How emotions pave the way to success
Once upon a time, companies were looking for a magic trick to deal with the growing complexity of management. But despite the promising magic of OKRs, expectations were not met in many places. Not because of unsuccessful application, but because of a lack of understanding of the emotional side of OKRs.
In this article, we will show you how to unleash the full emotional impact of OKRs. We want to tell you a story that will help you understand the importance of the magic of OKRs.
In a company with an annual turnover of between 300 million and 5 billion euros, there was an ambitious vision.
The managers wanted to create a place where employees enjoy performing and can express their passion.
They knew that OKRs could be the key to this magical place. The company’s leaders began to define the goal – the aspirational target rate (OKR). They dreamed of a service that would become 20 percent more efficient with a new, simple guide. They wanted to be able to resolve three quarters of all customer issues within 30 minutes.
In order to achieve this goal, they defined the key results – the key results that would gradually realize the objective:
Encreased satisfaction rate from 7 to 8.5 out of a possible 10 points,
Increase the rate of immediate solutions to inquiries from 60 to 75 percent
and reduce the average processing time from 20 to 16 minutes.
But here came the crucial point: what was good about it and what wasn’t?
Formally, the criteria of a good OKR were sufficient, but would the employees be passionate about the objective and want to do everything for it?
Emotions generally play no or only a subordinate role in management. This is simply not true, because
High-performance implementations are not a rational challenge, but an emotional one.
Managers were intent on convincing with logic and ignored the heart. But the rational level alone was not enough to give greater ambitions the necessary momentum. To unleash the full effect of the OKRs, managers had to consciously work with emotions.
Pull management, the result of trust, passion and pride, is one of the core principles of successful high-performance teams and creates burning teams.
Using the philosophy of Enterprise Progress Management became the key to unleashing this emotional magic. The tool made it possible to develop tangible images of the future and activate the associated emotions. It created a platform on which employees could fully develop their passion, ambition, pride and strengths.
OKRs became not just dry targets, but a source of pride, passion and trust in the team and in the managers.
To ensure that emotions were continuously driven, key results were tracked in monthly sprints. Progress was made transparent and successes were celebrated. Every step forward was recognized and motivated the teams to continuously give their best.
The employees began to see the targets not just as a duty, but as an opportunity to demonstrate their abilities, to be part of the whole and to be proud of what they had achieved. The company flourished and reached new heights.
This is the power of the emotional magic of OKRs according to the Enterprise Progress Management® philosophy, Beyond OKRs.
Our blog offers you valuable insights and practical tips on how you can use OKRs effectively and successfully transform your company.
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