Excerpt: Updating key results can be quite a boring task that you and your staff might not want to do. There can be a better way of communicating to find out the gap between desired and actual results and then making the best possible decision. In this article, we will talk about four factors that you might want to consider before making the communication.
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Consider how you want your staff to focus on results to generate better results this quarter. When you say “update your KRs,” you’re requesting an administrative task, which no one likes to do (and you certainly don’t want to whine about).
Instead of dumbing down the request to administrivia, frame it as follows: To calibrate on the gap between desired and actual outcomes so that you make the best decisions feasible. To reframe your request and re-invite your team to reach its best, consider the following four factors:
1) The team actually wants to achieve its key results
Remember that the team is invested in the outcomes that they have defined together; tap into the shared desire to do great things together and why they are important to everyone. It’s not luck that gets you results; it’s the persistent focus. As a leader, it’s your job to draw people’s attention to the correct things.
2) Everyone wants to make smart decisions this week
If you realize you have a long way to go to meet your goals on Monday, you’ll use the following five days more wisely than if you find out on Friday… or four weeks from Friday. Request that your team spends the first few days of the week focusing on the main outcomes they’re pursuing so that they can make better time management decisions. If you manage and measure slowly, you won’t grow fast.
3) Transparency is the team spot
Everyone on the team has made a genuine, valid request for transparency. Teams succeed by definition because they optimise for interdependencies and difficulties quickly and effectively. Transparency aids teams in allocating resources, communicating risks, and cooperating as a unit in a timely and efficient manner. When one individual withholds status, everyone else is forced to work with less data, which lowers the quality of their decisions and slows the entire team down. It narrows the range of alternatives available to the entire team in order for them to accomplish their best results.
4) You want to lean into the red
The most critical piece of information you’ll receive is where you’re not making progress. It’s the information you’ll need to decide where to spend your time and effort in order to achieve the best results. The sooner you are aware of the dangers, the more flexibility and time you will have to mitigate them. Without the clear red and amber signals on OKRs, you’d have to glance at everything just to discover the few items that actually need your attention… and that would squander time you should be spending driving genuine outcomes.
Don’t know still how to make this communication? Want some help in it? Get in touch with us!
