Use OKR Framework For Goal Setting

OKR goal setting framework
OKR goal setting framework

The OKR (Objectives and Key Results) framework is a goal-setting methodology used by organizations to align their teams and individuals with strategic objectives. Here’s an explanation of the OKR framework:

  • Objectives: Objectives are the overarching goals that define what you want to achieve. They are qualitative, aspirational, and time-bound. Objectives should be challenging, inspirational, and aligned with the organization’s mission and vision. Each objective should be clear and specific, providing direction and focus for the team or individual.

Example: Increase customer satisfaction by improving product usability and support responsiveness.

  • Key Results: Key Results are measurable outcomes that indicate progress towards the objectives. They are specific, quantitative, and time-bound targets that define what success looks like. Key Results should be ambitious yet achievable, and they should provide a way to track and evaluate progress.

Examples of Key Results: Increase the Net Promoter Score (NPS) by 10 points within six months.
Reduce average response time for customer support tickets to under one hour.

  • Alignment and Transparency: OKRs are typically set at multiple levels within an organization to ensure alignment from top to bottom. Company-level objectives are cascaded down to team-level objectives, and individual objectives are aligned with team objectives. This alignment ensures that everyone’s efforts contribute to the overall strategic direction. OKRs are often shared transparently across the organization, fostering collaboration and accountability.
  • Regular Check-Ins: OKRs are not set and forgotten. Regular check-ins, typically conducted on a quarterly basis, are essential to review progress, discuss challenges, and make adjustments as needed. These check-ins provide an opportunity to track key results, assess performance, provide support, and ensure that objectives remain relevant and aligned with the evolving business context.
  • Stretch Goals and Aspirational Targets: The OKR framework encourages setting ambitious goals that push individuals and teams beyond their comfort zones. It promotes a mindset of continuous improvement and challenges the status quo. Stretch goals inspire innovation and encourage individuals to explore creative solutions to achieve exceptional results.
  • Focus and Simplicity: The OKR framework emphasizes focus by encouraging a limited number of objectives and key results. It promotes prioritization and avoids spreading resources and attention too thin. By focusing on a few key objectives, individuals and teams can concentrate their efforts on what truly matters.

The OKR framework provides a structured approach to goal setting that promotes alignment, transparency, and accountability. It encourages a balance between ambitious goals and measurable outcomes, ensuring that progress can be tracked effectively. By using OKRs, organizations can foster a culture of continuous improvement, collaboration, and goal-driven success.

Using AI To Improve Productivity

improve productivity
be more productive

You’ve no doubt already heard a great deal about artificial intelligence (AI), some of it positive, but much of it designed to stoke fear. Sure, we should be concerned about AI being misused, and growing into something we don’t fully understand, and can’t control, but that’s not something I’m going to cover in this short article. I’m going to focus on how to make use of AI in your business and make you more productive, particularly by using ChatGPI,  which at the time of posting this article, is free to use.

So, ChatGPT can be used to improve productivity and potentially increase income. Here are some recommendations on how to leverage ChatGPT for this purpose:

Improve time management and planning: ChatGPT can assist you in optimizing your time and creating effective schedules. You can ask for advice on time management techniques, productivity tools, or strategies to prioritize tasks. ChatGPT can provide suggestions tailored to your specific needs and help you make the most of your available time.

Decision making: When faced with important decisions related to your work or business, you can use ChatGPT as a tool to brainstorm ideas, evaluate options, and explore different perspectives. Describe your situation or provide relevant details, and ChatGPT can offer insights, pros and cons, or alternative approaches to consider. However, remember to critically evaluate the responses and use your own judgment.

Skill development: ChatGPT can be a valuable resource for learning and acquiring new skills. You can seek recommendations for online courses, books, or tutorials in areas that can enhance your professional expertise or improve your business operations. ChatGPT can provide suggestions based on your interests, goals, and the specific skills you wish to develop.

Problem-solving: If you encounter challenges or obstacles in your work or business, ChatGPT can help you brainstorm solutions or provide different perspectives on how to overcome them. Explain the problem you’re facing and ask for advice or potential strategies. While ChatGPT can offer suggestions, remember to exercise critical thinking and adapt the recommendations to your unique situation.

Industry insights and trends: Stay up to date with the latest industry insights and trends by asking ChatGPT about relevant news, market research, or emerging technologies in your field. Understanding the current landscape can help you make informed decisions, identify opportunities, and stay ahead of the curve.

Networking and collaboration: ChatGPT can suggest networking strategies, platforms, or industry events that can expand your professional connections. You can also seek advice on collaboration opportunities or finding potential partners or clients. Remember to combine ChatGPT’s suggestions with your own research and judgment.

Personal finance and investment: If you have questions about personal finance, investment strategies, or managing your income, ChatGPT can offer general information and principles to consider. However, keep in mind that ChatGPT does not have real-time financial data and its responses may not be tailored to your specific financial situation. Consult with financial professionals for personalized advice.

Remember that while ChatGPT can provide useful insights and suggestions, it is always important to exercise critical thinking, validate information independently, and make informed decisions based on your unique circumstances. ChatGPT should be seen as a tool to augment your own judgment and expertise, rather than a substitute for it.

Tools And Obstacles On Your Journey From A to B

Get restuls: Productivity - focus on being productive instead of busy
Get restuls: Productivity – focus on being productive instead of busy

In a journey where you’re moving from A (your current state) to B (your desired goal), there are several tools and obstacles that you may encounter along the way. Here are some examples:

Tools:

Planning and Goal Setting: Establishing a clear plan and setting specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals can provide you with direction and guidance throughout your journey. Planning helps you outline the steps you need to take and identify the resources required to reach your goal.

Self-Discipline and Motivation: Self-discipline is essential to stay focused and committed to your journey. Motivation serves as the driving force that keeps you moving forward, even when faced with challenges. Cultivating habits and practices that enhance self-discipline and maintaining a strong sense of motivation can propel you toward your goal.

Continuous Learning: Embrace a mindset of continuous learning and personal growth. Seek out opportunities to acquire new knowledge, skills, and perspectives related to your journey. Learning from both successes and failures can equip you with valuable insights and help you adapt along the way.

Support Networks: Surround yourself with a supportive network of friends, mentors, or accountability partners. These individuals can provide guidance, encouragement, and assistance when needed. Sharing your journey with others can also provide motivation and perspective.

Obstacles:

Challenges and Setbacks: Challenges are a natural part of any journey. You may encounter obstacles, setbacks, or unexpected circumstances that make progress difficult. It’s important to anticipate and prepare for these challenges, develop resilience, and be flexible in adapting your approach when necessary.

Self-Doubt and Fear: Inner barriers such as self-doubt, fear of failure, or fear of stepping out of your comfort zone can hinder progress. Recognize these emotions and actively work on building self-confidence and challenging limiting beliefs. Cultivating a positive mindset can help you navigate through these obstacles.

Time Constraints: Limited time can be a significant obstacle when pursuing a goal. Balancing competing priorities and managing time effectively is crucial. Break down your journey into manageable tasks and allocate time accordingly. Prioritize activities that contribute directly to your goal and eliminate or delegate tasks that are less essential.

Lack of Resources: Insufficient resources, whether financial, informational, or logistical, can pose challenges. Identify the resources required to support your journey and explore creative solutions to overcome limitations. Seek out available resources, leverage technology or community support, and consider alternative approaches to achieve your goal.

External Factors: External circumstances beyond your control, such as economic conditions, societal factors, or environmental changes, can impact your journey. While you may not have control over these factors, maintaining adaptability, resilience, and a proactive mindset can help you navigate and overcome external obstacles.

It’s important to approach your journey with a mindset of perseverance, adaptability, and self-reflection. Embrace the tools available to you, proactively address obstacles, and remain committed to your goal. Remember that the journey itself can be transformative, and each step brings you closer to your desired destination

Goal Setting To Set Up A More Fulfilling Life

Get Results: which way goal setting
Get Results: which way goal setting

In life, it’s crucial to set goals that strike a delicate balance.

They shouldn’t be too effortless to achieve, for that would deprive us of the sense of accomplishment and growth.

Conversely, goals shouldn’t be overwhelmingly difficult either, as the temptation to give up would loom large.

The key lies in selecting the level of improvement that suits us best. It’s about finding the sweet spot, where our aspirations lie just beyond our current capabilities, pushing us to expand our boundaries.

Rather than striving for perfection, we should acknowledge our flaws and commit to overcoming them. This mindset can fuel a lifelong game of personal development.

Embracing the inevitable suffering of life is essential in transcending it. By taking responsibility and uncovering a purpose, we navigate the world with intention. Our potential should not be overshadowed by our current state; instead, we should focus on constant renewal and growth.

Letting go of the old and making room for the new becomes a fundamental practice.

Rejecting despotic tendencies and nihilism, we should strive to aim for love and truth, steering our actions towards an ideal that guides us in shaping a fulfilling life.

The Present Isn’t Good Enough

Get Results: move closer to your goal
Get Results: move closer to your goal

Present circumstances aren’t satisfactory. There’s better to be had, a better place to aim for, to head towards, to move in the direction of, a goal to aspire to, that’s worth the effort, that gets you out of bed in the morning, that pulls you towards it, that overcomes your self-doubts and lack of confidence, that diminishes any fears, a goal containing yet to be realised potential, a future full of opportunity, a place you want to go that’s better than where you are now. More at getresults.org.uk/tag/goal-setting/

Improving Your Planning

Get Results: from here to goal graphic
Get Results: from here to goal

As long as you know where you currently are, and where you want to go (your goal), you will be able to map out what is required to fill the gap between the two. Getting results means you have to have a plan of action to move you towards your goal.

Now many people think about this in simplistic terms. For example lets say you want to start a business online and you come up with the following plan of action;

#1 Come up with a business idea

  • Understand who the customer is
  • Create a suitable name for the business that
  • is memorable
  • Create the brand – it’s visuals and story
  • Fulfil legal requirements – register with inland revenue, regulatory bodies etc

#2 Set up website

  • Get website hosting
  • Register a suitable domain name
  • Get your website live and running

#3 Marketing business

Drive traffic from..

  • Social media channels
  • Adverts
  • Offline channels

#4 E-commerce on website to take payment

Simple isn’t it, this is a outline list of tasks that need to be done for you to get a business up and running online.

However if you think this is all you have to do and the world will be knocking down your door, you’re very much mistaken.

Each step is somewhat more complex than I’ve shown above because it’s not just about what you do, it’s about how your audience responds. If your website isn’t pressing the right buttons for visitors they are not going to take the action you want them to and buy from you.

So you may have to try different marketing channels, different  messages, different media and different offers to see what works for you. Complexity comes from things you can’t directly control or predict. There is often no one right way of doing things, and what works for one business might not for another.

Sure the vast majority of people are looking to improve their situation in some way, they are looking for growth in economic wealth, for social wealth for physical and psychological wealth. If your solution nudges them in that direction, you’re going to have a better chance than you would otherwise.

But you’ve got to communicate this benefit to your audience through your marketing messages. What you think will resonate with them, might not, so you have to test ideas, tweak, improve and test again. You also need to understand their pain points, what is going to motivate them to take action and so on. Below is table with some of this complexity factored into it.

To Do list – simple Complexity Questions that need answering
Come up with a business idea

  • Understand who the customer is
  • Create a suitable name for the business that
  • is memorable
  • Create the brand – it’s visuals and story
  • Fulfil legal requirements – register with inland revenue, regulatory bodies etc
Requirements

  • Must be a solution that will be in demand
  • There must be a market for it
  • It is a solution to a problem the prospect has

actions

  • Do market research
  • Look for proof of existing market
  • Test ideas
  • Do they have a problem I can solve?
  • Are they willing to pay for a solution I can provide?
  • Is it worth doing from my POV?
  • Where can I find prospects to find this information?
  • What is the business model?
  • Where will the solution be available (online or bricks and mortar)?
Set up website

  • Hosting
  • Domain name
Marketing business

Drive traffic from..

  • Social media channels
  • Adverts
  • Offline channels
  • Target prospects wherever they are
  • Deliver the right message at right time to the right person
  • Allow prospects to know, like and trust you
  • Encourage goodwill by providing value to prospects who aren’t ready to buy just yet
  • Engage emotionally through branding
  • Consider marketing channel choices
  • Test channels/ideas/media/messages
  • Build social proof/signals
  • What channels are prospects spending attention on?
  • How can I get their attention?
  • How can I engage with them there?
  • What type of messages will help me get known, liked and trusted?
E-commerce to take payment

You must work to improve your results through continually improving your plan of action and improving your problem solving capabilities.

It’s vitally important you factor complexity into your plan of action, it’s the one thing that is going to hold things up and stand in the way of you getting results.

This is a system focused on KNOWLEDGE and PRODUCTIVITY, it doesn’t take into account any MOTIVATIONAL elements that might be holding you back from taking the action YOU need to be taking. If you fear failure or disappointment or loss, if you fail to take responsibility, if you lack resourcefulness or self awareness, these are all motivational problem areas that need to be addressed.

Motivation is a subject in its own right and there are lots of articles throughout the site dedicated to it. Check them out here.

For more about productivity, click here.

Don’t Be THAT Kind Of Marketer

Get Results: Seth Godin quotes
Get Results: Seth Godin quotes

I recently read an article by Seth Godin about there being 2 kinds of marketing

“There’s the kind that no one can possibly like. The popups, popunders, high-pressure, track-your-private-data, scammy, spammy, interruptive, overpriced, overhyped, under-designed selfish nonsense that some people engage in.

And then there’s the kind that inspires us, delights us and brings us something we truly want.

We call them both marketing, but they couldn’t be more different.”

I completely agree with Godin’s assessment, marketers shouldn’t steal time away from or rudely interrupt people using pop ups or make them wait through adverts for the thing you promised them or for the thing they actually came for.

Give them their time back. Help people who want your help, who want what you’re selling. Be where they are looking.

If people land on your site, show your offering, have it close at hand but don’t try to beat them around the head with it. Let them know it’s there. If they are interested they’ll look, if your headline is tempting enough.

But don’t bait them with the promise of interesting content and then withhold it behind your bullshit offer. It’s wrong, your wrong and quite frankly you deserve nothing from them other than their scorn.

Don’t do it because  everyone else is doing it either. Marketing has a bad name because marketers have a habit of abusing trust and taking things too far. There will be a backlash at some point, or at least some degree of bad feeling from prospective customers, towards you and your brand. You might enjoy some limited success, in the short term, but your reputation, in the long term, will be compromised and tinged with negativity.  Don’t be that kind of marketer.

Criticizing Poor Decision Making

Get Results: Productivity requires better decision making and problem solving
Get Results: Productivity requires better decision making and problem solving

It’s easy to accuse high profile people of poor decision making, whether they are the government, local council, business leaders, or football managers. Hindsight is a great tool for scrutinising the choices of others, especially when results deviate from intentions.

But hindsight contains the full picture, where the initial decision is made on a best guess basis, relying on past experience as a pointer to future repeatability, and a great deal of hope that luck will work its magic on subsequent variables that could fall for or against a position.

Many critics comment from a position of ignorance, often unaware of the true complexity of a situation, which on the face of it seems obvious, until you dig into the detail sufficiently to actually affect change.

Most people are poor predictors of future outcomes, particularly with regards to their own circumstances. So what makes them experts in things they have less experience dealing with. People are quick to blame others, outside influences and unforeseen events for their own shortcomings when it comes to decision making, but are less willing to extend that courtesy to others.

Next time you feel the need criticise others for making a poor decision, take a pause, and think that maybe, just maybe there is more to it than meets the eye, and realise that maybe subsequent events didn’t fall favourably for the decision maker.

At least they made the decision in the first place, fear of change and uncertainty is often enough to paralyze decision making and subsequent action taking, it’s easier to play safe and do nothing. Give them some credit for trying, by doing so, you give yourself permission to take a chance and make a change through the decisions you make.

If your outcomes are not as predicted, use the power of hindsight to learn lessons about where it went wrong, so that you shorten the odds for unexpected results next time, that’s the best you can really hope for, and so it is for others.

Online Success Considerations

Get Results: online success
Get Results: online success

I’m asked quite a lot about the requirements for achieving online success, so have done a walk-through of the considerations for achieving online success, so check it out below.

I haven’t elaborated on each of the points, rather I am just trying to highlight considerations, there are other posts on this site that deal with details.

This site isn’t specifically designed around providing information about running an online business, but I have a number of articles about the subject, based on my research and own experience, which are linked to at the end of this post.

This post is designed for people who want online success, to get results with their online business, but are getting, frustrated, puzzled (why is it not working?), feel like giving up, have run out of ideas.

Let’s begin…

Goal

Let’s assume your goal is to achieve online success.

What’s needed to get there, and what is your target? Make sure you have an end goal in mind, before you begin. You can, by all means, have a number of interim goals, that get increasingly bigger, but by having an end goal you will ensure you are fully in alignment, and not deviating on your journey.

i.e. Making an online income of 10k month

Something to sell

Must first have something to sell that is in-demand by prospective customers, and either…

  • Monetise via advertising (bring audience to advertisers)
  • Monetise via sponsorships (bring audience to advertisers)
  • Monetise via selling..
    • Own products/services via…
      • Membership site
      • E-commerce site
        • including professional products or services
          • One to one coaching
          • Done for you services
          • Physical products
          • Digital products
    • Other people’s/businesses products

Traffic

Get large enough audience/traffic volume to make a living from sales/advertising revenue – bigger volume needed on tighter profit margins.

  • Produce and use content to pull prospects to sales channel
    • Allow audience to get to know you
    • Build trust, likeability
      • Add value to them
      • Offer extra help and support
      • Allow them to see you in action
  • Advertising online and offline channels
    • Point all advertising back to content and sales pages
  • Pay affiliates to drive sales
    • Influencers with big audience made up of your customer profiles
  • Get backlinks from other reputable websites
    • Guest posting on other websites and linking back to your site
    • Share graphics or unique content with other  websites with attribution link back to your site
  • Optimise website for SEO, using tags, keywords in content text, internal and external links

Problem identification

i.e. Not getting success online

  • A. Not building volume of traffic to lead pages and then sales pages
    • to social media pages
    • content pages
    • sales pages
  • B. Not enough engagement/interest in content and then products, no free sharing to help in cost of building volume either
  • C. No way of monetising or not effectively monetising off back of content

Analysis

A and B. Is the lack of traffic down to…

  • #1- Quality of content not engaging and building volume (being shared for free)?
  • #2- Not effectively marketing well enough?

#1- Producing the Quality Content

  • Is the subject matter in-demand?
    • If so, by whom?
    • Where is the attention of these people?
    • How can I best reach them?
    • What are their pains/passions/desires?
      • What are they having difficulty with?
      • Where and why are they stuck?
      • How can I help them get unstuck?

Generating content ideas

  • Go to forums, online groups, niche thought leaders and see what is being asked, and become part of that community (commenting, asking questions and adding value by giving insight) – Do this for interaction with the community (marketing) and getting content ideas
  • Check out books in the niche (Amazon) and see what is being written about (table of contents)
  • Check out magazines and publications within the niche to see what is being written about
  • Check mainstream media  to see what is being written/talked about

Is the content good enough?

  • Is it attractive?  Images, text, video
  • Is it interesting? – Valuable, useful, well presented – does it benefit the reader?
  • Am I talented/skilled enough to pull it off (writing skills, video capture/editing skills, speaking skills)
  • Is the content easily digestible (clear, interesting and valuable)?
    • Easy to navigate
    • Links to similar content
    • Well structured
    • Broken into easy to digest paragraphs
    • Good grammar
  • Does it cater for different media preferences?
    • Written,
    • Video,
    • Audio,
    • Images,
    • Graphic models
  • Is it presented from a unique perspective? Not the same as competitors

Are you credible enough?

  • Proven track record
    • Income statements
    • Past prestigious customers
    • Case studies
    • Testimonials and reviews
  • Or Documenting my journey – testing “crash test dummy”
    • Case studies
    • What I’ve done up to now and what I’ve learned
    • Testing ideas
  • Or Collating and commentating on well renown others
    • Talking about other’s ideas
    • Testing what other’s suggest

#2- effective marketing of content – look for low acquisition costs (underpriced attention)

  • Are you using social media effectively (where the prospects attention is focused) to drive traffic to content/sales pages?
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Twitter
    • Snapchat
    • Linkdin
    • Quora
    • Reddit
    • StumbleUpon
    • Google plus
    • Musica.lly app
  • Understand the psychology of these channels, the acceptable code of conduct and make sure you don’t break these.
  • Are there any other marketing channels available to target specific audience that you’re not making use of?
    • Look at niche specific publications, forums, chat groups, to see if any are being advertised, or discussed.

c. Monetising off back of content

  • Is there a service or product to sell at the bottom of your sales funnel?
  • Is the product service valuable (demanded/needed/wanted)?
    • Sell professional services/products (one to one coaching)
    • Via ecommerce or drop ship
    • Via digital media
  • Are there other methods of monetising available for this niche, that can be lucrative enough?
    • Advertising
    • Sponsorship
    • Affiliates

Not getting results

Online failure points

  • Failure to get site ranked high in SERP’s
  • Not enough traffic to website via
    • SEO
      • Optimise for onsite and offsite SEO
    • PPC or social media ads
      • Get to know and understand marketing channels on social media, particularly Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and on Google PPC
    • Backlinking
      • Link wheels
      • Ask for links
      • Make content usable for other bloggers/content creators
    • Content marketing
      • Get content seen on niche specific forums/groups
      • Get content In front of influencers who will freely promote your stuff or you can pay to do so
      • Post on – https://www.quora.com/

Get advert clicks on website

  • Make the offers enticing enough, relevant enough
  • Blend the ads to look like links to other parts of website (posters) so they click on them by accident
  • Have enough ads around content area

Convert visitor’s to subscribers or get customer’s on website

  • Incentivise visitors using content upgrades, free reports, white papers etc
  • Scarcity – make the offer limited (number/timescale)

Get more customers

  • Advertise/add value on channels where prospect attention is focused
  • or where influencers (who can increase your reach) are situated
  • incentivise referrals

For more about online business, click here.

Stop Making Bad Decisions

Get Results: How will you know if it's the right decision if you never make it?
Get Results: How will you know if it’s the right decision if you never make it?

Having a habit of making bad decisions can severely hamper the quality of your life.

Self Awareness

It can be changed by improving your self-awareness and shining a light on what is at the route of why you make your choices.

You may ask yourself “Why did I pick choice X over choice Y?”, by keep asking “why” you can dig deeper, and find the route cause of why you do what you do and don’t do what you don’t do. More about self awareness, here.

There are number of additional things to focus on when looking to improve your decision making…

Laziness

Don’t be lazy in your decision making, consider your options and weigh them against one another. Remember, doing nothing at all, is an option. Take time out to really think about all the choice open to you.

Pressured

Bad decisions can also come out of pressured situations. Important irreversible decisions should never be rushed under such circumstances.

Sales people are trained to add scarcity to their offerings in the form of limited volumes of stock or limited time availability, these are designed to encourage impulse, emotionally driven buying decisions. Don’t be fooled by this, better not to buy, than buy and have deep regret later.

Emotionally Driven

Avoid taking decisions when in a strong emotional state. Emotions can severely hamper rational decision making. Psychologically sleeping on decisions is a great strategy for allowing emotions to subside. Come back to the decision later when you can be somewhat more objective.

Summary

So, if you find you keep making bad decisions, you owe it to yourself to do something about it.

  • The first step is to improve your SELF AWARENESS
  • Don’t be LAZY. Ensure you are taking the time to evaluate all your options
  • Don’t be PRESSURED into making rash decisions. If a decision is worth taking, make sure you aren’t being rushed into it
  • Finally, avoid making decisions when in an intense emotional state, good or bad. Rationality and emotions don’t mix well. Take time out and revisit the decision when you feel you can be more objective about it.

For a more in-depth article about Decision Making click here.