OKRs and Motivation: Aligning Organizational Levels for Success
In large organizations, aligning motivation across different hierarchical levels can be challenging, especially when implementing frameworks like OKRs (Objectives and Key Results). This article explores the nuanced relationship between OKRs and motivation at various organizational levels, from C-Level Executives to Directors, Managers, and Team Members. By understanding what drives each group and tailoring the OKR process accordingly, organizations can foster a culture of collaboration, alignment, and strategic execution. Whether you’re an executive looking for top-level insights, a director focused on process reliability, a manager striving for team alignment, or a team member executing tasks, this guide provides practical insights into how OKRs can be used to motivate and engage every level of your organization.
Introduction: The Importance of Setting Clear Expectations for Team OKRs
Lately, I’ve been discussing team OKRs quite a bit. However, I’ve noticed that sometimes, participants in my Team OKR training sessions come with the wrong mindset. This isn’t their fault—it’s mine. That’s why, before diving into team OKRs, I make it a point to set clear expectations: team OKRs are not for everyone in the organization!
To be upfront, I don’t advocate for team OKRs for everyone or every level of an organization. Many other authors and OKR advocates discuss broad applications for OKRs. I, however, am very specific in recommending team OKRs only for certain teams and organizations.
Essentially, team OKRs are best suited for a group of people working, collaboratively, towards a common goal—a team that sets and executes strategies they believe will help them achieve the expected results stated in the Key Results (KRs) they write, which are aligned with the Objective they have defined for their team. Naturally, their team OKRs must align with the broader organizational goals.
But this article isn’t about team OKRs. It’s about OKRs and what motivates people. Or, to be even more specific, let’s discuss what motivates people in the context of a large organization with different hierarchical levels, particularly in businesses that manage one or more digital products. This is the context in which I have decades of practical experience.
Understanding What Motivates People in Different Organizational Roles
What motivates one person can be very different from what motivates another. Imagine a grandfather and his grandkids in a park: the sight of his grandkids playing might motivate the older person, while ice cream and colorful balloons could excite the child. In the context of a large organization, motivation is closely tied to an individual’s position in the hierarchy, their responsibilities, and their expectations.
C-Level Executives: Focusing on Metrics and Strategy
C-level executives want to see meaningful metrics about the status of their business. They are dashboard-driven and need a specific business dashboard that provides quick access to the current business status, along with insights on how this data impacts their long-term business goals and strategy.
For them, it’s all about real performance outcomes and results—numbers and graphs! They focus on top-level metrics and performance indicators that reflect the health of their business. If I had to use an acronym at this level, I would prefer KPI (Key Performance Indicator) over OKR (Objectives and Key Results). While you can adapt any model to fit your needs, I believe a solid dashboard of KPIs serves this level best.
Directors: Ensuring Process Reliability and Impact
Directors should focus on the processes that produce these results. They likely oversee teams or even teams of teams. Their primary concern is whether the process is reliable and predictable and whether the work done by the teams under their management contributes to achieving the desired business impact.
At this level, you could go either way—a dashboard with KPIs or an OKR for that business unit. However, directors often have a lingering question: Can their organization, their teams of teams, or their individual teams consistently do what needs to be done?
There are two approaches: 1) Top-down, where they define the objectives and cascade them down to their teams, or 2) Team OKRs, where they set the direction and desired business impact, then empower, collaborate, and align with their teams as they set their own OKRs.
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I prefer the second approach, but I’ve seen many organizations default to the first. The issue is that while many organizations aim to be highly collaborative with modern leadership, they often resort to the top-down method due to a lack of skills in cultivating a truly collaborative culture.
Managers: Driving Results and Team Alignment
Managers should focus on delivering results. They are closer to the action—in fact, they’re on the battlefield, working alongside their teams to ensure alignment and productivity. Their concerns are: Is my team working on the right things? Are we making progress toward the business impact? Is my team prioritizing correctly, focusing on what matters most to my boss and their boss?
Managers should be strong advocates for team OKRs. They should foster a team with a common goal; otherwise, it isn’t really a team, and they risk becoming mere managers of output rather than leaders of a team with a unified purpose, towards achieving great outcome. Good managers are deeply invested in aligning their team objectives to ensure they are moving in the direction of higher-level objectives or expectations. They also want their team members to think critically and commit to defining achievable key results that demonstrate progress toward their objectives.
Good managers do not like cascading directives down to their teams. Instead, they would much rather work collaboratively with their team, other managers, and higher levels to ensure alignment. The appreciation they receive from their team is vastly different when they work together towards an outcome, co-creating the path forward, rather than simply pushing tasks onto them.
Team Members: Executing Tasks with Strategic Alignment
Team Members are the multifunctional individuals who come together in a team to accomplish specific tasks. They understand business jargon, the importance of business impact, and long-term goals, but their primary focus is on the here and now. They excel at executing tasks and activities. However, they feel motivated and valued when their work is recognized and aligned with strategic objectives, outcomes, and significant business impact.
These are the people who love being invited to a team OKR session. They feel heard, and when provided with the right information, they understand the connection between the Key Results they define for their team and the higher-level outcomes and expected impact.
Defining and Refining Team OKRs: Flexibility and Focus
Some of these teams will define excellent team OKRs that clearly state short-term objectives (specific to their team) with strong KRs that demonstrate progress toward achieving the desired outcome. After setting great OKRs, these teams will often need another session—a brainstorming session or a Lean Inception, depending on the complexity of the expected outcome—to plan an initial roadmap or list of activities to work on.
However, some teams might define OKRs that are more like an objective coupled with a list of activities they believe will help them achieve that objective. I prefer the scenario described in the previous paragraph because it gives the team more flexibility. The objective remains the same, but if the list of activities or tasks doesn’t achieve it, the team knows they need to try something else—there’s no need to change the OKR. The KR remains constant; it’s the activities that need to be adjusted to reach the goal.
Conclusion: Tailoring OKRs to Fit Different Levels of Your Organization
Be careful about the level of detail you provide to different people. I do not advocate team OKRs for everyone. They are incredibly powerful at the team level and can make life much easier for directors and managers by fostering collaboration rather than enforcing a top-down approach.
I’m also not a big fan of using OKRs for everything. A well-balanced dashboard might do the job for the C-level executives, but that’s a topic for another article.
This short article highlighted four levels to illustrate the conversation about OKRs and what motivates people. My insights come from working with OKRs for a decade. Even though I used jargon like OKR, KPI, and team OKR in this article, you can achieve the same outcomes without it. The most important takeaway is understanding that different people have different motivations, and you must adapt what you discuss or present at each level. Beware of “magic solutions” or “one-size-fits-all” approaches—they simply do not work!
I have spent years helping organizations achieve collaborative success through Team OKRs, guiding them to genuinely improve by aligning results and fostering true collaboration. If you’re interested in exploring how this approach can benefit your specific scenario, please feel free to reach out—I’d love to discuss how we can work together to drive meaningful results.