There are many factors and methods that ensure success in an organization. We are aware of the importance of KPIs to achieve goals, but KPIs alone are not enough on the road to success! It is necessary to take advantage of OKRs for development. So what is OKR?
The objectives that will enable us to realize the mission and vision of our company and the key business results that will bring these objectives to life can form the definition of "Objective Key Results", that is OKR. When we look at the history of OKR, we can go back to the 1950s. Management by Objectives, defined as the corporate performance management method in the 1950s by Peter Drucker, who is considered the best management consultant in the world, is the starting point of OKR.
Intel is the first company to use OKR by defining it as it is known, and Google is the famous one. Since 2006, Google has been managing the internal change and development processes with OKR. The issue we need to highlight here is the difference between OKR and KPI – Key Performance Indicator. We operate our companies based on the ideal that all business processes in an organization can be monitored and measured. Therefore, all business processes have many process indicators. One or two of these process indicators are key indicators.
Of course, there are many generally accepted KPI sets in the world, and we can reach hundreds of KPIs through different channels and see if they can be used. But this is not the case for OKRs. Because OKRs are not built to keep track of all the jobs in a company. OKRs are structured for subjects that are desired to change and improve in an organization. Of course, some KPIs can turn into OKRs within the framework of the organization's development and change strategies. In other words, the path of KPIs and OKRs may cross.
In summary, the difference between KPI and OKR is that KPIs are used as a business tracking tool while OKRs are used for change and improvement.