Want to Avoid the Next Meeting Trap? Do it the OKR Way

In the US alone, around 55 million meetings are held each week¹. Today, due to the rise in the remote working culture, numbers have increased by about 10%², leading to three more weekly meetings per employee. These stats look startling, don’t they? We know time is a non-renewable, valuable resource, and still, we continue to waste so much of our precious time daily. In the first place, we have nothing against meetings, but having too many of them kills productivity.

Meetings or zoom meetings alone can’t propel business resilience and results. It’s high time we rethink our meeting strategy. How?

The 4 As of All Action, Less Talk

Asynchronous

ASK: Do I need to have a meeting for petty issues?

Even when individuals and teams are not working at the same place, they must reliably see and share task status, facts, and challenges with one another. That doesn’t need them to meet now and then. In other words, across the organization, data should be accessible from a place where everyone can self-serve it efficiently and fast. Who doesn’t want to move forward at his own pace and in the time “now”? What if there is a tool that enables alignment amongst teams and departments in an organization?

An OKR tool, like Unlock:OKR, enables employees to see what their peers and leaders are up to. Leaders may also check if their reports are moving in the right direction while tracking their progress. Transparency is one of the best features of OKR software.

Autonomous

ASK: Do your employees feel dependent?

Most of us want to decide independently, without asking others for their opinion or permission. After all, who doesn’t want some liberty in the workplace? Your employees should do meaningful work independently. Set up your employees for autonomy. Task, information, and the ability to progress independently are vital to the well-being of your employees and the company.

In this context, an OKR framework helps individuals and teams set their objectives and key results. They set aspirational goals and try to achieve the sweet spot for their OKRs. Being clear on their goals, individuals and teams are focused and well-aligned to achieve the overarching organizational goals. As your employees use the OKR tool, they develop a sense of accountability, updating progress on their key results. Their confidence grows, and they don’t need to conduct Microsoft Teams meetings often.

Automated

ASK: Do you find it challenging to monitor?

The remote working model is here to stay! This means, at times, leaders may realize to have much visibility and control. Mid-level and front-line managers must have weekly status reports in place. But, calling them for a Google meet and status reporting now and then makes your and their life quite difficult. Your reports, of course, don’t want to be micro-managed. Besides, in a work-from-home model, you don’t intend to complicate the lives of your employees anymore.

Employing an OKR framework resolves the challenge of monitoring your employees’ progress on tasks. Through the “Weekly Check-ins” feature of the OKR tool, like Unlock:OKR, leaders can find out what their report could accomplish, learnings, challenges, and roadblocks. The simple and intuitive dashboard of the tool makes it clear to managers and leaders how individuals and teams are doing on their goals and how confident they are of accomplishing them. High, medium, and low confidence levels clarify the chances of reaching targets.

Accelerated

ASK: Do you find it hard to respond to the dynamic business environment?

Leaders often find it difficult to cope up with the changes a business might face due to an ever-changing business environment. When your employees work remotely, it can be even more challenging to speed up your operational response. Iterate on strategic priorities and align them faster. As soon as you get risk data and results, you must act; for that, you must not necessarily meet.

Adopting and implementing OKR methodology aids organizations in engaging effectively in strategic planning and execution. Your organization thus focuses on what is of utmost importance and is well-aligned. People across the board work in unison, gain the right rhythm at the time of execution, and ensure the right collaboration and communication to deliver fast results. Organizations undergoing OKR implementation have gained four superpowers, helping them execute better than before. The four superpowers constitute the OKR success framework.

Are you meeting to meet?

“The more, the merrier,” saying does not go well with everything. More daily work meetings may affect your organization’s efficiency. The situation worsens in a remote working model. As you rethink your meeting strategy and follow these 4 As, you gain more ability to focus and follow through. Most importantly, Unlock:OKR tool enables you to avoid the meeting trap through its features, such as an intuitive dashboard, weekly check-ins, reports, the ability to set aspirational goals, and much more.

1. 28 Incredible Meeting Statistics [2022]: Virtual, Zoom, In-Person Meetings And Productivity – Zippia

2. https://otter.ai/blog/meeting-statistics