High Effort? No Outcomes? Here Is How OKRs Software Can Help.

The truth of the matter is that companies have spent thousands of dollars and put in enormous amounts of time and effort in trying to figure out growth, PMF, growth, and most importantly deciphering the relationship between efforts and outcomes to answer the key question of why they have not attained any kind of success they desire. The obstacle lies in the fact that in this digital age, we have lost the art of goal-setting and have instead replaced it with relatively vague goals such as “Make things better.”

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You and your team are working hard but still not seeing the right results. You feel like no matter how hard you work, it just doesn't translate into outcomes. Wouldn't it be great if there were a solution?

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This article is all about getting s**t done with specific actionable tips.

Prevent Procrastination of Top OKRs

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If you're like most companies, you have a list of OKRs for your top staff. Each quarter, you review their progress on the goals and make decisions on what your team should do next. The problem is that a lot of people procrastinate on their tasks and don't start them until it's already late in the quarter. Procrastination can cause unnecessary stress and anxiety, and it will ultimately get in the way of getting the results that you need to achieve your OKRs.

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Ruthlessly Prioritize, Prioritize, Prioritize on Most Impactful KRs

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I'm sure you're all familiar with the infamous Eisenhower matrix — more commonly known as the Eisenhower Decision Matrix — which is used to help us better prioritize our tasks. The matrix places tasks into 4 categories: If the task is important and urgent, it can be done immediately.  If it is important and not urgent, then schedule the time to complete the task. If it's urgent but not important, then tell someone to drop everything and handle this first (AKA delegating). Finally, if neither of the first three applies, then don't worry about it.

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I believe that this is important to do because it helps you spend the majority of your time doing the things that matter most. When you are trying to get things done quickly and efficiently, this is your way of ensuring that you aren't wasting any unnecessary time on non-impactful tasks. Fitbots OKRs software is all about teams being able to see the bigger picture and focus on top options for prioritization, with the ability to weigh the pros and cons of each to make an impact.

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Teams Caving to Fear of Failure 

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Teams are caving to the fear of failure, and it is killing their creativity and power of execution. I believe Winston Churchill said it first, but I am paraphrasing and putting my own twist on the quote, “Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.” If a team has this failure mentality, then they will not be able to think outside the box nor provide new ideas to succeed. Spotting this early is the key to success.

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Overcomplicating Execution | Asking for Help When It's Too Late

Do you know why most new ventures fail? It's because they overcomplicate the execution. Don't ask me why, it's probably some kind of Murphy's Law thing. But I'm now seeing this happen more and more as I work with remote teams – they all have these great ideas. They've spent 3 months or more mind-mapping and planning. They figure they've covered every detail, but then they launch and it just doesn't take off.  The worst of all is when executing the plan teams cry for help when it's already too late. 

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With Fitbots OKRs software, we provide various visuals and promoters as indicators for leaders to interject and provide help even before teams ask for it. When teams succeed, the organizations succeed.

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Not Knowing the Right Balance Between Agile and Focused (Rigid)

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When it comes to getting stuff done, I'm a big fan of the agile methodology. It's low-hassle and you can breeze through your to-dos at an unbelievable pace. But, sometimes it just doesn't work. Knowing when to be rigid and focus like a madman is extremely important in order to get things done. For example, your boss or manager tells you to knock out this feature ASAP. You need it by Monday with a shiny bow on top. Whatever you do, don't turn into Mr. Hyde (from the movie Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde).

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The challenge of knowing if you should focus on the established process or do things to make any process change is difficult. You want to get things done, and you hate having an internal conflict. The truth is, it's okay to focus on one thing first. There are times when the answer is rigidly no, but there are also times when it could be yes. OKRs are the art of self-exploration for the teams on learning when and how to be flexible and when both agile and rigidity can be useful.

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Conclusion 

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 "To achieve success, originality is the key, you must always be the first one to introduce change in the industry." –  Lionel Messi

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To replicate your success, you need to be the best at all things but certain factors such as perseverance, hard work, common OKRs, and action orientation can certainly make a big difference. 

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At Fitbots OKRs we help organizations unleash their superpower by helping teams track OKRs, predict outcomes, and course-correct some of these tips e.g. shared OKRs, Focus OKRs are built-in making it easy to implement and scale OKRs.

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Want to know more about how OKRs can help? Click here to book a demo.

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About The Author

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Kashi is the Co-founder and CTO of Fitbots. Kashi has coached over 700+ teams on OKRs with the focus on helping founders and teams achieve more with OKRs. His niche focuses on the future of work by bringing technology to life.

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