While implementing OKRs into your organization is only a starting point, the real value of the OKR goal-setting framework comes through regular OKR check-in meetings. In fact, reviewing OKRs regularly and consistently is just as important as setting them in the first place. By running OKR check-ins, you get to see how your teams’ daily tasks impact your Key Results and whether you are getting closer towards reaching your Objectives. Here’s how you can run OKR check-in meetings effectively in 5 steps along with some best practices and mistakes to avoid.

What are OKR Check-in Meetings?

An OKR meeting is a face-to-face or virtual check-in aimed to review the progress of your OKRs, share achievements, discuss the roadblocks that are hindering your team, and set priorities for the nearest future. OKR check-ins are commonly conducted weekly, bi-weekly or monthly – the frequency will depend on your organizational needs and the complexity of your Objectives.

Apart from that, OKRs should also be reviewed quarterly and annually with a wider purpose. During these OKR retrospectives you would not only reflect on how teams progressed towards achieving the long-term company goals, but also adjust your strategy in case some goals become irrelevant due to the changing circumstances, as well as set Objectives for the next quarter/ year.

In general, OKR weekly check-ins are the most crucial for an effective OKR cycle. An OKR weekly meeting would typically take between 15 minutes for smaller teams to 40 minutes for larger ones. If you’re just getting started with OKRs, you can expect your first OKR weekly check-ins to last up to one hour, though you should aim at getting these meetings shorter over time to ensure they are more straightforward, informative, and valuable for your team. No matter where you are on your OKRs journey, the rule of thumb is turning your OKR weekly check-ins into a habit.

The Benefits of Running OKR Meetings

Whether it’s an OKR monthly meeting or a weekly check-in, when conducted regularly, OKR check-ins can help in:

• Reviewing the overall progress against your Objectives
• Measuring the effectiveness of your Initiatives towards achieving your Key Results
• Identifying issues that are holding your teams back and proactively addressing them
• Aligning individual team members’ tasks around shared team Objectives
• Setting the right course of action for your team or adjusting it, if needed
• Enhancing engagement and strengthening team performance
• Encouraging peer feedback and open communication among team members
• Promoting transparency, accountability, responsibility, and better team collaboration
• Celebrating achievements and reflecting on accomplishments of your teams

How to Run OKR Weekly Check-in Meetings in 5 Steps

In a nutshell, during an OKR weekly check in you would talk about what is working well and what isn’t, where the team is struggling in the process, and what should be done next. Follow these 5 basic steps to make your OKR weekly check-in meetings efficient, focused, and meaningful.

1. Get prepared for the OKR check-in beforehand

According to research by Atlassian, 50% of all the meetings attended by employees are being considered a waste of time. The key to running your OKR check-in meetings smoothly, effectively, and productively is having a well-prepared OKR meeting agenda with an outlined OKR meeting structure that you will follow.

You can build your own OKR check-in template and share it with the team before the meeting kicks off to ensure everyone has a clear understanding of the meeting framework and what to expect. That will help you save valuable time while sticking to the most important points during the meeting. It’s also necessary to decide whether your OKR check-ins will be combined with other existing team meetings or conducted separately.

2. Review the current OKR status

OKR weekly check-in meetings usually start with discussing an OKR status report and the current state of things. At this point, you would take a closer look at each Objective and talk about the progress on the Key Results the team has made compared to the previous week while paying particular attention to the Objectives that are at risk and off track. You would also want to review the Initiatives the team was working on and see if they generated the desired Key Results. Some of the essential questions you might want to ask your team are:

• How did we progress towards the Key Results of each Objective?
• What is the current measure of each Key Result?
• What are the changes since the previous check-in?

3. Identify any challenges and roadblocks

The next critical step is identifying and addressing any challenges, risks, and roadblocks the team encountered over the last week. By having an open discussion with the team members and digging into the reasons behind the existing problems, you also get a chance to discover any potential challenges and problems before they actually arise. Once you’ve found the stumbling blocks that are impeding progress, you can collectively work out the ways to overcome them and avoid in future. For example, you might discover that your team needs better tools to complete the tasks more efficiently and accelerate the progress. Here are some of the questions to ask:

• Where has the progress slowed or stopped?
• What are the blockers that are slowing the team?
• What can be done to eliminate them?

4. Discuss key learnings and takeaways

At this step, you would discuss what the team has learned from the previous week and review the major takeaways. Reflecting on the positive findings since the last OKR weekly check-in is also a great way to keep your team members motivated, highly engaged, and enthusiastic about their achievements. That can additionally contribute to improving their morale and commitment. The following questions will help you keep the discussion on the right track:

• What are the key learnings from the past week?
• What was successful and which actions led to success?
• What can be done differently to speed up the progress and improve success?

5. Outline the next steps and set the action plan

The final step is outlining the next course of action towards achieving your Objectives based on the identified progress, roadblocks and previous learnings. You may need to rearrange the priorities and make some adjustments for better alignment and optimization of the workflow for your team. It’s important to set clear expectations and assign the action items so everyone on your team knows their responsibilities, what particular tasks they should focus on over the next week, and when they should be completed. Asking the following questions might be helpful:

• What further steps do we need to take to move forward with the progress?
• Who is doing what and how will success be measured?
• What should be accomplished by the next check-in?

Best Practices on OKR Check-ins and Mistakes to Avoid

Below are some of the best practices to pay attention to and the most common mistakes to avoid when running your OKR check-in meetings:

• Get everyone engaged: Get all the team members involved in participation of your OKR check-ins and give each member of the team an equal opportunity to freely speak up and share their thoughts, ideas, feedback or concerns. Encourage everyone to ask questions, collaborate, brainstorm, and work out the optimal course of action for the upcoming week while making the best use of everyone’s experience.

• Ensure psychological safety: A Google’s two-year study on team performance revealed the importance of having psychological safety in the workplace. For better efficiency of your OKR check-ins, ensure that your team members feel psychologically safe, meaning they can honestly express themselves and admit their mistakes without the fear of being judged or criticized.

• Moderate the discussion: For your OKR check-ins to remain relevant for everyone, moderate the discussion to ensure the conversation doesn’t go off the rails and you don’t exceed the specified timeframes. If any side discussions come up, you can ask the team members involved to hold a separate meeting so it doesn’t become overwhelming for the rest of the team.

• Take notes of the learnings: Don’t miss out on any ideas, insights or suggested workarounds by taking notes of all the key points and findings from your OKR review meeting. This way no worthy idea or valuable lesson learned will get forgotten once the meeting is over.

• Celebrate the achievements: Allocate some time to briefly acknowledge and celebrate the accomplishments the team made since the last check-in. It makes sense to point out both small and significant achievements which helps improve confidence levels and satisfaction as well as reassures the team they are on the right track towards reaching their goals even though there’s still a long way to go.

Final Thoughts

Running regular OKR check-in meetings and consistently keeping an eye on the progress towards achieving your goals is essential to ensuring your OKRs deliver maximum value to your organization and drive your business success. Conducting OKR check-ins on a weekly basis is the most efficient practice as it helps to ensure your team is aligned, effective, productive, and is moving in the right direction.

OKR weekly check-in meetings should be focused on tracking the current status of your OKRs, identifying the challenges and pitfalls the team faced, discussing the achievements and lessons learned since the previous check-in, and setting an action plan for the next week. Following a carefully prepared OKR meeting agenda and using OKR management tools like EffortBox makes it much easier to track your OKR progress and run efficient OKR check-in meetings.