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Hi team! Together, we find ourselves in September, still at OKR cruising altitude for the year. In August, we talked about feedback as an integral part of CFRs, which stands for Conversations, Feedback and Recognition. I hope you had a few chances to turn your 1:1s into moments for feedback in both directions.
🗓️ This week: Back to Business
For many of us, we went “back to school” in September as kids, and now the month widely signals “back to business.” It’s around this time of year that many companies begin eyeing their year-end results and may want — or need — to kick into high gear for a "fall sprint" into the fourth quarter.
The good news if you’re eying up a sprint? On average, people get more work done during autumn than any other season, so take advantage of any spare energy and make this month count.
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🚦 Grading Your Q3 OKRs
OKRs do not disappear as soon as they are achieved, and there is value in taking the time to evaluate and analyze your OKRs at the end of every quarter. In both your 1:1s and team meetings, these wrap-ups should consist of three parts: objective scoring, subjective self-assessment, and reflection.
🤔Was the goal achieved?
Scoring, or grading, OKRs, is applicable to every level of your organization. It’s how we mark what we achieved and a guide to how we might do things differently next time.
Many teams take a simple “yes” or “no” approach to grading their OKRs: Was the goal achieved: yes or no? If yes, great. If no, why not? This was Andy Grove’s preferred style at Intel.
The WhatMatters.com team adopts the Google approach, which is to score each Key Result on a scale where “0” equates to failure and “1.0” means the Objective was completely achieved. Within these metrics, we grade each individual Key Result and then take their average to score the Objective.
- 0.7 to 1.0 = green (We delivered.)
- 0.4 to 0.6 = yellow (We made progress, but fell short of completion.)
- 0.0 to 0.3 = red (We failed to make real progress.)
Lower scores should lead to a conversation with your team: Is the Objective still worth pursuing? If so, what can we change to achieve it?
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🕑 Self-Assessment
OKRs, on their own, tend to be a very black and white process, so we rely on these assessments to add color and depth to your goals. Self-assessment, at the end of an OKR cycle, provides thoughtful, subjective judgment by individuals. For any given goal, there may be extraordinary circumstances that could lead to a lower score, obscuring a strong effort or a strong score that is over-inflated.
Individuals assess themselves differently — some people will grade themselves ruthlessly; others may need to be challenged. As an alert team leader, it’s up to you to jump in and help recalibrate the scoring. It’s important to remember that the actual grades or scores are probably less important than contextual feedback found in your 1:1 meetings and broader team discussions.
The difference between your Objective scores and self-assessments will pinpoint what went right, what went wrong, and how your team might improve. And, remember, there are no judgments, only learning.
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📋 Reflection vs Grading: What’s the difference?
As Q3 comes to a close, you might be very tempted to keep up the momentum and rush straight into Q4. A word of advice — don’t. Rushing from one quarter to the next is not a wise strategy, nor will it serve you well in the long run. It’s vital to pause and reflect if you want to make better decisions and avoid repeating mistakes.
It’s not only nice to take a break to reflect between quarters, it’s critical. It’s a moment where you can look back, celebrate wins and learn from both successes and missteps. And, according to research from the Harvard Business School, “Learning from experience is more effective when complemented with reflection — that is, the intentional attempt to synthesize, abstract, and articulate the key lessons taught by experience.”
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💥 Finding Energy and Motivation for Q4 OKRs
Cascading "top-down" goals will align your team. But, over-alignment can stifle energy, creativity and individual motivation. When OKRs work really well, more than half of the Objectives and Key Results should come from people on the front line — those who are close to the problems, and close to the opportunities to understand them, and own their own goals, better.
The trick to encouraging more "bottom-up" OKRs is to limit the number of company-level OKRs to just 2 or 3. As a leadership team, you should communicate very clearly and concisely where you want to go. It is then up to your departments, teams, and individuals to share in their OKRs of how to get there.
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⚖️ Balancing Old and New in Q4
As you look ahead to your Q4 OKRs, you may have a Q3 Key Result that isn’t likely to cross the finish line. That's okay — re-evaluate it for inclusion in the next quarter. Better still, you may discover OKRs that are ready to be discarded, as they’re no longer relevant or necessary.
Finding the balance between “old” and “new” OKRs can be made easier, again, by looking to your team. In your team and 1:1 meetings, CFRs can help you uncover what’s working really well and, conversely, what really isn’t. By fostering an open dialogue and listening to what’s being said [and NOT said], you can fine-tune existing OKRs or create new ones, specific to your final quarter.
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Next month, we’ll look at how to maintain motivation for OKRs carried over into Q4. Happy grading — I hope you and your team have found an amicable rhythm with OKRs and have achieved measurable results in Q3.
Keep up the momentum.
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Looking to level up your OKR skills for Q4? Enroll in our Coursera course. Join the first ever cohort of learners, and over the course of four weeks you’ll learn directly from us how to write and use transformative OKRs within your organization. It’s the most comprehensive OKR training ever made!
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After you grade and reflect on Q3 — how did you and your team do? When you’re ready to focus on Q4, remember that language really impacts the interpretation — and even the quality — of OKRs. In this short lesson from OKRs101, Ryan talks about how to take your Key Results from good to better — so yours can be as good as they can be right away!
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