Book Buzz

REVIEW BY JOANI & CLIFF MASKELL

SWIMMING SAFARI SWIM SCHOOL

OKRS, KPIS, ETFS, IRAS, AND ROIS!

What do all these letters stand for and how do you interpret them?

These letters are just acronyms that we are supposed to remember about business and finance, similar to how physicians and drug companies like to use unpronounceable names like Talimogene and Laherparepvec. Unfortunately, we can’t change the naming conventions but for us in the swim world, if you have never heard of OKRs, this is the one you should consider understanding!

John Doerr wrote a book called “Measure What Matters” which he tries to explain OKRs and how they can be used in your business. He also has two free websites that provide both an interview https://www.measurewahtmatters.com with Doerr and a free course https://www.whatmatters.com on OKRs. The interview is about 30 minutes long and the course takes a couple of hours if you take notes. (Both are highly recommended!)

Like updating your company’s website, all companies must keep updating their processes to stay relevant. Of the 500 companies in the 1952 Fortune 500 list, only 52 of these companies still exist, in their same form in 2019. The service industry has gone through even more changes and closures since Covid started.

Doerr’s book talks about how his background at Intel and Sun Micosystems, led him to realize the benefit of making goals and measuring them. He was an initial investor as well as on the board at Google. Doerr’s advice to Google’s founders, Sergery Brin and Larry Page, was to use OKRs. Google implemented OKRs at the very start of the company’s existence and they are still being used at Google today. To show his gratitude toward John Doerr, Larry Page wrote the “Forward” to “Measure What Matters” and describes his understanding of how Google presently uses OKRs and how he embraces this book, saying he wished he had read this book 20 years ago.

THE OKR SYSTEM

OKRs is a robust goal setting and tracking system. OKRs help bring the team together and help give focus on what matters most for the business. Setting goals, by using OKRs, increases employee commitment and the “buy-in” that companies want for their team. It’s easy to recognize the names of some of the companies that have adopted the OKR system. They include Airbnb, LinkedIn, Dropbox, Spotify, Netflix, Amazon, Facebook, Gap, Lear, Deloitte, and Adobe.

WHAT IS AN OKR?

OKR is a simple yet powerful tool for companies to stay focused on what truly matters while keeping the team aligned to gain maximize results and surpass on performance. OKRs are typically written with an “Objective” at the top and 3 to 5 supporting “Key Results” below it. They can also be written as a statement: An OKR is an OBJECTIVE, simply put, it is the “WHAT” that is to be achieved. These objectives should be significant, concrete, action oriented, and (hopefully) inspirational. KEY RESULTS are the HOW we get to the objective. Successful Key Results are measurable and verifiable. They are the benchmarks you can measure that track your progress toward the Objective. Here are two simple examples of what an OKR is:

Example OKR #1

OBJECTIVE: Please our customers

KEY RESULTS: 1. Collect feedback from 20 customers/month 2. Boost customer retention to 97% 3. Maintain NPS of 9. (NPS measures the loyalty of customers to a company. NPS scores are measured with a single-question survey and reported with a number from the range 0-10.)

Example OKR #2

OBJECTIVE: Run a 10K in under 50 minutes by June.

KEY RESULTS: 1. Go for a run 3x/week for at least 30 minutes. 2. Increase distance of run by 1 mile every week. 3. Increase mile speed by 5 seconds every week.

What is the difference between OKRs and KPIs?

OKR is the acronym for Objective and Key Results—more specifically, an objective is tied to key results. OKR is a strategic framework, whereas KPIs are measurements that exist within a framework. Think of our first example,” Please our customers.” This touches the whole company and will make everyone work on stretching themselves. The three Key Results will show whether the objective has been met or not. OKRs have more of a “soul” and “directionality” to them, says a writer from the website whatmatters.com.

KPI’s are measurable and specific. They are measured on an on-going basis. KPIs track the operations of your business. Example of a KPI (Key Performance Indicators): We want to have ______ number of customers by ______.

How to get there: 1. Facebook ads - We want to have ______number ads by ______. 2. Initiate a program for referring customers - We want to have ______a program by _________. 3. Sales Training for front office staff.

We want to have ______sales training by _______.

KPIs are all the things we are tracking and measuring. OKRs describe where we want to be, not where we currently are. Regardless of which technique you choose, the bottom line is: the only way to improve is to measure and review performance.

How would you use an OKR in the learn to swim industry?

Start with asking yourself a question “What” do you need to make better?

Example: We would like more families signing up online without calling the Swim School – This becomes your objective.

Now, let’s come up with some Key Results (KRs) to help with this objective. This is where you get your team involved by coming up with these, so everyone is helping out and feels invested. Here are just three but your team may come up with 5 or more. Working with your team is best. There is an old saying that the janitor knows more about your business than the owner. Doerr stresses the need for the improvement ideas to come from your team members because of “Buy In.” OKRs can have both stretch and non-stretch goals, and if you setup your OKRs correctly, a percentage of these projects should fail. That is ok. Remember, they can be adjusted every quarter or a short time frame, that you and your team decide on. OKRs are team goals and the OKR results should not be tied to compensation. Here is an example of how to use OKRs in a swim school.

OBJECTIVE: We want more families signing up online

KR 1 – 1st – Measure & count families signing up online versus not. First we need to measure and count how many families are signing up online and how many are not. This is our baseline.

KR2 – 2rd we need to motivate families to sign up online by advertising with reasons they should. Establish a marketing campaign, 3 x per week, encouraging families to use online portal, by use of contests, reviews from other parents, & general information of ease of using.

KR 3 – 3rd we need to see if some families are making accounts but not signing up.

What percentage of parents make an account but never actually enroll? Try to reach out to these families.

Ryan Panchadsaram, a co-founder of WhatMatters. com says, “OKRs are a way to capture the ambitions of the team you work on. They are a way to articulate the mission, vision, the objective of what you’re trying to do. And then the path of how you get there.” No matter what your goal is or what area it’s in, OKRs work to answer the “whats” and the “hows” for all goals, whether they are output and customer service-related to more existential, input questions, like how to build a company culture of collaboration.” Using OKRs in the swim school industry can be quite beneficial. OKRs best practice is to start with high objectives which then can cascade down to each department or team’s OKRs. All OKRs should be supported and contribute to your top company goals. If you aren’t sure where to start with writing your OKRs, take a look at the book which can be downloaded to an e-book or to an audible book. OKRs are not a “magic remedy.” They cannot substitute for good judgment, solid leadership, or an innovative workspace environment. But if those essentials are in place, OKRs can lead you to reaching the gold! So, dive right in and make a SPLASH by using Okrs!