OKRs for Alignment
According to the Harvard Business Review, companies with highly-aligned employees are more than twice as likely to be top performers.
Strategic Trinity
Modern-day CXOs work to strengthen the bonds between their company’s vision, mission, and objectives, or what is known as a Strategic Trinity. It is very important that a CXO’s OKRs are deeply aligned with their company’s Strategic Trinity
Vertical Alignment
In a "command and control" structured organization, goals are set at the top and handed downwards with a strict focus on goal cascading. Agility, flexibility and creativity become a casualty when strict cascading is practiced.
Modern, agile organizations encourage a healthy balance between alignment and autonomy, and between common purpose and creative latitude.
In his book "Measure What Matters", John Doerr says, "High performing teams thrive on a creative tension between top-down and bottom-up goal setting, a mix of aligned and unaligned OKRs."
Whilst 100% autonomy is utopian, a 50-50 mix of top-down and bottom-up goals help teams innovate and thrive.
Horizontal or Cross-Functional Alignment
As companies become large and intricate and projects or initiatives require complex orchestration of interdependent teams, unacknowledged dependencies remain the number one cause of project slippage. When OKRs call out cross-functional dependancies in a transparent and visible manner, troubled spots can be attacked quickly and any blockers can be addressed immediately.
By clearly defining objectives and key results, one can hold people accountable for their work. They can also measure whether or not they have met the objective. Finally, being clear about priorities allows team members to focus on doing what matters most rather than getting distracted by other tasks available at a given time.
Want to align vision, mission & strategy?
Let's discuss how OKRs can help.