The OKR.X Guide

Since 2019, XITASO has applied the classical OKR Framework to help its people and its community circles to engage with its decentralised and distributed strategic work. Following its relentless drive for continuous improvement and excellence, XITASO has made several changes to the OKR Framework.

This Guide is here to document the shared understanding upon the principles and techniques of our XITASO-tweaked Framework: OKR.X

To ensure that the Guide is applicable to a large amount of organisations, we abstracted a lot of different XITASO organisational concepts and named them simply circles (as in holacratic circles).

As you will surely noticed, this Guide structure is inspired from another famous guide. This is an hommage to the quality of the Scrum Guide.

Topology of a circle

OKR.X Definition

OKR.X is a lightweight framework that helps people, teams and circles to generate innovation through an holistic and flexible goal setting. It helps them to engage with a vision and strategy, and to steer the efforts of participants along a strong value-generating corridor.

OKR.X requires OKR.X Coaches to foster an environment where:

1. A circle, through their board, is able to set an ambitious and motivating objective for themselves.
2. A circle is able to track effectively their progress toward their objective, and to decide on the best course of action in order to reach it.
3. A circle can reliably estimate the resources, they will realistically need to achieve their objective.
4. A circle can ensure that their objective is part of a holistic effort that resonates throughout the whole organization, and not a local initiative or a local optimization.

OKR.X is simple and its definition is purposefully incomplete: only defining the parts required to implement its theory, whilst relying on the collective intelligence of the people using it to select the practices, techniques and meetings needed to its successful usage.

OKR.X Theory

OKR.X was founded on empiricism, lean thinking, and different concepts from Holacracy and Beyond Budgeting. Empiricism asserts that knowledge comes from experience and that making decisions should be based on what is observed. Lean thinking reduces waste and focuses on the essentials. Holacracy distributes authority and decision-making through self-organizing and self-managed circles. Beyond Budgeting advocates replacing rigid annual budgets with decentralized forecasts and resource estimations and allocations.

OKR.X employs an iterative, incremental approach to optimize predictability and to control risk. OKR.X engages circles who collectively have all the skills and expertise to do the work they plan.

OKR.X combines five formal events for inspection and adaptation within a containing event, the OKR.X cycle. These events work because they implement the empirical OKR.X pillars of transparency, inspection, and adaptation.

Transparency

The emergent objectives, process and work must be visible to those performing the work as well as those receiving the work. With OKR.X, important decisions are based on the perceived state of its five formal artifacts, described here below. Artifacts that have low transparency can lead to decisions that diminish innovation and increase risk.

Transparency enables inspection. Inspection without transparency is misleading and wasteful.

Inspection

The OKR.X artifacts and the progress toward agreed goals must be inspected frequently and diligently to detect potentially undesirable variances or problems. To help with inspection, OKR.X provides cadence in the form of its five events.

Inspection enables adaptation. Inspection without adaptation is considered pointless. OKR.X events are designed to provoke change.

Adaptation

If any aspects of a process deviate outside acceptable limits or if the resulting product is unacceptable, the process being applied, the artifacts being produced or the estimated resources must be adjusted. The adjustment must be made as soon as possible to minimize further deviation.

Adaptation becomes more difficult when the people involved are not empowered or self-managing. A circle is expected to adapt the moment it learns anything new through inspection.

OKR.X Values

Successful use of OKR.X depends on people becoming more proficient in living the value described in the XITASO Code.

These values give direction to a circle with regard to their work, actions, and behavior. The decisions that are made, the steps taken, and the way OKR.X is used should reinforce these values, not diminish or undermine them.

Our values: the XITASO Code

OKR.X Roles

The OKR.X Framework is embedded in XITASO’s circle structure, and thus, relies entirely on the Roles & Responsibilities defined within our circles. Nonetheless, in this paragraph, the influence that each role has in the OKR.X Framework is made explicit. In your organisation, different roles could take over these responsibilities.

Circle Lead & Deputy

The duo composed of the circle Lead and the circle Deputy is accountable for the efficient and effective fulfillment of their circle purpose. Additionally, they are accountable for fostering an environment where the strategic significance of the circle is understood and pursued. Which includes:

• Ensuring that ambitious and realistic objectives are set, that initiatives are swiftly undertaken and that progress is openly tracked;
• Communicating transparently with the circle members and the broader organization;
• Monitoring and addressing dependencies to and from other circles;
• Making bold and sometime difficult decisions, within the domain of their circle;
• Ensuring that resources are effectively used, following the organization’s guidelines.

How this is done may vary across the circles. Circle Leads & Deputies are automatically Circle Board members.

Circle Board Members

The Circle Board are the people committed to driving the operational activities and to setting up their circle accordingly. Which includes:

• Living and modeling the circle processes to ensure smooth day-to-day operations;
• Regularly participate in the central ceremonies of the circle;
• Actively shaping and developing the circle artifacts and processes;
• Jointly setting and pursuing circle objectives, taking into account the overarching corporate strategy;
• Ensuring that the circle roles are adequately filled;

How this is done may vary across the circles.

OKR.X Coach

The OK.X Coach supports, in the spirit of servant-leadership, every person involved in the OKR.X Framework at all times and in every phase. They are accountable for establishing OKR.X as defined in this OKR.X Guide. They do this by helping everyone understand its underlaying theory and its practices.

The OKR.X Coach is accountable for the effectiveness of the OKR.X processes. They initiate, accompany, support and promote the correct and efficient usage of the OKR.X framework within the organization and the circles. Which includes:

• Helping the circle to create ambitious and realistic objectives that take into account the overarching corporate strategy;
• Helping find techniques for effective strategy development and innovation management;
• Ensuring that all OKR.X events take place and are positive, productive, and kept within the timebox;
• Leading, training, and coaching the organization and its circles in their OKR.X adoption;
• Planning and advising OKR.X implementations within the organization;

How this is done may vary across circle.

Contributors & Consumers

Contributors & Consumers are a fluid group of people that either:

• Benefit from the work of a circle, its processes and its artifact:
• Offer Feedback, Thoughts and Wishes to the circle;
• Punctually work on the circle’s initiatives;

In short, all circles ensure that the demands of the Consumers are met and highly welcome Contributors; but they should not delegate their responsibilities to them.

OKR.X Artifacts

OKR.X’s artifacts helps to foster the emergence of innovation, along the path defined by our common strategy. They are designed to maximize transparency of key information. Thus, keeping them up-to-date and inspecting them regurlaly is critical.

To ensure that a broader audience can engage with the Artifacts, they must be written in English.

Annual Strategic Motto

The Annual Strategic Motto is defined by the Strategy Circle. It is a strategic direction that is set for a period of one year and acts as a bridge between our long-term vision and the shorter-term objectives of the circles. It should inspiring, memorable, and actionable, creating coherence and focus, encouraging everyone to work together rather than on separate initiatives.

Strategic Themes

The Strategic Themes are defined by the Strategy Circle. They offer insights and guidance on how a given circle can contribute best to our startegic joint effort. When a circle is looking for concrete inspiration for their objectives, the Strategic Themes can ease their OKR.X Planning.

The Strategic Themes can be updated each OKR.X Cycle and the current status of the initiatives that impact them is followed-up once a month during OKR.X Drumbeat.

Objective

The Objective is defined by the board of each circle, at the start of each OKR.X Cycle.

The Objective is a desirable and challenging goal that a circles sets for themselves. It describes clearly the innovation that the circle wants to bring to life during OKR.X Cycle. It should fully embody and support the circle Purpose and should be aligned with the organization’s overall strategy and vision.

There should only be one Objective per Cycle — this supports the circle to focus for the cycle. Other activities necessary to the fullfillment of the circle Purpose may also be performed.

To avoid local optimisation, the Objective should always be valuable to the circle’s Consumers, may they be external customers or internal benefitors.

Key Results

Key Results make transparent how the circle plan to reach their Objective, as well as their current progress. Thus, it is essential to make them specific, quantifiable, and time-bound. They should help you to:

• Make visible and quantifiable the intended outcome of the current OKR.X cycle;
• Measure the impact of the current initiatives on the intended outcome;
• Make decisions on the best course of action toward achieving the intended outcome;

Key Results are defined by the board of each circle, at the start of each OKR.X Cycle.

Key Results must be kept up-to-date and reviewed regularly to ensure that they are still relevant and aligned with the circle’s Objective and the organization’s goals.

Ressource estimates

To maximize transparency and foster a cost-conscious mindset in the organization, an estimate of the resources needed by the circle to reach their goal and fulfilling their purpose is given.

This is not be considered as a budget to be spent, but as an estimation of how much resources the next OKR.X Cycle will need. As such, there is no overall budget to be split between the circles.

During each OKR.X Drumbeat, circles make transparent their estimated resources and their usage throughtout the cycle. These information are the basis for estimating the overall health of the organisation, and it is necessary that they are kept up to date. If big changes or big deviations occur, they have to be communicated as soon as possible to the broader organisation.

Important: If an Objective, Key Result or the Ressource Estimates become obsolete or change significantly, they should be changed by the circle Board, and these changes must be communicated accordingly.

OKR.X Events

Each event in OKR.X is a formal opportunity to inspect and adapt OKR.X artifacts. These events are specifically designed to enable the required transparency, to create regularity, and thus to minimize the need for additional meetings.

Optimally, all events are held at the same time and with the same format to reduce complexity.

Strategy Briefing

Once per year, the board members of the Strategy Circle invite all the circle Leads and Deputies, and will present them a proposal for the Annual Strategic Motto and the Strategic Themes, as well as the general strategic direction of the broader Organisation. They will deliver insights, give context and highlight any changes that may have occured and will answer any relevant questions. This way, they ensure that the board members of all other circles are prepared to thoroughly discuss and plan their objective for the upcoming cycle.

Changes to the Annual Strategic Motto and the Strategic Themes may occcur during the Strategy Briefing, or during the year.

The OKR.X Cycle

OKR.X Cycles are the heartbeat of OKR.X, where ideas are turned into innovation.

An OKR.X cycle has a fixed length of up to six months. It provides a frame for all other events.

A new Cycle starts immediately after the conclusion of the previous Cycle. All the work necessary to achieve the circle Objective, including Cycle Kick-Off, circle Plannings, Monthly Drumbeat, Cycle Review happen within the Cycle.

OKR.X Cycle Kick-Off

To initiate the Cycle, the board members of the Strategy circle present the Annual Strategic Motto and the Strategic Themes of the current year to the whole Organisation. They will deliver insights, give context and highlight any changes that may have occured and will answer any relevant questions.

This event marks the start of the circle Planning phase and the timeline of the upcoming OKR.X Events will be communicated to the Organisation.

OKR.X Circle Plannings

Each Circle Lead and Deputy initiate their Circle Planning and engage with the Board Members and Key Stakeholders to address the following topics.

Question One: What is our Objective this Cycle?

Based on the Circle Purpose, the Yearly Motto, the underlying Strategic Themes and general strategic direction of the broader Organisation, an Objective is selected.

There is only one Objective per Cycle — It is the single focus of the circle for the cycle.

We recommend formulating it in the active past perfect tense to clearly reflect the innovation that the circle aim to bring to life. It should describe the intended change (outcome) instead of what should be done (output). The added value for our Customers, for the Circle Consumers or for the whole Organisation should be clear.

Note — example: We have found a cheaper alternative to replace our current costly Code Review Tool; We have accelerated the generation of insightfuly reports for project controlling; We have ensured that everyone received actionable feedback from their Team or circles.

Question Two: How can we measure our real Progress?

Directly derived from the circle Objectives, the measurement of progress is discussed. The Key Results are defined to measure what matters most. They describe what the desired outcome is, and not how to achieve it.

In order to ensure focus, as few Key Results as necessary should be defined.

The circle must ensure that their Key Results can be easily measured every month, to make transparent if they’re trending in the right direction. The evolution of the Key Results throughout the Cycle should support the circle in taking important and courageous decisions, and so binary outcomes (done/not done) that can only be measured once during the cycle should be avoided.

Question Three: What are our first steps?

The work required to achieve the circle objective begins as soon as the circle Planning has been carried out. Initial initiatives must be defined and agreed in order to avoid unnecessary delays or uncertainties. They do not need to be broken down into actionable measures, but they should provide a clear direction on where to start.

Question Four: How much resources do we need?

An estimate of the resources needed by the circle to reach their goal and to fulfill their purpose is proposed, discussed and agreed upon. This estimate encapsulates the recurring costs and effort, as well as any plannable ressource usage. It goes beyond the ressources estimated for reaching the circle Objective and also included those needed for running its daily business.

As soon as these four questions are answered, the OKR.X Set of the circle can be filled up, and the circle Planning is closed. All OKR.X Sets have to be made transparent to the whole organisation, and any tool that supports this should be used. The definition of an agreed upon template for the OKR.X Sets can also support the transparency across the whole organisation.

How the Circle Plannings are done may vary across circle — it can be done synchronously, or not; rely on a planning template, or not; involve the whole circle members, or not. The quality of the artifacts resulting from the planning should be a clear indication on the best course of action.

In case of doubts, the circle should contact any of the available OKR.X Coaches.

OKR.X Pitch Tournament

The OKR.X Pitch Tournament is closing the circle Planning Phase and fulfills several purposes:

• To foster transparency in the broader organisations;
• To identify artifacts that need corrections or adaptations;
• To increase the engagement with the strategic work of the broader organization;
• To develop the leadership skills of the circle Leads and Deputy;

At the start of the event, the board members of the Strategy Circle presents refreshed information concerning the yearly Motto, the Strategic Themes and the strategic situation of the broader Organisation.

Afterwards, each circle will pitch their objective and the impact that they wish to make during the Cycle. A Jury composed of seasoned members of the organisation and representing different areas is tasked with assessing the quality of the presented artifacts and of the pitch, and with asking provocant questions to the circles.

After the last circle has pitched, the board members of the Strategy circle will close up the event with last thoughts and reflexions on the expected impact of each pitched innovation. They may also give impulse to some circles on how to further increase their expected impacts, leverage synergies and mitigate dependencies.

To further increase the engagement of the participants, some element of gamification — such as a trophy, a jury or a prize — can be added to the format.

OKR.X Monthly Drumbeat

The purpose of the OKR.X Monthly Drumbeat is to inspect the progress of each circle toward their Objective and propose possible future adaptations. To this end, it is required that each circle updates their OKR.X Set with up-to-date and accurate informations.

OKR.X Monthly Drumbeats usually take place asynchronously, and it is expected that every circle Lead and Deputy keep themselves informed on the progress of other relevant circles.

Synchronous OKR.X Drumbeat

If needed, an OKR.X Monthly Drumbeat can take place synchronously and becomes a 90-minute event with all Circle Leads or Deputies.

At the start of the event, the board members of the Strategy circle presents refreshed information concerning the yearly Motto, the Strategic Themes and the strategic situation of the broader Organisation.

Afterwards, each circle will present shortly present their progress of toward their objective, and discuss possible future adaptation with the other participants.

OKR.X Cycle Review

The purpose of the OKR.X Cycle Review is to inspect the outcome of the Cycle and celebrate the innovations brought to life by each circle. The gathered insights may be used by the board members of Strategy Circle to adapt the strategic direction of the organisation, the Yearly Motto or the Strategic Themes.

Questions? Feedback? Ideas?

Contact one of the OKR.X Guide Caretakers:

Baptiste Grand — baptiste.grand@xitaso.com

Christian Scharrer — christian.scharrer@xitaso.com

Michael Schackert — michael.schackert@xitaso.com