Every sector, including HR, is rapidly adopting AI in 2024. As of early 2024, about 38% of HR leaders are actively piloting or have already implemented generative AI technologies within their operations, showing a significant increase from 19% in mid-2023. This is in line with another survey where 61% of CHROs planned to invest in AI in 2024.
Meet John. John is a manager in an ad agency. He has a team of 8 direct reports, who come with an exceptional experience on their resumes.
Unfortunately, the team tops the list of underperformers in the organization. This is a matter of concern for John, and the organization as well.
What could be the possible reason? Is the organization not good? Or should John take the blame?
John’s manager Ruth decides to meet John to discuss the matter and figures out multiple reasons for the exceptional team’s unexceptional performance – lack of their trust in John, no role clarity, expectation mismatch, no clear vision of goals, no guidance to overcome challenges, being just a few.
Ruth gives just one piece of advice to John and asks him to religiously follow for a month. After a month, results begin to improve.
What was the secret Ruth told John that helped him turn his team’s productivity from worse to good in just a month?
Intrigued?
She advised him to use a manager’s most effective and efficient tool: One on One meetings.
Elizabeth Grace Saunders, the author of ‘How to Invest Your Time Like Money’, and the founder of Real Life E Time Coaching & Training, says,
One on ones are one of the most important productivity tools you have as a manager. They are where you can ask strategic questions such as, are we focused on the right things? And from a rapport point of view, they are how you show employees that you value them and care about them.
Whether you are a new manager like John or a seasoned one like Ruth, whether you are new to having one on ones or have them regularly with your direct reports, this simple and easy to implement guide will help you to use a manager’s most efficient tool – one on one meetings – in the best way possible to build high performing teams.
How is a one on one meeting different from any other meeting?
Many confuse every face-to-face meeting between a manager and employee with a one on one meeting. But that is not true (more on this in ‘busting the myths around one on ones sections).
In simpler words, a one on one meeting is a recurring, open-ended, two-way interaction between a manager and her direct reports, where direct reports are free to speak their minds and open their heart with their manager.
The fundamental purpose of a one on one meeting is to help the manager connect with her team, understand and remove any blockers they might be facing, and keep the feedback engine running.
This ensures that every member in the team gives their personal best to progress, grow and achieve great results.
Why is a one on one a manager’s most effective tool?
Why do we say that one on one is a manager’s most effective tool to build a highly engaged and productive team?
Let’s try to answer this question by first understanding what managers want to achieve to become great from good.
To be a great manager, you need to be a people’s & result-oriented person – implying you truly care for your team and at the same time are always in the quest for progressing to achieve best results.
But how do you ensure your team feels they are valued and cared for, so that they are always striving to give their best to produce the greatest results?
While there are many other routes like leadership training, seminars, learning from peers, to help you manage your team, nothing works as effectively as regular and high-quality one on one meetings with your direct reports.
Andy Grove, former CEO & co-founder of Intel, in his book ‘High Output Management’, says,
Ninety minutes of your time can enhance the quality of your subordinate’s work for two weeks, or for some eighty-plus hours.
Based on our interactions and learnings while working with a number of managers, we have summarized five main benefits of effective one on one meetings with your employees.
1 Consistent & regular feedback
Feedback is an essential component of your progress as a manager and helps you track the progress of your team.
An article in Forbes highlighted that 65% of employees want more feedback on their work than they receive today.
Talking of today’s workforce, millennials crave for ongoing and regular feedback from their managers.
A survey conducted by Clutch found that ‘of the millennials whose managers do provide accurate and consistent feedback, 72% find their job fulfilling’.
The key is consistency and accuracy while giving feedback. And this can be achieved through regular 1-on-1 meetings with your employees.
Since a 1-on-1 is a recurring event in the calendar of a manager and her direct report, it provides the manager a unique opportunity of sharing regular and real-time feedback.
This in turn helps the direct report implement the feedback into the work immediately and correct the errors before they become irreversible mistakes.
Feedback is not meant to be given to employees only.
If you want to grow as a manager and become a leader, you must welcome feedback from your employees as well.
Your employees work with you closely, and will certainly have important insights on your managerial style, certain decisions concerning them or team, office culture, organization, etc..
What could be a better way to understand your employees’ point of view than a 1-1 meeting?
A regular one on one meeting helps your employees understand your temperament making it easy for them to be candid with you.
2 Cement your relationship with your team
Kim Scott in her book ‘Radical Candor’ talks a great deal about ‘Caring personally’ for your team.
‘Caring Personally’ means demonstrating that you “give a damn” about the people you work with.
A 1:1 meeting is the best way to show your team you care for them and value their efforts. Your team knows how busy you are as a manager. You not only take care of your team but also have a bunch of your own deliverables to take care of.
When you religiously take out time for your employees from your busy schedule, it makes them feel valued.
You can sense an influx of positive vibes into the team after every 1:1 that you conduct.
A 1-on-1 provides you the launchpad to build a relationship of mutual trust and respect with your direct reports, and then cement it with every 1-on-1 to follow.
3 Nip the problems right in the bud
Imagine that you have a new direct report in your team of 12.
You are sure she has great potential and give her a month’s time to settle in the role. When you review her performance after a month, you are dissatisfied.
Thinking ‘it’s been only a month’, you decide to give her some more time to settle.
You never have 1-on-1 with her and assume she would come up to you on her own to discuss any challenge(s) she might be facing.
Three months down the line, her performance remains below the mark and she finally quits in the fourth month.
The true reason for her resignation will always remain a mystery to you since you never had a 1-on-1 meeting with her to understand her roadblocks and provide her a comfortable environment to grow fearlessly.
A one on-one is a perfect opportunity for you to personally understand the real challenges your employee might be facing and remove the roadblock(s) in a way that is best suited for that employee.
Andy Grove in his book High Output Management writes:
A common rule we should always try to heed is to detect and fix any problem at the lowest-value stage possible.
This in turn helps a manager nip the problem right in the bud, before it becomes too big to tackle, and lead to something as extreme as a bright and high potential employee leaving the team.
4 Check Motivation level / morale
A manager is only as good as her team.
And if you want your team to keep giving their best, you certainly would want them to be motivated and driven.
Imagine you have an employee Jake working with you for more than 2 years now.
He is exceptional in his work, usually, but now you sense a sudden drop in his performance. His reports are not elaborate and he starts making careless errors.
Knowing that Jake is a star-performer, you are sure something is bothering him. His motivation level is at a new low.
So, how would you spot the real issue? Ideally, you would call a meeting with him, understand the problem and try to provide him a solution.
Was there a way to foresee the drop in Jake’s motivation level? Yes.
If you were conducting regular 1-on-1 meetings with Jake, you could have kept a tab on his motivation level and solved the problem before it grew bigger and started affecting his output and team results.
Building a high motivated team is not a one-day job. You have to work towards it constantly by interacting with your employees at regular intervals and checking with them on their motivation levels.
Through a 1-1 meeting you can understand how motivated your team is, encourage them if the motivation level is high, and remove the roadblocks if it is low.
One of the traits of a great coach as defined by Google is:
Tailoring approaches to meet individual communication styles in regular one on one meetings
A manager cannot succeed with the one-shoe-fits-all approach. No two employees are the same. Each employee comes with a unique set of strengths & weaknesses, working style, and communication style.
One employee’s strength might be another employee’s weakness. And hence, you cannot provide the same appreciation or solutions to all employees.
You will have to customize your interactions with each employee based on what works the best for them. And you can achieve this only through regular one on one meetings with your employees.
One on one meeting is your golden chance to understand what works best for each of your employees and provide tailored solutions to them for their unique problems.
[elementor-template id=”89725″]
Busting the myths around one on one meetings
Now that we have established that one on one meetings are essential for your team to grow, let us address the myths that surround them.
Many believe 1:1 meetings to be regular catch up meetings, stand-ups, or like we talked earlier, a face-to-face meetings where you discuss issues like performance review.
Some also think one on one meeting should only be held in closed doors, or experienced team mates don’t need a 1-1 meeting.
These are, however, only misconceptions. Let us address the most common myths here before we proceed to discussing the ingredients for a successful 1-on-1 meeting.
1 It is just another meeting
One on one is not ‘just another meeting’. It is a meeting which your direct report looks to forward to more than you do.
As Ben Horowitz says,
The key to a good one on one meeting is the understanding that it is the employee’s meeting rather than the manager’s meeting.
An important part of being a good manager is via effective communication, and you can only do that if you listen to your employees.
2 I have a team of experienced employees, they don’t need a one on one!
Well, that is really not true!
No matter how much experience your team has on their resume, they will always need a one on one to exchange feedback.
Senior employees also tend to feel lost if not given timely feedback. And, given their experience it becomes all the more important to keep them engaged.
You can achieve both through a 1-1 meeting.
3 I have an open door policy, why do I need a one on one meeting?
Most managers tell their employees about the ‘open door policy’ and expect that if the team faces any issue they would certainly knock the door, or in simpler words, walk right up to you and discuss the issue.
But just try to rewind and think, how many times has an employee really walked up to you and talked about the challenges she is facing at work?
An open-door policy lacks the personal touch and doesn’t give you the opportunity to personally address the issue your team might be facing.
Your employee may not walk up to you for reasons like they are shy, or don’t know when is the right time to speak with you, or if you would be tolerant about the issue they might raise.
More often than not, employees would struggle with issues, and may even get frustrated, eventually leading them to move out. You certainly don’t want that to happen.
4 I can give feedback in a performance review meeting as well. Why one on one then?
A performance review meeting is a quarterly, or bi-annual or annual conversation between you and your direct report.
Performance review meetings are more about evaluating the performance of the employee over a stipulated period of time.
By the time you have this meeting, results have either been achieved or targets have been missed, and it would be too late to provide constructive feedback.
Feedback is not one-time but a continuous process. You need to provide feedback and at the same time accept it with grace from your employees.
In a performance review meeting you can only share your opinion with the direct report which may or may not be receive d well by him.
Also, the direct report will not get much of an opportunity to share their mind honestly.
5 I don’t have anything new to talk about one on one every week!
Most managers end up asking the same questions in every one on one.
They either run out of ideas or don’t know how to channel the conversation in a way that new points are discussed in the meeting.
Some commonly asked questions are ‘how’s it going’, ‘how’s work coming along’, etc., but these are only good for starters.
If you want to have a quality 1-1 meeting you must focus on a variety of questions covering areas like recognition, job performance, team dynamics, motivation levels, etc.
While listening constitutes a very big part of holding an effective 1-on-1 meeting, it certainly doesn’t imply that you are only supposed to listen and not say anything.
1-1 meeting is a safe space for your direct report to speak their mind and share their heart.
This, however, should not stop you from providing guidance and coaching your direct reports. Especially, when 1-1 is your only opportunity to coach your employees and take a step closer to becoming a great manager.
[elementor-template id=”89725″]
7 It’s okay for me to not take notes.
A common notion is that managers do not have the time to take notes and expect their direct reports to do so instead.
Our interactions with many managers and employees tell us that this is a very big mistake which can result in affecting your team negatively.
Taking notes is not only important for the employee but you, as a manager as well, since this is the first step towards tracking the discussion points and taking action.
8 It’s a waste of time. Cancelling it won’t impact otherwise.
We cannot iterate anymore that a 1-on-1 is not a waste of time. It is instead the best possible way to utilize your work hours to understand your team better.
If you think that cancelling a 1-1 meeting doesn’t have a negative impact, think again.
Cancelling or postponing this crucial meeting, which your direct report may have been looking forward to, will lead to her not taking you seriously and you will also lose the window to unlayer the real cause of your employees dissent for the week gone by.
9 Closed rooms are so boring for a one on one meeting, but that’s the format!
This is the free-form meeting for all the pressing issues, brilliant ideas and chronic frustrations that do not fit neatly into status reports, email and other less personal and intimate mechanisms.
The interesting thing about this meeting is that it has no set format, and is a free-form of meeting.
The best part about 1-1 meeting is that you can have it while walking down the corridor, in a coffee shop or in your office cafeteria!
10 I can have a one on one once every two months. That should be enough!
A few managers who we spoke to pointed out that weekly one on one meetings are way too much and so they would rather have them once in a month or maybe two months.
Our advice here is simple and straight!
Any meeting that you call one on one, and are holding it after such long durations, is not a 1-on-1!
A week is a long time for developments to take place. And hence an ideal scenario is a weekly one-on-one, but nothing less than a bi-weekly would do if you want to get the most out of this meeting.
During a Live video streamed by Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook CEO, shared his secret to building and maintaining relationship at work:
We’ve had this tradition, in the last eight years or so that we’ve worked together, where every week we start the week and end the week just meeting one-on-one together, and going over everything that’s going on, and reflect on what’s going on, giving each other feedback.
Step-by-step guide to an effective one on one meeting
A manager is not really a manager without her team. Her team’s success defines her success as a manager. And one-on-one meetings are vital for your team’s success.
According to Gallup, “employees whose managers hold regular meetings with them are almost 3 times as likely to be engaged as employees whose managers do not hold regular meetings with them”.
All successful leaders we look up to today, be it Andy Grove, Steve Jobs, Kim Scott, Jason Lemkin, or Ben Horowitz, emphasize on the importance of 1-on-1s.
In fact, Ben Horowitz in his book ‘The Hard Thing about Hard Things’ recalls an incident where he was willing to fire a senior leader who was not having regular 1:1s!
But what really goes into ensuring you are having the 1-1 meeting in the most effective way to get the most out of it?
Here’s a step-by-step guide to help you make the one-on-ones productive, effective and your most powerful tool.
1 Set the schedule
The first and foremost step towards having an effective 1 on 1 meeting is by scheduling a recurring meeting with each of your direct reports and following it religiously. A one on one meeting is not an ad-hoc meeting.
You cannot have a selective approach towards 1-on-1 meetings. You need to have these meetings with all your direct reports, implying you will need to take out time for each of them.
Frequency and duration are two main points you need to factor in before committing yourself to the meeting schedule:
– Frequency:
While an ideal frequency of a 1-on-1 meeting is once every week, factors like team size and traveling often, have to be taken into account before committing yourself to a schedule with your direct report.
If you are managing a team of five, once a week frequency is doable, but if it is bigger than that you can have a bi-weekly meeting.
Jason Lemkin, Founder of SaaStr, says,
… you have to find a way to do 1-on-1 meetings with all your direct reports. At least every two weeks.
Andy Grove, however, has an interesting take on the frequency of one on one and we agree with him.
He believes that the frequency should not be decided by your time but by how much of your time an employee requires to give his best, as one-shoe-fits-all approach doesn’t work for a manager, and she has to adapt according to each of her employees’ experience, aptitude, at titude, and working style.
Accordingly, you should have one on ones frequently (for example, once a week) with a subordinate who is inexperienced in a specific situation and less frequently (perhaps once every few weeks) with an experienced veteran.
The Predictive Index’s people management report 2019 found that ‘manager ratings jump from 3.1 to 3.6 when managers meet with their direct reports monthly vs. quarterly.
– Duration
The duration of your 1-1 should not be less than 30-minutes and can go up to 1 hour. You need not schedule all your 1-1s on a single day.
Let’s say you have 40 working hours, and are leading a team of 8 people. It is not a big ask to spend 4-8 hours understanding your employees!
Kim Scott in her book ‘Radical Candor’ while talking about one on one meeting says:
I like to meet with each person who works directly for me for fifty minutes a week. But I can’t bear more than about five hours of time in my calendar… If you have ten direct reports, I’d shift it to twenty-five minutes a week.
2 Stick to it
A very important step to follow-up the first step of scheduling the meeting is to stick to the schedule.
Stick to the schedule and try your best to show up at every 1 on 1 meeting. We understand that not all days would be the same. On certain days you may be travelling, or may fall sick, or might be away on a vacation.
Barring such exceptions, you should always be there for the one on one; and on time. Not showing up, cancelling or postponing, sends the message that this is just another meeting for you, whereas your direct report might just have been waiting for the meeting to discuss the underlying issue(s) bothering her.
Living up to the scheduled one on one meeting and commit to it with utmost sincerity, showing up on time, will help you earn the respect of your team and also send the message that you care.
3 Set agendas
This holds true for every meeting, and one on one is no different.
Starting a meeting on a vague note, especially when you are having a busy day will only lead to wasting your and your employee’s time.
To set an agenda send across a few questions to your employees, such as, ‘how motivated are you’, the answers to which will help you build your talking points for the meeting.
More than having your agenda clear, it is important to give the freedom to the employees to be able to set their agenda or talking points as well.
They may be facing problems in their current project, or they may be facing an issue while working with a team member, or they might be facing the challenge of not being able to prioritize work properly.
Stressing on the importance of letting the employees set their agenda for the meeting, Andy Grove in High Output Management says,
The most important criterion governing matters to be talked about is that they be issues that preoccupy and nag the sub-ordinate.
To help your employees set agenda, let them know how you want the agenda to be shared. You can do this through warmup questions, or ask them to jot down the points in a shared document.
Some managers believe in free-flowing meetings with no structure or set agenda. While this may work for smaller teams, it can lead to a no-result or inconclusive meeting in a setup where you have more than five direct reports.
4 Listen
Once you have an agenda set and you are sharing the space with your direct report for the scheduled 1 on 1 meeting, make sure you take care of the most important prerequisite: Listening.
Kim Scott says,
1:1s are your must-do meetings, your single best opportunity to listen, really listen, to the people on your team to make sure you understand their perspective on what’s working and what’s not working.
She further says that, ‘the purpose of a 1:1 meeting is to listen and clarify – to understand what direction each person working for you wants you to head in, and what is blocking them.
Listening is a very important part of effective communication. If you don’t listen to your employees, they would not feel heard and valued.
Remember what Steve Jobs once said: ‘We hire people to tell us what to do, and not the other way round’.
5 Ask questions & encourage feedback
Once you have heard your direct report, it is your turn to dive deeper.
Go beyond the regular status update questions, which include, ‘how is the project coming along’, ‘what are you working on this week’, ‘how was your last week’, etc.. Like we said earlier, 1-1 is not a status update meeting.
If you need to ask about the project, you can keep a separate meeting for that, but that won’t be called a one-on-one.
Never forget that this is your opportunity to go beyond the regular, dig deeper to understand your employee better, and provide them the career development they are looking for.
You must include one on one meeting questions from different areas of work and/or life, for instance, team dynamics, work recognition, goal setting, job performance, feedback about you and the company.
Good questions during a one on one can have a massive positive impact on the quality of the meeting.
And don’t forget that getting feedback from your employees constitutes an important objective of a 1-1 meeting. To drive a healthy exchange of feedback, ask questions like:
Are you happy with the amount of feedback we give to each other in the team?
Would you like to receive more feedback from me and the team?
Do you find my feedback specific and actionable?
Do you have any constructive criticism for me?
Feedback is a continuous and two-way process, and it is important to ask yourself if your feedback is helping your team.
[elementor-template id=”89725″]
6 Take notes
We talked about how managers think they do not need to take notes during the 1 on 1 meeting, and busted the myth.
Most managers make the mistake of believing that taking notes is a waste of time, or it is the duty of their direct reports to do so.
Imagine a scenario where you are having 5 one on ones with all five of your direct reports on 5 different days of the week for a duration of 1 hour each.
Your team has been working on a major project that is crucial to the company’s success and they all have been facing different issues and challenges.
You, however, choose not to take notes and expect your direct reports to do so instead, which they do and share with you as well.
When you decide to look at the notes they sent to you, you cannot draw much meaning out of it as it was their interpretation of the situation and you call them again to discuss the problems.
The chaos leads to a delay in the delivery of the project, reflecting really bad on your team, and eventually, you.
This situation could have been easily avoided if you had taken notes, with the intention to act upon it.
A very big advantage of you taking your own notes during the one on one meeting is that your employees feel assured they are being heard and their words are important.
To effectively track action items, you need to create a seamless system. As Andy Grove puts it:
When [the direct-report] takes a note immediately following the supervisor’s suggestion, the act implies a commitment, like a handshake, that something will be done. The supervisor, also having taken notes, can then follow up at the next one-on-one.
Taking notes is the best way to start working on a system of accountability, but they are meaningless if not followed-up with actions.
7 Drive real actions by tracking action items
Peter Drucker, Leadership Expert & author, says:
Unless commitment is made, there are only promises and hopes… but no plans
A manager can show she is true to her word only by tracking action items and following them up with real actions.
When you take action on the items discussed, you are building an environment of trust and accountability in your team. It implies that your connection with your team will grow stronger and they will respect you even more.
However, lack of action can dissolve the very purpose of having the one-on-one meeting, portray you in a very bad light, lower your respect and create an atmosphere of distrust in your team.
The success of a 1-on-1 meeting can be judged by the actions taken based on the discussion in the meeting.
According to a study, ineffective and unproductive meetings cost United States businesses $37 billion every year!
An ineffective and unproductive meeting is the one where the attendees leave without any takeaways and action items to track or follow-up on.
Paul Axtell, a corporate trainer and author of award-winning book ‘Meetings Matter’ writes in a Harvard Business Review article:
Getting firm, clear commitments is the primary way to ensure progress between meetings. In order for a conversation to lead to action, specific commitments must be made. Progress depends on clearly stating what you will do by when and asking others to do the same.
To make the most out of your one on one meetings, we recommend using a one on one meeting software that allows you to do all of the above at one place.
8 Follow-up
When the meeting ends, and you and your direct report walks out with notes and action items listed down, make sure they are assigned to the respective owner of the task and you regularly follow-up on the progress of the action item.
Progress can only be measured by actions taken. And, so it is important to follow-up and understand if your team is facing any blockers in implementing the points discussed.
Conclusion:
The fundamental truth about 1:1 meetings is that they are about your employees, and not you. And, no matter how busy your day might be, you ought to take out time for meeting your direct reports in a 1:1 meeting, and conclude it with a trackable list of action items to follow-up on.
What stood out is the deep understanding of the Peoplebox.ai team and their willingness to listen & enhance the platform to scale with our long-term needs.
Khilan Haria
VP and Head of Payments Product, Razorpay
I'm glad that we partnered with Peoplebox.ai for our company-wide OKR rollout. Thanks to its simplicity, we achieved significant adoption within two quarters
Rohit Arumugam
Business Head, Nova Benefits
Since we started using Peoplebox.ai, we have been able to bring all of our leadership across the organization together and show them how all of our goals align
Jaclyn Hoover
Senior Director HR, Propel School
Driving the entire interface through slack is simply brilliant especially for a tech product company! There was zero time spent on training! It can not get easier than that!
Swapna Nair
VP - HR, Khatabook
I chose Peoplebox.ai because it had integrations with the tools we use for sales and engineering to automate updating of key results and sync projects
How to Roll Out OKRs for First Time: 7 Steps Startegy
How to Roll out OKRs for the first time is a question common among organizations just introducing OKRs.
Imagine a scenario-
You are rolling out OKR for the first time.
One thing goes wrong and… Boom!
Your employees are already hating the process- even before it took a pace.
You certainly wouldn’t want that to happen in your organization. OKRs can surcharge and accelerate your organizational growth. But the key is to get this done right.
That’s why a well-planned rollout is significant for the success of an OKR system.
Introduce the new goal-setting approach strategically but not in a mechanical process. Every organization is unique and can face unique challenges while implementing OKRs.
[elementor-template id=”89725″]
How to roll out OKRs: Here are 7 Best Practices for a successful OKR rollout
1 Communicate the OKR Methodology to all the teams
Get everyone in the organization on board with OKRs. Present the concept clearly and precisely. Educate everyone on the OKR language.
While some people will embrace the changes with open arms, there are also going to be some skeptics into the bargain. You must let them express their concerns and provide answers to their “why, how, and what?” questions.
Explain to them the benefits of implementing the OKR framework. Highlight how it’s going to impact the business and the individual success of the employees.
Organize workshops, training, discussions, introductory presentations, and seminars to help your employees’ design quality OKRs. Transparently explain to them the strategic execution, alignment, expectations, and tools they will be required to use for the purpose.
To help everyone speak the same language, document your company OKR framework
2 Inspire with success stories
List the names of reputed companies like Google, Netflix, Intel, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc. which have successfully implemented OKRs. Narrate their success stories to help them visualize how OKRs can cater to their individual success.
For example, OKRs helped LinkedIn become a 20 Billion Company. Jeff Weiner, CEO of LinkedIn, describes OKRs as, “something you want to accomplish over a specific period of time that leans toward a stretch goal rather than a stated plan.
It’s something where you want to create greater urgency, greater mindshare.”
You can either go for an organization-wide rollout Consider running an OKR Pilot first, depending on what fits you best.
If you have a culture that’s open to change and a flexible structure of functioning, an organization-wide rollout will work best for you. But it’s always best to take small steps. Start from one part and gradually move to others.
[elementor-template id=”89725″]
Crafting and implementing OKRs across the entire organization can seem overwhelming especially if you are a large organization. Instead, choose a particular part of the organization and run a pilot project.
“If you concentrate on small, manageable steps you can cross unimaginable distances.”
It’s also important to decide “how often?” will OKRs be reviewed. Will it be done quarterly or annually?
4 Go for the Top-down approach
A top-down approach to OKRs was the first pattern attempted. The top management has a significant role in setting the overall direction of the company. Starting from the top provides clarity for the rest of the organization.
“People buy into the leader before they buy into the vision.”
For example, you can start with the senior leadership team. Make them an example to roll out OKRs to the departmental heads. From there you can move on to team leaders, and to the rest of your teams.
5 Get aligned
You can’t just sit with a blank sheet in front and magically start crafting the perfect OKRs. You need to understand the context. Make the company mission and vision your starting point and tailor your OKRs accordingly.
Buy-ins are critical for OKR success. The success of OKRs depends on the collective effort of each team member. You can imagine it as a group dance performance where everyone needs to perform their parts well to make it a masterpiece.
Thus you need to align the efforts of the workforce, executive leaders, and company heads both horizontally and vertically. This will help you foster transparency, smooth cross-functional communication, and reduce overlap among departments.
6 Track and monitor progress
Tracking OKRs are important to evaluate and measure the progress and understand which teams are falling short.
You can identify any issues and make course corrections as required by Monitoring progress.
Leverage technology to track OKRs. It will make the process transparent.
Using OKR software will also automate the calculations and save your time as you are no longer required to manually update the progress of each team member.
Bonus tip: Remember to celebrate whenever you Hit the nail on the head through OKR win meetings and shoutouts to keep
7 Do frequent check-ins
To stay on top of OKR progress, you need to do regular check-ins. Employees might feel overwhelmed with concerns and doubts, especially in the initial days.
Regular check-ins will give your employees direction. And provide them the required assistance and guidance. Frequent Check-in meetings will also identify the overlappings, increase accountability and ensure execution.
Define your preferred frequency of Check-in meetings. You can do it weekly or monthly as per your organization’s needs. Although weekly check-ins are most recommended to keep track of the progress and evaluate continuously.
Have OKR Champions
Consider having OKR champion who starts implementing the OKR framework with a strong war cry. Build a team of champions who will work as ambassadors to head the change. And make the OKR framework run smoothing across the organization.
They work as mentors and internal OKR experts. And can help you adopt and execute OKRs at all levels of the organization. These OKR enthusiasts will make sure that every concern is addressed, every ‘whys and wherefores’ are explained.
Too many objectives and key results: Less is more. Don’t set more than 5-7 Objectives and 3-5 key results.
Fill it, Forget it: Don’t set OKRs just to forget in a few days.
Mixing KPIs with OKRs: KPIs aren’t a substitution for OKRs. They have separate roles and outcomes.
Rigidity: Rigid adherence to rules can lead to disengagement. Instead, move forward with a flexible and intuitive OKR approach
Link OKRs with Recognition: Don’t make the mistake of making OKRs a base for your reward and recognition program. It can negatively affect performance. And compromises the business output.
The start is never perfect
You might struggle when you are just starting. But after a few OKR cycles, you are sure to hit your stride.
To end, OKR’s success depends on consistency. So, remember to continuously reflect, learn, and refine the process.
Hope we were able to answer all your queries in our blog How to roll out OKRs for the first time? If you have questions feel free to comment below.
Pooja Pooja
Types of OKRs: Aspirational OKRs vs Committed OKRs
Every organization wants to grow, but how do you set goals that are both achievable and visionary? The answer lies in the types of OKRs: committed and aspirational.
Whether it’s near-term performance or long-term innovation for your business, you’ll know just how to leverage the power of committed and aspirational OKRs effectively to unlock new levels of success for your business.
Committed OKRs are about clear, attainable targets that teams can confidently deliver within a set timeframe. This type of OKR delivers accountability and is important for day-to-day business success.
Aspirational OKRs, on the other hand; push teams to be bigger and challenge themselves. The moonshots: ambitious OKRs are meant to stretch an organization from its comfort zone, kindling innovation and long-term growth.
In the rest of this blog, we will take the difference between these two types of OKR apart and see how to balance them in such a way that they enable performance as well as inspiration.
What are Aspirational OKRs and Other Types of OKRs?
A committed OKR is a stretch goal that the team has to achieve or complete before the cycle is over. A committed goal pushes the team to reach, but still achievable attainment. All metrics of the Key Results must be completed fully and on time. Consider a situation like this:
Daniel’s organization and his teams have agreed to execute certain OKRs and have mapped a precise action plan on how they are going to do so.
These are called Committed OKRs.
An aspirational OKR sets the bar for success further out, and by design will exceed a team’s ability to execute in a given quarter. When they set such a high bar as to be seemingly impossible they are called 10x goals, or “moonshots.” While most aspirational OKRs are never fully achieved, they exist to push a team to think bigger than a committed OKR. Consider the following case:
Martha’s organization is more visionary. They have stretched goals. And her teams are not likely to fully achieve these ambitious goals.
These are called Aspirational OKRs.
Understanding the distinction between aspirational and committed goals is crucial for effective goal-setting and team motivation within the OKR framework. Aspirational goals encourage ambitious thinking and long-term vision, while committed goals focus on immediate, measurable outcomes.
Learning OKR focuses on the acquisition of knowledge, new skills, or insights rather than a direct achievement of business outputs. Extremely helpful when entering new areas or uncertainties and requires experimenting, learning, and developing new skills, Learning OKRs distinguish between usual output measuring of success and measuring acquisition of knowledge, that will later add value for future objectives. For example:
Jerry wants to gain a deep understanding of machine learning to drive full product development. He wants to finish three advanced courses and test his skills by building a model in sandbox.
These are called Learning OKRs.
Aspirational OKRs and Committed OKRs: Key differences
When you aim for the stars, you may come up short, but still reach the moon.
– Larry Page
Read on to find out the key difference between Committed OKRs and Aspirational OKRs.
Objective
Aspirational OKRs are meant to push the boundaries and encourage employees to achieve visionary objectives. Committed OKRs, on the other hand, focus on committed objectives that offer a more realistic vision of goals with fully achievable results.
Aim
Committed OKRs help companies achieve their goals through individual and team achievements. Aspirational OKRs are often beyond the current capacities of the organization but help in pushing boundaries.
Timeframe
Aspirational OKRs are usually created to focus on long-term strategic vision while Committed OKRs offer short-term operational priorities to guarantee progress in the short term.
Committed OKRs are supposed to have a 100% success rate as each key result comprises fully achievable targets. Aspirational OKRs are usually found to have a success rate of 60-70%.
Committed and Aspirational OKR examples
The difference between committed and aspirational OKRs is subtle. Committed objectives are meant to be fully achievable, requiring teams to concentrate on straightforward priorities without taking unnecessary risks, ultimately serving as motivational tools to foster small wins and consistent progress.
A standard example in the sales team scenario might be like:
Committed OKR
O: Expand to the US market
KR1: Close first 6 start-ups
KR2: Get a meeting-to-close rate of 6%
KR3: Reach average deal size of $200
Aspirational OKR
O: Capture the entire US market in one quarter
KR1: Get onboard 95% of big customers in the US market to grow over competitors
KR2: Get a meeting-to-close rate of 30%
KR3: Reach average deal size of $2000
In the managerial team, these OKRs can manifest like such:
Committed OKR
O: Improve customer satisfaction with the existing solutions
KR1: Increase customer satisfaction score (CSAT) from 85% to 90% by the end of the quarter.
KR2: Reduce average response time from 15 minutes to 10 minutes within the next three months.
KR3: Train 100% of the support team on the new customer service tools within six weeks.
Aspirational OKR
O: Become the market leader in AI-powered customer service solutions.
KR1: Achieve a 30% market share in the AI customer service industry by the end of next year.
KR2: Launch three groundbreaking AI features that no competitor currently offers within 18 months.
KR3: Secure a partnership with at least two top-tier companies by the end of next year.
In a tech context, OKRs like these can come up:
Committed OKR
O: Improve the performance of the app and reliability
KR1: Reduce app crash rate from 2.5% to under 1% within the next quarter.
KR2: Decrease page load times by 30% in six months.
KR3: Fix 100% of the top ten reported bugs within the next two sprints.
Aspirational OKR
O: Revolutionize the user experience of our mobile app.
KR1: Increase daily active users (DAU) by 100% within 12 months.
KR2: Develop and launch a fully AI-driven recommendation system that personalizes the user experience by the end of the year.
KR3: Achieve a 4.8+ rating across app stores by introducing five innovative features within the next 18 months.
How to decide between Committed OKRs and Aspirational OKRs?
Committed OKRs will work best if your organization is newly introduced to the framework or is still in the rolling-out phase.
With each goal achieved, your team’s motivation and engagement will rise higher. In addition, teams easily get into the habit of running Committed OKRs and make it part of their work culture.
But if you have already used the framework in the past, aspirational OKRs can do wonders for you.
Creating a result-driven work culture takes time. It demands discipline, continuous effort, and a mindset shift of employees and management. So you should start simple and focus on learning the methodology first. And set up the necessary processes to make it work.
Setting aspirational OKRs in the very beginning would make your teams feel overwhelmed and over-pressurized. Extremely ambitious Key Results soon become too much to handle. Learning a new methodology takes time. Once your teams are used to the framework and it becomes a part of their work-life, you can consider aspirational OKRs.
With the later process, you can have objectives and a combination of committed and aspirational key results. While some key results will be easier to achieve, others will aim higher. Understanding the distinction between aspirational and committed goals is crucial for better goal-setting and team motivation.
Choosing the Right Type of OKRs
Choosing the right type of OKRs depends on the organization’s goals, culture, and priorities. Committed OKRs are suitable for organizations that need to achieve specific, measurable outcomes within a set timeframe. They are ideal for teams that require a clear direction and a sense of accountability. Aspirational OKRs, on the other hand, are suitable for organizations that want to drive innovation, creativity, and excellence. They are ideal for teams that want to push the boundaries and strive for something bigger.
When choosing between Committed and Aspirational OKRs, consider the following factors:
What are the organization’s goals and priorities?
What type of culture do we want to foster?
What kind of outcomes do we want to achieve?
What level of risk are we willing to take?
By considering these factors, organizations can choose the right type of OKRs that align with their goals, culture, and priorities. Whether you opt for committed or aspirational OKRs, the key is to ensure that they are aligned with your company aims and internal communication processes, fostering a balanced approach to achieving both immediate and long-term objectives.
How to balance Committed and Aspirational OKRs?
There is no one-size-fits-all answer, but where OKRs are aligned with company strategy, teams are well educated, open communication exists, and performance is reviewed regularly, it will help keep the balance between aspirational and committed OKRs intact.
However, the first step in finding equilibrium between the two forms of OKRs is that there has to be a knowledge of the difference. It needs to be apparent from the outset that everyone involved makes it clear the distinction between the two OKRs.
Teams and employees may have suitable insights that will assist in determining what is realistically achievable (committed) and what is a stretch but possible (aspirational). This can help determine what the balance ratio for the OKRs is going to be.
A very critical element to succeed with OKRs is reviewing and tracking the progress. With weekly check-ins, teams can go through their OKRs regularly and update the same performance data. It becomes easy to track how they have progressed on the outcome of the OKR in the OKR review process.
The grading of OKRs is very clear on the distinction between committed and aspirational goals. Committed OKRs are things to be accomplished within the cycle, and grading is binary: pass or fail. That is, an OKR is said to be successful if 100% of it is accomplished; otherwise, it is regarded as a failure. Aspirational OKRs, on the other hand, are graded along a more nuanced scale.
Common mistakes to avoid while setting up Aspirational OKRs
Here are 6 common mistakes organizations commit while setting up aspirational OKRs-
1️⃣Ignoring organizational structure and needs
A common mistake most organizations commit while writing aspirational OKRs is to write something like, “What can be done more if we have extra resources and luck favors us ?” Instead, you can pretend to be a genie and strive to understand “What our customer needs at present moment?”
2️⃣Unrealistic aspirational OKRs
Aspirational OKRs don’t imply setting unrealistic goals. It should be achievable, with the understanding that your teams won’t have any clue about how to achieve these OKRs. Aspirational OKRs demand overuse of resources. They are fluid and flexible. But still helps your teams focus on well-defined goals.
3️⃣Writing a low-value objective (LVO)
Moving forward with a “Who cares?” attitude is a common pitfall among organizations. Low-value objectives go unnoticed even after the successful completion of the key results.
4️⃣OKRs should be framed to gain tangible benefit
OKRs are a tool for organizations to work for big goals in the long run by breaking them into small chunks that can be achieved within a shorter cycle.
5️⃣A committed OKR must deliver a 1.0
It makes the framework stiff and doesn’t leave scope for improvement.
6️⃣Too many OKRs
How many aspirational OKRs you should set for one cycle will depend on your company’s resources. But never aim for too many Objectives and key results. As it can easily divert your focus altogether.
Best Practices for Implementing OKRs
Implementing OKRs requires a structured approach to ensure success. Here are some best practices to consider:
Align OKRs with company goals: Ensure that OKRs align with the organization’s overall goals and priorities.
Make OKRs specific and measurable: Ensure that OKRs are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART).
Set ambitious yet achievable goals: Set goals that are challenging yet achievable, and provide a clear direction for the team.
Establish clear key results: Establish clear key results that indicate progress towards achieving the objective.
Track progress regularly: Track progress regularly and provide feedback to teams and individuals.
Foster a culture of transparency and accountability: Foster a culture of transparency and accountability, where teams and individuals are held accountable for their progress.
Provide training and support: Provide training and support to teams and individuals to ensure they understand the OKR framework and how to use it effectively.
Review and adjust OKRs regularly: Review and adjust OKRs regularly to ensure they remain relevant and aligned with the organization’s goals.
By following these best practices, organizations can implement OKRs effectively and achieve their goals. Regularly reviewing and adjusting OKRs ensures that they stay aligned with the evolving needs of the organization, helping teams to maintain focus and drive continuous improvement.
Conclusion
Now that you know the difference between committed and aspirational OKRs and how they can impact your organization’s success, it’s the decision time. Choose the one that will best suit your purpose.
And don’t forget it’s a trial and error method. Have regular OKR check-ins and reviews. Collect feedback during and after each cycle. And use your learnings to avoid further mistakes in the next OKR cycle.
Pooja Pooja
Quarterly OKRs: 5 Tips for Successful Wrap-Up
Imagine a scene! the quarter is about to end and it’s time to review and wrap up quarterly OKRs.
The clock’s ticking. Everyone is in a rush. And you are busy evaluating which goals are yet to be achieved. And what has already been done. It’s also time to think about your priorities for the next quarter.
There are so many checklists and questions going in your head.
Have my teams found ways of closing out quarterly OKRs? Will my teams beat the clock and tick all the boxes? Have they reflected on their OKR progress? How will I deal with this end-of-quarter OKRs rush?
Feeling overwhelmed!!
Here is a step by step guide to help you prepare best to wrap up your quarterly OKRs–
Before you start to review and wrap up quarterly OKRs- remember that wrapping up quarterly OKRs is teamwork. And to see the best results every team irrespective of their department have to come together.
Track your team’s OKR progress and gather the key results scores. You can score your OKRs on a scale of 1 to 10 on the basis of how far the objectives have been achieved.
This will help you evaluate your progress in a truly data-driven manner.
If the scores are low this might suggest that your OKRs were unrealistic. On the other hand, if the score is too high it may suggest that your OKRs were not ambitious enough.
Whatever learning you made from this process. It will help you to form the basis for designing your next set of quarterly OKRs.
Make sure everyone is up to date
It is important to ensure that your teams have clarity about their OKR status. At the same time, they have visibility into what other teams have been doing. It can be achieved through regular check-ins with your teams. Check this ebook on OKR handbook.
This step will help you check if your teams are aligned or not. When everyone in your team is on the same page taking decisions based on priorities becomes easy. As you have the data in hand to rely on instead of guessing.
Organize OKR check-ins
The importance of check-ins for OKR success cannot be emphasized enough. OKR check-ins provide you an opportunity to have 1 on 1 discussion in all OKR matters.
With OKR check-ins you can discuss with your leaders and team members about – what went well, what didn’t work for them, what needs to be dealt with immediately, what problems they are facing etc. at an individual as well as team level.
OKR check-ins will help you understand what’s holding teams back. You will further get the chance to push priorities that might have shifted midway.
Dig into opportunities
Organize Quarterly OKRs review meetings to dig into opportunities. During these meetings, go through each key result with your teams. Find out what went well and what needs to be done better.
Let the OKR leaders from each team present their learnings and achievements before everyone. Here teams can give a small presentation highlighting the most important lessons with context.
So that other teams can benefit from their learnings and experiences. And use them in designing their OKRs for the next quarter.
If you are a large-scale company working with multiple departments. The OKR review meetings can be held at the departmental level.
Plan the future
Now that you have gathered the data and matrix you need through OKR check-ins and OKR review meetings. It’s high time to plan for the next quarter.
OKRs have the power to build the future of your organization. But OKR failures can cost you a fortune.
Hence it’s important to find out the core reasons behind your OKR success or failure for the present quarter. And use it as context while designing OKRs for the next quarter.
[elementor-template id=”89725″]
Do you need to plan new OKRs every quarter?
“Should OKRs change every quarter?” is a question often left unanswered.
Even after an OKR is achieved, you can roll it forward for the next quarter if necessary.
For example, if your OKR was to increase customer satisfaction by 20% in the present quarter. This could be relevant even for the next few quarters.
In case, of missed OKRs, you need to take a call. And decide whether you want to carry it forward or set new OKRs based on the data gathered.
When should you review and wrap up Quarterly OKRs
You should preferably wrap up the quarterly OKRs at least a week prior to the beginning of the next quarter.
But the preparation and discussions for the next quarter should be initiated almost a month before the new quarter begins. This is because designing OKRs takes dedication, time, and effort.
Bonus Tips:
Maintain Transparency from day one. Keep data transparent so that everyone knows how it’s going.
Create a culture of critical feedback. Be honest when it comes to feedback. At the same time be open to getting feedback from your teams as well.
Celebrate wins– even the smallest ones. Recognize your teams for their achievements more often.
Over-communicate. Communication is the key when it comes to wrapping up quarterly OKRs.
Take a moment
Wrapping up end-of-quarter OKRs will allow you to pause and take a moment to think. It provides you time to reflect on your wins, failures, and setbacks. It’s a stitch in time to make sure that your OKR framework is a success.
Follow the steps given to close out quarterly OKRs and make the most out of the process.
