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The Better Business Analysis 
Institute presence, the Better 

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Business Analysis podcast with 
Benjamin Walsh. 

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Hi. 
Everybody and welcome. 

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Back to the better. 
Business Analysis. 

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Podcast with. 
Benjamin Walsh and we are going 

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to continue on our BA. 
Bytes series. 

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Today, we're going to be 
talking. 

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About OK Rs. 
Objectives and. 

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Key result areas. 
OK, we're going to talk about 

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how BA's can use them, why they 
kind of are a. 

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Parallel. 
Business measurement tool, 

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that's really important. 
When we focus down. 

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On the projects. 
The objectives, the epic, the. 

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User stories. 
The business. 

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As a whole, our framework teams.
Generally will. 

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Have OK Rs. 
OK. 

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And we need to talk about what 
they are, why they're important 

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to business and how. 
You can play a crucial role in 

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terms of. 
Defining them. 

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OK, So what actually? 
Are OK ours? 

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A guy named Andy Grove. 
He was the legendary CEO. 

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Of Intel. 
Was first credited with. 

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Kind of making the. 
Concept of. 

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Objectives and. 
Key results. 

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OK, Rs. 
Very popular, but there were 

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other. 
Frameworks that existed before 

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his time, however OK Rs were 
introduced to address. 

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A critical. 
Challenge faced specifically by 

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Intel at the time, but other 
organizations like Google. 

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Experienced this later, which 
was. 

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Around aligning individual and 
team goals. 

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With the overall company 
objectives. 

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So this. 
Is quite interesting, right? 

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Because we talk about. 
Projects and. 

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Products. 
And how? 

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Those epics, themes, the bits. 
That we're. 

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Doing need to align. 
With strategic objectives. 

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Well, this is exactly the same, 
but you can. 

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See it as a parallel branch. 
While. 

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We're working in a project 
Change Space BA's. 

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Most of the time teams and 
individuals actually have these 

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kind of K. 
PIS, if you like, you probably 

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heard the term KPI and we'll 
talk about how that. 

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Links in a minute. 
But. 

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They're like personal goals to 
make sure that they are aligned 

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and they know what they're doing
and this. 

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Can relate to their pay, it can 
relate to company results, and 

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it's really an. 
Operational Framework. 

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For. 
Strategic planning all the way 

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down to. 
Strategic execution before OK 

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Rs. 
Companies often. 

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Struggled with a lack of focus. 
And that was like employers. 

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Just weren't. 
Clear about what mattered the 

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most. 
They just weren't given. 

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They knew the vision, maybe they
even had good values, they may 

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even had good culture, but they 
really needed to know what was 

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the most important things to 
focus on. 

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There was a. 
Misalignment between individual 

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and team goals, so they didn't 
really contribute effectively to

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the company. 
'S vision success objectives. 

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And there definitely was 
ineffective measurement. 

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So progress towards those goals.
Were very. 

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Difficult to. 
Track and measure OK. 

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And that's the one area that I 
think these this tool is 

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particularly good at is showing 
how. 

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You can measure all the way 
through. 

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So OK. 
Ours. 

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Provide a. 
Structured approach. 

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To. 
Define clear and ambitious 

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goals, objectives. 
Set their. 

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Direction SO. 
That's exactly what we use it. 

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For. 
In a project product. 

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Space. 
It helped Does measure progress 

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key results? 
Quantify those objectives. 

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So they. 
Make them. 

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Miserable, and then it provides 
alignment. 

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With. 
You know, teams and individuals,

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they actually understand, you 
know? 

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Tom on the tools. 
Understands how. 

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His job contributes to the 
bigger picture, so OK, Rs have 

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really proven to be a valuable 
tool. 

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For countless organizations now.
Across various industries. 

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When it comes. 
To implementing. 

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Strategy effectively. 
It. 

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Allows us to have. 
A communication, A check. 

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In point. 
Increased accountability. 

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Decision making. 
Usually you'll see an. 

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Increase in. 
Performance, improved alignment 

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and. 
Focus. 

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That's why we've introduced OK. 
Rs and I'm just. 

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Going to premise this and say. 
Look, the leadership team has to

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be committed. 
There has to be clear. 

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Communication, you have to have 
reviews, you have to have a 

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balance between ambition and 
achievement. 

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They're they're different by the
way. 

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And so all those things have to 
be true for OK Rs to really 

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work. 
It's not a perfect solution. 

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But it's pretty damn good. 
What about BAS? 

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How do? 
We play into this. 

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World of OK Rs. 
Really. 

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We. 
Can help? 

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We have the same skills. 
In terms of we break things 

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down. 
To achieve we can help breakdown

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OK ours into the. 
Objectives which we would may 

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already have. 
Around our. 

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Project space to be. 
Organizational wide strategic 

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objectives. 
And then the key. 

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Results. 
Under that. 

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So the objectives are being 
what? 

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Specific significant time bound 
SMART goals to achieve 

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something. 
And then the key results are 

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how? 
The measurable. 

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Outcomes that indicate. 
You've achieved that objective. 

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OK. 
And they're time bound and. 

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Verifiable. 
And now given and. 

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Allocated to. 
Different. 

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Teams so. 
Imagine you had five. 

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Different. 
Business units. 

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Under the C-Suite, the C-Suite 
would sit the objectives based. 

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On the board direction. 
Probably if there is a board. 

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And then these five teams would 
either have. 

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One or a series of key results. 
Now those key results could be. 

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At the executive. 
Level which are shared 

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responsibility, but you 
generally go. 

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Breakdown key results to key 
result areas which are like 

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groupings like. 
Themes and then you can it 

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allows. 
You so they're called KR. 

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A's key result areas. 
And then of course you can link 

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those down to individual. 
KPI's. 

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To the team and then the 
individual. 

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And there are great tools for 
visualizing this. 

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You really need visual cues. 
For this, it's hard to do in 

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Excel, it's hard to do in 
DevOps, it's. 

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Hard to. 
Do in. 

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Jira so you can. 
Make these. 

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Very visible. 
Very very similar to our 

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objectives. 
Down to epochs, but these are. 

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Something that are locked. 
Into your one-on-one catch ups. 

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With your manager and they 
should be checked in on. 

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It on a regular basis. 
So that's a brief overview of. 

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OK, Rs objectives. 
Key results. 

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There is lots and lots of 
material about this. 

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Online I suggest if you don't 
completely understand. 

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What I've just said. 
Read a book about it. 

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Start. 
Using it start. 

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Helping out as a BA, you'll add 
huge value. 

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To your. 
Organization.