No aspiring manager is oblivious to the work culture of Google. The company has become a search engine giant in just a couple of decades and have multiplied from 40 to 60,000 employees in that time span. What Google did right from the very beginning was formulating the right strategy for goal management and the company literally grew by leaps and bounds by setting themselves unrealistic goals and in fact, not achieving them. The technique is now widely taught in most top AICTE approved PGDM colleges in Delhi and currently, companies like Twitter, Shopify, and Airbnb also use it on the premises. The famed goal management technique is called OKR. And its principles are applicable not only in the business domains but in personal lives as well.

What is the OKR technique of goal management?

OKR expands into Objectives and Key Results. Where it differs from other goal and/or performance management techniques is that OKR is always measurable. The system assumes that if you cannot measure your goal or objective, it is not a goal at all and the objective is not worth following as it will misdirect you down the wrong paths.

Just like any other goal-setting approach, in OKR too, you start by setting yourself or your team a goal. Then, you follow this goal up by assigning 2 to 5 metrics or key results with which you can measure your progress in achieving the goal. At a periodic interval, you continue to measure the key results to determine the extent to which you have met that goal and continue the process until the deadline arrives.

You can also think of the key results as sub-goals of the main objective. All the key results will accumulate in such a way that in the end, their completion will lead to the achievement of the goal. So, if you have set 5 key results against your main goal and you manage to achieve all 5 during your set timespan, you will see that you have met your initial objective to an extent of 100%. However, if you manage to complete 3 out of 5, then 60% of your net objective is met.

And the most exciting feature of OKR is that the concept requires you to set an objective that is impossible to achieve. If you achieve 100% of the key results in the given deadline, then the goal was not ambitious enough. Google says that by following OKR, they allow their employees and managers to push their boundaries, without the fear of consequences, and everyone ultimately ends up giving their best in every sphere. However, you cannot overload yourself with over-ambitious goals in the process. Know your limit and keep stretching your comfort zone.

OKR in your daily personal life

The management curriculum in the best PGDM colleges in Delhi NCR is by no means free-flowing. It is kept hectic to prepare you for the corporate world and the challenges that it brings along. You can, in fact, use the OKR strategy in your daily life to ace your management training and get more things done efficiently in the least amount of time.

This is how a company might be typically applying OKR into their business:

Objective: Increase profit by 30% in the next 3 months. (Assuming the goal is difficult to achieve)

Key Results:

• Improve NPR from X to Y
• Reduce order cancellation rate from X% to Y%
• Open 5 new stores in 5 different locations
• Train 30 employees for high management jobs
• Reduce operation costs by 10%

By following this strategy, the company might be able to increase the profit to say 10-15%. That is still a win in 3 months than no profit at all.

Similarly, you can apply OKR in your daily life as a management aspirant by setting the following objectives.

• Secure X GPA in the coming trimester/semester
• Pursue A and B course by the end of this month
• Complete the entire presentation within 10 days
• Organise the alumni meet in 2 months

Each objective will have to be unachievable. And their resulting key results should be measurable. Even if you can achieve 60-70% of these objectives, your PGDM journey will surely lead to assured success.

OKR is entrepreneurial

And only the top PGDM courses in Delhi will teach and encourage you to pursue such strategies for both your personal and professional growth. EMPI, B-school, New Delhi is one such college where the PGDM programs are designed in collaboration with top firms like IBM and Manpower Group where their success strategies find their way into the curriculum. Your lessons at EMPI are application-based. You learn management skills along with theories. The corporate world naturally prefers high achievers and with such kind of training, you cannot become mediocre in any way.