objectives in the Team OKR.
An Objective in the Team OKR should be:
- Aligned with the organisation’s mission: The objective should be aligned with the organisation’s mission and values, so that everyone can work towards a common goal.
- Clear, Concrete, and Specific: The objective should be clear, concrete, and specific so that everyone understands what is to be achieved.
- Challenging but achievable: The objective should be challenging enough to motivate the team, but still achievable.
- Inspiring: The objective should spark emotion and passion, which makes people feel excited about working towards it.
- Deadline-oriented: The objective must have a defined deadline, so that everyone knows when it must be achieved.
To remember these five points, I recommend the acronym ACCID: Aligned, Clear, Challenging, Inspiring and Deadline oriented. Is your Objective ACCID?
Team OKR Objective: Aligned with the vision, mission and values of the organisation
An objective should align with the organisation’s vision, mission and values so that everyone can work towards a common goal. For example, the mission of Caroli.org is:
At Caroli.org, our mission is simple yet powerful: to share knowledge for a better world. By unlocking the potential of knowledge sharing, we actively contribute to positive transformation. Through our dedication to accessible and impactful learning experiences, we empower individuals and communities to make a difference. Together, we can create a brighter future through knowledge.
Therefore, the following objective is not aligned with the organisation’s mission: “increase revenue by 50% at any cost”.
This objective can be motivating for some team, for example sales. But, it does not contribute to the organisation’s mission of sharing knowledge for the transformation of a better world. Furthermore, it can lead to short-term and reckless behavior that is not aligned with the organisation in the long term.
It is important that the objectives align with the organisation’s vision, values and mission to ensure that the team is working towards a common objective and is contributing to the organisation’s success. This helps to keep staff focused and motivated and to ensure that the organisation’s work is aligned with its values and broader purpose.
“Increase revenue by 50% by the end of next year by providing exceptional customer service (NPS above 60)” would be an example of an objective that is more aligned with the Caroli.org’s mission.
Team OKR Objective: Clear, concrete and specific
An objective should be clear, concrete, and specific enough that everyone understands what you hope to achieve. By setting clear objectives, you provide a focused direction and ensure that everyone is aligned towards a common goal. Clear objectives eliminate ambiguity and provide a solid foundation for decision-making and prioritisation. When objectives are concrete, they become tangible and measurable, allowing for meaningful assessment of progress and success. Moreover, specific objectives provide a framework for action and enable teams to identify the necessary steps to accomplish the desired outcomes.
For instance, instead of setting a vague objective like ‘improve product quality,’ a clearer and more concrete objective would be ‘reduce the defect rate by 50% by the end of the quarter.’ This specific objective sets a measurable target that is easily understood by the team. It encourages the team to identify and address the root causes of defects, implement corrective actions, and continuously monitor progress towards the defined goal. With a clear, concrete, and specific objective in place, the team can focus their efforts on actionable tasks and make data-driven decisions to drive improvement effectively.
Team OKR Objective: Challenging but achievable
An objective should be challenging enough to inspire and motivate the team, but still achievable. An example of n objective that is not challenging but is still achievable could be something like “Increase production by 10% by the end of the quarter”.
While the objective of increasing production by 10% is achievable, it may not be particularly challenging if the team is already close to achieving it. In this case, it may be necessary to set a more challenging objective that leads to significant improvements in productivity or performance, such as “Increase production by 30% by the end of the quarter, without compromising the quality of work”. This challenging objective can lead to significant changes in work processes, encouraging the team to look for new ways to increase efficiency and performance.
Between a challenging objective and a purely achievable objective, it’s preferable to choose a more challenging objective. In the previous example, consider that Team A had an objective of increasing production by 30% and achieved a 20% increase. This is much better than team B, which had an objective of a 10% increase and did just that. It’s important to encourage teams to step out of their comfort zone and commit to achieving more challenging goals, which can lead to a greater sense of accomplishment and more impact for the business.
Team OKR Objective: Inspiring
An objective should spark emotion and passion, which makes people feel excited about working towards it. An example of an objective that would not be inspiring would be something like “Keep the voluntary turnover rate below 10%”. This objective may be important to the organisation, but it is unlikely to be inspiring to the team.
While it is important to monitor and control the voluntary turnover rate to ensure the ability to retain valuable talent, maintain organisational culture, productivity and work quality, this objective is not necessarily exciting and motivating.
On the other hand, an inspiring objective could be something like “Increase employee satisfaction by 20% by the end of the quarter”, which directly impacts the well-being and happiness of the organisation’s employees. This positive objective can motivate the team to work even harder to achieve it, creating a more productive and enjoyable work environment for everyone, therefore, reducing the voluntary turnover.
Team OKR Objective: Deadline-oriented
An objective should be deadline-oriented, so that everyone understands the time related to what they are trying to achieve. An example of an objective that is not deadline-oriented might be something like “Improve customer satisfaction with SAC”.
While this objective is important and relevant to many companies, it is not deadline-oriented as it does not specify a time period within which improvement must occur. Without a defined deadline, it can be difficult for the team to prioritise and plan the actions needed to reach the objective.
To make this objective deadline-oriented, you can change it to something like “Increase customer satisfaction rating against SAC by 20% by the end of the next quarter”. This objective now has a defined deadline (the end of the next quarter), which helps the team focus on achieving the objective within a specific amount of time.
Conclusion
The Team OKR is a useful tool for guiding teams and organisation’s towards big goals. However, for this tool to be effective, the objectives must be well defined and meet certain criteria, such as being aligned with the organisation’s mission and values, being clear, challenging but achievable, inspiring, and deadline-oriented. It is important that the team is motivated to work towards these objectives and that they are able to measure their progress. With these ACCID principles in mind, the objectives defined in the OKR framework can be a powerful tool to achieve meaningful and sustainable results.
Once you’ve defined an ACCID objective, it is time to define effective Key Results. But that is the subject of the next article.
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