Workshop Exercises: Goals

Objectives and Key Results

Formulate clear goals and what you expect to accomplish to get there

Illustration of Objectives and Key Results
Run a Objectives and Key Results play

Why: Enable teams to clarify their purpose, prioritize efforts, and track measurable progress towards achieving their goals

When: Use to set goals, track progress, and drive success for a project, initiative, or team

Instructions for running this play

Before the meeting, give relevant employees a 24 hour window to submit proposals for next quarter’s Objective: an qualitative and aspirational end-state. Keep the workshop small – to a maximum of 10 participants.

  1. Summarize the key results from last quarter to establish a baseline of where you are starting from.
  2. Put each proposed Objective on a sticky note and place them on a large surface.
    Example objective: Create the most useful workshop planning tool
  3. Do Affinity Mapping to find duplicates and discover themes.
  4. Debate the results with senior stakeholders and decision makers. Do Blind Voting to determine the primary objective or let decision makers do a href=”/plays/workshop-exercise/stack-ranking”>Stack Ranking</a>.
  5. Do a Silent Storming session Timeboxed for 10 minutes on possible metrics influencing the chosen Objective. Stack Rank the metrics.
  6. Turn your top 3 metrics into Key Results.
    Example Key Results: X proof-readers, Net Promoter Score above X, X sold card decks per month
  7. Take 5 minutes to discuss the final OKR set.
    1. Is the objective aspirational and inspirational?
    2. Do the KRs make sense?
    3. Are they hard?
    4. Can you live with this for a full quarter?

Tips to perfect this play

Master and adapt the play to fit your context and needs.

Tip: Involve all levels

The more you involve people on every level, the more impact you will have.

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A collection of workshop exercises that will help you ditch dull meetings and facilitate with confidence. It will help you master the design process and have more productive time with your team. The card deck will be ready for purchase in the end of 2025 and is now undergoing rigorous testing.

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