Today’s business leaders should possess a significant skill that effectively aligns their team toward the common goal of the organization. This is when there is a need for OKR (Objectives and Key Results) Framework. It is quite important to know about how OKRs emerged and how the evolution of the goal-setting framework impacted the organization’s success.
OKRs were first introduced in Intel by Andy Grove, the co-founder of Intel and former CEO. His idea was simple and splendid. The OKR framework was a contributor to Intel’s success. He believed that when employees are provided with a chance to participate in the goal-setting process, they stay motivated and in turn contribute to achieving the company’s goals.
In a short period, OKR gained popularity among Silicon Valley companies.
How are objectives and key results defined at Google?
OKR (Objective and Key results) is a commonly spoken language in Google and has become a part of their work culture. OKRs are used extensively across 70,000 employees in Google even today.
OKR Framework in Google is transparent and employees can each other’s OKRs and it helps them to get aligned with the company goals. The following key factors are considered while defining OKRs in Google
- Objectives are set in such a way that they are clear, specific, and ambitious, and eliminate the feeling of risk.
- A maximum of 5 objectives per quarter with 5 key results per objective that help to achieve the collective goal within the given period.
- Google esteems “Stretch Goals” as they set their scoring standards from 0-1, scoring 1 would mean that the goal set by the employee is not ambitious enough.
- Scoring grades 7-8 (70%-80%) by achieving the set target is considered an excellent performance
- Feedback from the team members and supervisor is considered while drafting the OKRs.