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With over 30 years’ experience of coaching CEO’s, Founders and Managing Directors, we have developed a strategic advisor function facilitate through OKRS.
We can sum up what we do in a simple sentence: “facilitating authentic conversations about how well you are executing your strategy and understanding how it can be honed to ensure better execution.”
The OKR Framework greatly assists us in this work. OKR stands for Objectives and Key Results and is a powerful system for aligning teams cross-functionally, ensuring each department’s work achieves the right outcomes. The OKR process is fast becoming the paradigm for success across a broad range of industries. H-Strategy has driven successful implementation across Digital Marketing, iGaming, Retail, Pharma, Manufacturing and hopes to introduce it to public sector clients going forward.
OKRs represent Objectives & Key Results. Developed by Andy Gove at Intel and subsequently implemented by John Doerr at Google; the OKR process has since gone viral with the publication of Doerr’s seminal book Measure What Matters in 2019. While OKRs are now standard in the US across tech, retail, FMCG, startups and more recently the Public and Civil Service, they are less well known in Ireland.
There is a clear challenge in mid to C-level executives maintaining focus and ensuring their teams are aligned to the primary objectives of the business. Having worked in many of these fast-paced environments for over 30 years, we understand what is required to strip away the jargon and get down to the heart of what will make you successful. The key benefit of OKRs as H-Suite sees it is simplicity.
OKRs measure outcome and not tasks. By challenging teams to reflect on the end goal it is possible to identify the steps to getting there. Fundamentally, the ‘Objective’ is your high-level ambition for your business and the ‘Key Results’ are the 3-5 measurable results that will bring you there.
The key beneficiary of a complicated strategy is the consultant hired to write it. It is our experience that those who do understand it, often do so in isolation and don’t have the time or bandwidth to explain it to people involved operationally. This can lead to mistrust and a sense of isolation at the top of the businesses. OKRs are three things: Simple, Transparent and Aspirational
They seek to engage the entire business or business unit to row in behind the OKRs formulated by the company’s leader. As such, everyone is clear on their contribution to the goal and what ultimate success looks like. As OKRs have become increasingly consultant led, organizations are finding that the methodology behind monitoring the OKRs is just as important as the OKRs themselves. Most people find the planning stage fun and inspiring, seeing the long-terms goals as exciting. But where organisations can separate themselves from their competitors is by their diligence in monitoring progress against agreed outcomes.
H–Strategy & OKRs have developed robust processes to support organisations in honing their focus and assigning responsibility across teams. This process starts with senior management, the CEO or MD and explores his or her own goals, assessing how OKRs may have an impact. From this point, we meet with the rest of the senior management team and explore their perspectives on the existing organisational strategy. H-Strategy report on themes emerging from initial engagement and conduct initial training workshops. The team begin facilitating the drafting of the MD or CEO’s OKRs, subsequently coordinating OKR formulation across each department, in conjunction with their teams and guided by the primary OKRs.
Once completed the project pivots to a 6-month coaching cycle where we work to understand each teams challenges and ensure they stick to the agree process in partnership with OKR Champions throughout the business
