Beyond the scorecard: Unlocking the power of OKR Retrospectives
Too many companies miss out on this essential step in their Objectives & Key Results (OKR) process
Chestnuts roasting on an open fire. Jack Frost nipping at my nose. It’s beginning to look a lot like… the end of the fiscal year.
It’s Board Season, and companies of all sizes, across industries and around the world, are prepping board reports: filling slides with the final status of their Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and Objectives and Key Results (OKRs). It’s intended to be a mirror of last 12 months. But is it a real reflection? How does it strengthen your organization and build momentum into the New Year?
In my experience, possibly the most important (and most overlooked!) part of a robust OKR Process is the OKR Retrospective.
OKRs are audacious outcome-focused goals intended to inspire and align the company in order to achieve a step-change. They are designed to push you past what you want to do to find out what you can do together. In the standard OKR model, if you hit 70% of the goal, you’re winning. The stretch is the point. And when you fall short (because, if you do OKRs right, you will fall short), there is always a lesson. That’s why, if you merely review the measurable results at the end of the OKR Process and move on, you miss something essential to your growth as a team and as an organization: learning.
It’s no secret that I’m on OKR evangelist. I caught the OKR bug when I worked for Cognite AS and helped to design and run the OKR process there for several years. I got to see first-hand how valuable this simple, flexible framework could be for a company that was inventing a product category, going through hypergrowth, hitting unicorn status, and pushing through a pandemic. We modified the classic Measure What Matters OKR process from quarterly to biannual, and I got to find all kinds of creative ways to make it serve our needs for organizational development and internal communication. (The Cognite Slack emoji for OKRs was my face!)
Earlier this year, I joined Lucas Weldeghebriel on the Shifter podcast for a fun, wide-ranging conversation (in English) on everything from Vision, Mission & Values to Communication as Culture. We spent a lot of time on the potential of OKRs (from to 30:15), so if you’re curious, you can listen to the episode above or on the Shifter website.
Since leaving Cognite, I’ve worked with a number of companies to introduce, update, or revitalize their OKR Processes. In my experience, possibly the most important (and most overlooked!) part of a robust OKR Process is the OKR Retrospective. This step is essential because it gives the team a chance to push past the measurement of results to the evaluation of outcomes.
The meaning of EVALUATION is the act or result of evaluating : determination of the value, nature, character, or quality of something or someone. Merriam-Webster
How to run an OKR Retro Workshop
Who: Include all team members responsible for the OKR. (And be sure to share the results of the documented workshop with any cross-team collaborators or stakeholders who could also benefit.)
What: A template-based workshop facilitated by the relevant OKR Owner(s) or the OKR Coach, if you have one.
How long? Be purpose-driven about the length. How much time do you need for an open, healthy discussion that results in team learning? (Okay, fine, a guideline: 60-90 min.)
When: At the end of the OKR Cycle. It can happen before the last day of the cycle, but you should have a pretty clear view of the final result when you gather. And it should set you up for the next round of OKR Definition.
A good OKR Retrospective brings the team together to reflect on what sits behind the result. Ask each other questions about the experience, including (but not limited to):
What went as expected?
What went wrong?
What did we achieve? (Chances the celebrate and recognize good teamwork!)
What did we realize along the way that we didn’t know 3 to 6 months ago (when we first set the OKR)?
How did we collaborate? Who should we have talked to/worked with more?
What blocked us? How could the blocker have been mitigated better or sooner?
What did we need to adjust along the way? Did we change it? Soon enough?
If we could go back in time and rewrite this OKR, how would we make it better?
✅ And most important of all: What lessons did we learn about this goal (or the setting of the goal) that we want to carry forward and apply when we set our next OKRs?
Only when we take the time to ask these questions–and document our evaluations to carry forward into the next OKR Definition round–do we reap the reward of group learning. That’s one of the superpowers of a solid OKR Process.
If you’re cranking the wheel of OKRs in your organization and failing to build the momentum you (or more senior stakeholders) want or expect, take a hard look at your OKR Retrospective step. Invest there and see what happens!