OKR CONSULTING

You want support with the OKR introduction and OKR application. We support you individually and pragmatically. We show you the basic options for using the OKR method as well as recommendations for best practices. Feel free to contact us for a non-binding offer or an introductory meeting with OKR Coach Jörn Steinz. We offer our OKR consulting and coaching in-house, online and in German and English. We look forward to hearing from you!

Save yourself a lot of time, nerves and money!

At first glance, OKRs sound seductively simple to achieve great progress with your company and your teams. But OKR is not a miracle cure either, and it requires a common understanding, clear processes and framework conditions for OKR to unfold its effect. With our OKR consulting, we work with you to create the best conditions for the successful use of OKR in your company. Learn more!

OKR Consulting Services & Benefits

The introduction of OKR is always a change management process. In order for OKR to be accepted in your company, your team should have a clear idea of the benefits OKR can bring to the company and to each team member. With our OKR coaching we accompany you according to your needs with proven best practices. Innomind’s founder Joern Steinz is available to you as an OKR consultant. He has many years of experience in the use of agile methods in different industries, projects and companies.

In our experience, the introduction of OKR is most successful when specialists and managers have a clear, common understanding of the chosen OKR approach, have methodological confidence in the application of the method and the benefits can be experienced quickly. We achieve these prerequisites with the following services:

Joern Steinz (MBA)

OKR consultant, joern@innominds.de

Shared OKR understanding

Not all OKR guidelines are the same. Don’t leave your employees to read dozens of different interpretations via Google. With our OKR consulting we create a uniform understanding and a common language for the use of OKR in your company.

OKR determination & selection

The most important success factor for OKRs is deciding which OKRs you want to pursue. With a proven process, clear questions and criteria, we support you in systematically identifying the most important OKRs.
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OKR formulation

Many teams often spend hours formulating OKRs. With our OKR consulting you can avoid wasting time, frustration and discussions. With the help of questions, templates and examples, we show you how to always describe objectives and key results in a concise and motivating way.

A recipe that you can design according to your preferences.

When learning to cook, a recipe helps to make dishes more confident. The more experience you gain in cooking, the freer you become in choosing ingredients and seasoning. It is the same with OKR. With our OKR consulting, we offer you a proven recipe with which you can introduce OKR. If you wish, we can also accompany you beyond the OKR introduction in order to adapt and shape the OKR method according to your individual circumstances and preferences.

About the OKR method

OKRs is a popular management method originating in Silicon Valley that is now also being increasingly used in Germany in a wide range of sectors and companies, from start-ups to DAX-listed corporations. The Handelsblatt even calls OKRs the wonder weapon of modern management. OKRs provide a framework and create a mindset for agile working and effective teams. This enables companies to use their scarce resources for the most important issues in a constantly changing world. The OKR system is easy to understand and apply.

The OKR method was developed as early as the 1970s by Andy Grove (one of the Intel founders) and became a success factor in many Silicon Valley companies such as Google and LinkedIn. For Grove, a successful management system had to answer only two fundamental questions:

  • Where do I want to go?
  • How will I pace (measure) myself to see if I am getting there?

It was important to Grove that teams should focus on a maximum of 5 themes in a period of time so that these themes can be successfully pursued. “We must realise and act on the realisation that if we try to focus on everything, we focus on nothing.”

This does not mean that teams only work on the issues defined in the OKRs. But OKRs are the most important things of a period and are therefore pursued first.

What are OKRs?

OKRs stand for Objectives and Key Results. They are a tool to link the goals of teams and employees with the strategy of the company. This creates a common understanding across the company about the most important issues, a common direction, language and focus on the implementation of the corporate strategy. OKRs are usually set quarterly at the divisional and team level. Through these short 3-month cycles, OKRs enable organisations to respond quickly to opportunities and risks from change and learn quickly what works and what does not.

Objectives

An objective briefly and succinctly describes a qualitative goal. It answers the question according to Andy Grove: “Where do we want to go? Teams set themselves 1 to a maximum of 5 objectives per quarter. The goal should be achievable in one quarter. Example “We successfully publish a new website for team workshops.” (In English, it is a little easier to formulate Objectives as they usually start with a verb, e.g. “Publish new website for team workshops sucessfully.”)

Key Results

A key result is a quantitative statement that describes the achievement of an objective. Key Results therefore always contain a number and answer Grove’s question “How will we measure if we have achieved our objective?” Each objective can be measured with a maximum of 4 key results. The final evaluation of the Key Results takes place at the end of the period (quarter). The emphasis in KR is on key – what are really the results that give an indication of whether the objective has been achieved? In other words – what are the critical drivers of success that you want to measure to attest to progress for your particular Objective?

Examples:

  • We receive 100 enquiries from website visitors about our training offers.
  • 300 website visitors sign up to our newsletter.
  • Website visitors can choose between 3 workshop formats.

With regard to the values for the Key Results, make sure that they are ambitious (stretch goals). This should inspire teams and employees to think about alternative ways to achieve the goals. Andy Grove put it as follows: Even if individuals strrech hard, they should only have a 50-50 chance of making them. This is not about putting more pressure on teams and employees. Rather, this approach reflects the American philosophy “Reach for the moon and you might reach the stars”. A target achievement of 60 to 70 per cent of KRs is considered good.

The OKR context and breaking down OKR.

OKRs are based on the annual targets of the company or business unit. The simple question that the top management of each business unit asks itself every 3 months is: How can we use our resources in the next three months to make the most progress towards our annual goals? These so-called Company OKRs are the starting point for subsequent levels. Each team asks itself, “what can we do to support the Company OKR at team level?” In addition, in some teams, such as sales, OKRs can also be set at staff level.

OKR Advantages

  • OKRs create a corporate culture of execution and learning
  • .

  • Focus on the most important issues
  • Results-oriented thinking
  • Transparent reporting

About the author and OKR Coaching.

On your journey to implement OKRs, OKR Coach Jörn Steinz (MBA) is available to accompany you in terms of remuneration. He is the founder and managing director of the Hamburg-based innovation consultancy Innominds and offers you a guided process for identifying and formulating effective OKRs. This will help you to overcome typical challenges in OKR implementation. To begin, OKRs are first captured in an Excel online template as a digital home.

The history of OKRs in a nutshell.

  • 1971: Andy Grove, one of the founders of Intel develops the OKR system based on Peter Drucker’s Management at Objectives philosophy. For Grove, the biggest benefit in OKRs was the focus on a few key Objectives. In a lecture he put it as follows: “Here as elsewhere, we fall victim to our inability to say “no” – in this case, to too many objectives.”
  • 1999: John Doerr, former employee of Andy Grove and now partner in the venture investment firm KPCP invests in Google and wins the Google founders to use OKR as a management system.
  • 2013: Google executive Rick Klau publishes an OKR workshop video on YouTube that describes the OKR method in detail.
  • 2018: John Doerr publishes the book “Measure What Matters”
  • .

Conclusion.

The ultimate goal of OKRs is to increase organisational performance by continuously working on the most important issues.

OKRs are therefore the issues in each team that are promised to be pursued with first priority in the quarter. Each team has other tasks and “day-to-day business”, of course, but each team should ask itself daily what it can do to advance its KR values.

What distinguishes our OKR consulting?

As OKR consultancy, we are competent and pragmatic, but not dogmatic. For us, OKRs are not a worldview, but a tool. Therefore, we do not ask you to throw anything overboard that works well. Instead, we help you adapt and integrate the OKR system for your situation so that the system is reinforcing.

Essentially, our OKR coaching differs from other providers in 5 areas:

First, for us, formulating a “Purpose” is not a prerequisite for implementing OKRs. For us, the purpose of a company can also be, freely according to Milton Friedman, the pursuit of profit. After all, a healthy company pays taxes and thus the democratically elected state can decide on the best use of resources.

Secondly, we also introduce OKRs for individual team and company divisions. This means that OKRs do not have to be artificially introduced in departments for which it often makes little sense (support, finance, logistics, project management, manufacturing…).

Thirdly, we show you a “light weight” process, with a minimum of workshops and meetings, so that you can devote more time to your work instead of talking about it a lot.  In other words, we try to achieve success on a small scale first, and then get other parts of the company excited about OKRs.

Fourth, we put OKRs in the context of other Agile methods, such as Design Thinking, Lean Startup.

Fifth, we are entrepreneurs and founders ourselves and therefore speak from our own experience.

Our OKR training is the perfect support for applying OKRs in everyday life. We give you a comprehensive understanding of the OKR method, develop company, team and personal goals with you. In addition, we show you best practices for implementing the OKR cycle in your company. Our OKR coaching is aimed at founders, managing directors and executives of companies and organisations.

CONTACT

Please prefer to send us an email for your OKR consulting enquiry. We will get back to you within 24 hours at the latest. Previous experience is not necessary. We look forward to coaching with you!

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