First, find an OKR coach and trainer.

To fast-track OKRs into your company, find an OKR coach-trainer.  Why?  Because otherwise, starting from zero, you will probably have several fails, and some frustrations that may just end up with an abandoned project.

On the other hand, OKR coaches/trainers have already read the books on OKRs, dealt with OKR issues, implemented OKRs under diverse and peculiar circumstances.  You can take advantage of that experience to get your OKRs up and running quickly.

Have an introductory meeting with CEO and Executive staff

There are good reasons to have introductory meetings with CEO and other Executives to inform them that your company is considering OKRs.

• First, it is important to get buy-in from the CEO. OKRs are tied to management culture, and you need the CEO to be the chief evangelist.
• Second, introduce OKRs to GMs, VPs and other C-suite people, to keep them in the loop.  There will be less resistance when you begin considering company-wide deployment.
• Third, set expectations for what OKRs can accomplish. If you already understand the challenges in the company, it’s a good time to address how OKRs can resolve them.

That said, a good intro by an OKR expert can usually persuade others because OKR strategies just make sense and it’s hard to argue against logic.

Have an OKR Kick off meeting

After agreement to start OKRs, a kickoff meeting is needed.  This meeting should include the CEO, and selected Department Leaders or C-suite executives who have shown eagerness to try OKRs.

Identifying fundamental characteristics of the company help OKRs align and focus on important goals. These are:

• Mission – Ask the question “Why”.  Why does your company exist?  What is its purpose?
• Vision – Where does the company want to be in 1-yr, 5-yrs, 10-yrs, in relation to the Mission
• Strategies – How are you going to execute projects to achieve Mission and Vision directives.

Those items are not always immediately apparent in companies, but they are paramount to a successful OKR implementation.

Now you can start the Journey. Usually, it’s appropriate to select one or two pilot departments.

Select a Pilot Department.

It’s OK to implement OKRs across an entire company if it’s a small 5 or 6-person company.  Otherwise, you should start in increments.

Choose one or two pilot departments, whose managers are eager, amenable and open-minded.

Conduct full OKR training for Pilot Departments

This OKR Pilot Departmental training will take about 18 hours, usually 6 hours a day (3 days) – but it can be adjusted depending on the staff availability.

Training will drill down from the basics, then deeper concepts, and finally examples.  This will segway into exercises and coaching, which is the essential part of the class, where students begin to “get the feel” for OKRs.

Also see “What is OKR classes and OKR training?“.

Pilot Dept. Meetings to Prepare for the Real World

As a quarter approaches, it’s time to start preparing real-world OKRs.  The coach and team leader will meet with small groups of 3-5 to work on individual OKRs.  This might take 2-3 weeks.

At this point, we will introduce an OKR software package for them to record their OKRs and their progress.

Designate internal OKR Coaches and an OKR Master.

The OKR external coach is only a temporary ignition for OKRs in your company.  You will need to identify internal OKR coaches to deploy to the remaining functional units.

The External Coach will train the designated Coaches during the 1^st and 2^nd cycle.

Companies will sometimes designate an OKR Master. This may fall upon the CEO of a small 5-6-person company or a designated individual in larger ones.  The OKR Master is the force that keeps OKR going, makes sure OKR cadence is maintained, resolves OKR conflicts, and champions OKR culture.

Game Time – Start your first Pilot cycle

The Quarter begins, and all Pilot staff members understand their OKR responsibilities with clarity.  They should check-in to the OKR software and update their progress once per week.  The team leader and coach both monitor progress.

Weekly team meetings ensure everyone is on track, and there are no hurdles or new problems.  One-on-one meetings could happen every 2 weeks, to let introverted staff to voice feedback and get additional coaching.

End of Quarter – Introspection and Improvement

Another important aspect of OKRs is to improve with each passing quarter. At the end of the quarter, staff are asked to score their performance, using Google’s scoring system.

Google Scoring for Aspired OKRs

• 0 – Achieved goal – great!
• 7 – Satisfactory progress on aspired OKRs
• 3 – Made some progress but needs to be re-evaluated
• 0 – No progress, needs to be re-evaluated

Note that for “Committed OKRs”, anything under 1.0 is a failure and must be re-evaluated.

Finally, team leaders and staff need to determine whether to continue the OKR, abandon it, or mark as done.

Next Quarter – Try again, develop discipline and habit

It’s time to regroup for the next quarter. Staff should make significant progress on their 2^nd try at OKRs.

You should not spend more than 3 weeks at the end of the closing quarter to score the previous quarter and then prepare your next quarter OKRs.

Marketing OKR inside your company

It will be easy to let off the gas after a couple of quarters, or after the external Coach departs.  And so, the CEO and OKR Master needs to sustain the momentum and champion the OKR cause frequently.

The OKR Master will make sure OKRs are on track, in rhythm, and moving forward, by sending quarterly reminders, schedules, and words of encouragement.

Some of the internal OKR marketing will happen organically when staff start to discuss OKRs in meetings and chat.  Otherwise, it’s still proactively to intentionally market OKRs in your organization.  Together, that’s where the culture begins to take root.

Deployment to other departments.

You’ll be ready for OKR deployment to other departments when:

• Completed successful pilot-program
• Internal coaches trained
• OKR master trained and ready
• CEO is all-in with OKRs

From here it’s simply the same cycle over again.

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