Timeinvest for your OKR Meetings

Objectives and Key Results is a goal framework.

According to Perdoos Goals Program, they suggest an easy structured meeting series that accompanies the OKR Process from

close last Goals/OKRs & start new OKRs

All-hands
1. 1. 2nd Wednesday of the quarter
    Share progress of: KPIs, Annual OKRs
    Summarize learnings for: Past quarter’s OKRs
    Present:
    Next quarter’s OKRs
    1. Session 1 quarterly: closing OKRs
    2. Session 2 quarterly (same day or next): starting OKRs
Reviewing
1. Monday update goals
  1. submit your check in (no meeting = no TI)
2. tuesday
  1. (1on1 if its a Team the TI becomes interesting on operative level) review progress KPI, Quartely OKR)

Meeting Cycle within an OKR framework

If you have already kick-off OKRs in your company, teams and employees are looking forward to have a valuable meeting structure to rely on to avoid chaotic headless chicken mode when it comes to review Key Results ,(not!) changing Initiatives one week before the quarter ends to save the day (aka Key Result) or the very (NOT!!!) beloved “preparation meeting” for the “OKR preparation meeting” to excel perfectly the “Start OKR Next Quarter” Meeting.

As we reported on our Use case by Digital Unit VWFS AG HERE which is an extremely inspired OKR meeting structure we received many questions about how to set up a meeting structure that teams can evaluate on.

As we consider perdoo as the experts regarding OKRs and love their SaaS OKR Tool (because its easy, visual and SAVES A LOT OF TIME, we backed up the following meeting structure based on their knowledge.

It only needs 4 regular meetings to keep a company smoothly running within an OKR framework.

1st meeting

Close OKRs from Last Quarter

Every participant involved in the OKR process should quickly evaluate their Return On Time Invested from 1 (bad TimeInvest) to 5 (good TimeInvest).

As participant you may reflect on various points that leads to your answer how valuable the meeting was to you

Did I receive value overall?
All necessary people had been invited?
Was I necessary to be there?
If its a huge meeting: did the facilitator handle them the right way?
Outcomes of the meeting reached?
How was the timeframe of the meeting?
Did the agenda spend value?
Was the mood productive yet respectful?

2nd meeting

Start OKRs for Next Quarter

Creating OKRs Agenda:

Identify & select priorities (Screen KPIs!)
Create Objectives
Identify Key Results
- Align with Leaders (or Teams)
Brainstorm & select Initiatives

The general meeting process could like this

Estimate the time you have to focus on OKRs based on the time you dedicate to Business as usual
Discuss KPIs: Are they healthy?
Brainstorm/collect ideas (to improve KPIs or align to Company OKRs).
Prioritize ideas. Answer questions:
- Why is this important?
- Why is this urgent?
Identify/select priorities
Write down your Objectives and take note of above questions
Identify Key Results
- Where will we see the impact?
- How will I know that I’m achieving my Objective?
- How did I know this was something I had to fix?
Identify team to work on OKR
- Lead and contributors
Brainstorm Initiatives for each OKR
- What do I need to do to achieve these results?
- Select top Initiatives
  - Which ideas will generate the biggest impact?
  - How many initiatives can I work with from now until the end of the quarter (be realistic!)
- Assign a lead per Initiative

3rd meeting

Team OKR Progress Review

This meeting will start one week after the “Start OKR for Next Quarter” meeting.

Here the evaluation within a team makes sense to reflect the upcoming weeks about

Did I receive value?
Did we keep it short?
Was everyone prepared?

Most of the time you will experience a bumpy start, less valuable meetings that will be visible through the ratings. If the team and its meeting owner work continuously on their discipline the Return On Time Invested of this weekly meeting will go up.

4th meeting

All-Hands OKR Progress Review

Try to report in a manner every participant can follow and explain why you didn´t reach a key result but for the valuable time of your colleagues, don´t defend it for 10 minutes ;-).

This meeting is an All-Hands meeting that happens every month and helps to check if the company is progressing on Objective, Key Results (most important) and their Initiatives

Possible Agenda

Discuss the progress of the Key Results and set a Status.
Report on Initiatives’ progress and commit on who will work on what.
Discuss KPIs / Health check
Discuss upcoming Initiatives and impediments

more insights on OKR Progress Review :https://www.perdoo.com/resources/bart-den-haak-explains-how-to-run-a-successful-okr-check-in/

1on1 OKR Review

There is another regular meeting that is advised by perdoo and we agree. For many companies that will also make sense to focus the 1on1 on the outcome.

A one on one could be tracked in TimeInvest but “giving anonymous feedback from all meeting participants” would be a bit strange. When it comes to a one-on-one with your boss, talk about the value of meeting face-to-face.

Note:

Of course it depends on the size of teams and company and experience how long those meeting should be.