5 Reasons Why Frequent OKR Review Meetings are Important

OKR review is as important as setting the right OKRs.

Many organizations fail at OKRs. You must have heard at least one of them saying “OKRs are not meant for us”. But that’s a wrong assumption.

One of the most common reasons behind this failure is that they “set and forget” their OKRs. 

Organizations design their OKRs at different levels. And their efforts end at that. As a result, they don’t have any idea about how far their teams have progressed on their key results, what problems do they face, what needs to get changed immediately, and the list goes on.

OKRs don’t work that way. To make OKRs succeed you need to set, implement, and follow up. 

This is where comes the OKR review Meetings.

What is an OKR Review Meeting?

OKR review meetings are meetings where you discuss the OKR progress, offer feedback, recognize achievements, strategize and plan OKRs with your teams. These meetings are generally 15-40 minutes long. 

In these team OKR check-ins, your teams reflect and discuss the progress of OKRs. And set new priorities for the next day, week, month, or cycle. The OKR check-ins turn your progress into a flow. 

OKR reporting helps OKRs turn into a habit. And an unavoidable part of the company work culture.

Click here to read why manual OKR reporting is not successful

How frequent OKR review meetings should be? 

The frequency of OKR meetings should depend on your organizational needs. Based on this the OKR review meetings can be done daily, weekly, monthly, or quarterly. Thus, the answer to “How often?” will vary from company to company. 

These meetings will help you answer-

• If the goal is on track or off track?
• How much progress have your teams made? 
• Was there any obstruction?
• What went well?
• What has to be different?
• What did you learn? 
• Are there any new updates?
• What’s your next plan?

Daily OKR Review meetings will help you cardinalate daily OKR functions and find issues that need immediate attention.

Weekly OKR Review meetings will help you evaluate the progress on key results and decide on an action plan for the next week. 

Monthly OKR Review meetings help you understand the long-term effects of the OKR framework and how your teams are adopting the framework. You also get to evaluate data and assign works for the next month based on data-driven results.

You can use quarterly OKR Review meetings to re-strategize and plan your OKRs. You can use the lessons learned in this quarter to plan OKRs for the next quarter.

And the next step will be to Review, Reassess and Repeat the cycle for the next quarter.

Does it sound like a lot of meetings? 

The solution lies in finding the right OKR rhythm. A right OKR review cadence will remove the chain of pointless emails and save your time in the long run.

Why do you need to implement frequent OKR review meetings?

1To help employees laser focus on the things most important

OKRs are centered around the mission and vision of your organization. You won’t want your teams to get distracted from your vision at any point in the process. To keep your shared vision on track you need frequent communication through OKR check-ins.

Without OKR review meetings, your employees may grapple with steady progress on their goals. Frequent OKRs will help you detect any signs of trouble your teams might have and solve them at an early stage. You can provide your teams guidance on every OKR matter through these OKR check-ins.

OKR check-ins help you keep everyone on the same page. And work towards achieving the shared goals with togetherness.

2To keep employees accountable

OKR check-ins ensure transparent communication among teams. So everyone knows what the other people are working on and how far they have progressed. It also helps employees know that the completion of their goals is closely related to the teams’ OKR success.

Click here to read about 9 Benefits of OKR Software that makes it a must-have tool for hypergrowth 

Especially, Shared OKRs make teams interdependent. This makes employees take a greater sense of responsibility to perform their parts successfully. 

Researches show that people having a sense of accountability towards a commitment are 95% more likely to complete their goals.

With OKR review meetings employees are further answerable to their leaders, other team members, and teams across other departments. Thus accountability comes naturally. 

3To maintain the flexibility of the OKR framework

Rigid OKRs are hard on employees and also harmful for your OKR success. OKR review meetings maintain the agility of the OKR framework.

With changing business landscape your teams might need to change their OKRs on the way. Moreover, there is no one size fits all in implementing OKRs. So, what worked for Others might not work for you. In that case, your OKR framework needs to be flexible enough to change and evolve wherever and whenever required.

OKR Review meetings provide you the stage for evaluating what working and what’s not. So that you can reassess and make updates in your process for better growth and success of your organization.

4To keep employees engaged

OKR review meetings give an opportunity to every team member to get involved in the goal-setting process. And gain knowledge to take their goals forward strategically.

Gallup’s research shows that employees are 3.6x more likely to be engaged if they are made part of the goal-setting process.

As team and individual OKRs are set in relation to the broader organizational objectives. Each employee gets to know what role they play in the company’s overall success.

According to a Harvard Business Review article, only 16% of frontline employees clearly understand their connection with corporate priorities.

Because team OKRs are interlinked and to achieve the company goals each team has to contribute their respective parts. Moreover, the OKR review meetings bring transparency to the framework. It also creates an opportunity for frequent recognitions.

By infusing a sense of purpose among employees OKR review meetings make employees feel engaged and motivated to perform better. 

5To make OKRs stick

OKRs only bring success when they stick. According to ‘Align’ data, companies with were consistent with OKRs saw a 3.5 times increase in productivity from the first period. 

At Sears Holding Company, teams who were consistently using OKRs were 11.5% more likely to perform higher.

OKR review meetings help you notice red flags at their initial stage, identify betterment opportunities, and keep teams stuck around the framework. It helps employees become used to the new shift in the goalsetting methods. And adapt to the changes to make it part of their work-life in the long run.