Breaking Silos with the Implementation of an OKR Model

In typical business management, we often discuss the challenge of breaking silos, where each team immerses itself in its specialty, focusing on its exclusive know-how, losing the essential part that an organization has in delivering value to users, ecosystems, and the community. The implementation of the OKR model emerges as a paradigm shift to challenge this approach and take us beyond traditional boundaries.

Let's consider an example: in an organization whose Key Result (KR) is "improve the recurrence of usage of a solution". Some initiatives to drive this KR could include usage incentives through loyalty programs, product usability enhancements, and new functionality. Implementing these initiatives requires coordination across multiple functional areas, both in terms of operational processes and development teams. This leads to the need to coordinate work across areas and thus challenge traditional management structures.

At the core of this transformation is the cleverness of drafting Key Results that focus not only on the typical indicators of functional areas (for example, the number of leads generated for a sales area) but on results that directly impact end-user behavior. This is why the KR expressed as "recurrence of usage" can become not only a beacon of what is valuable in an organization but also guide us towards ad hoc working structures that break organizational silos. This approach not only encourages the emergence of a network above the hierarchy but also triggers essential conversations that cross departmental boundaries and can generate operational efficiencies by avoiding rework resulting from ignorance of what other areas do.

A real-life case occurred in an organization we recently assisted, where the operations team drafted a KR to "improve customer satisfaction." While writing initiatives and reviewing customer complaint analysis, many originated from the lack of materials at work sites, causing delays in deliveries. It was then that the team realized that to resolve the situation and improve the experience, they needed to negotiate new Service Level Agreements (SLAs) with the procurement and logistics department. An interdisciplinary team was formed, focusing on improving processing times. After 9 weeks, the process time had improved by 60% compared to its original time. This ultimately impacted the improvement of the perception and satisfaction of the end customer, generating learnings beyond the final number and impact.

However, for these KRs to be challenging and not frustrating or impossible due to "falling short in their management capacity," it requires creating a context of networked conversations; a mapping of dependencies that allows teams to understand the impact of their actions on the entire system. This is where leadership, in its service role, plays a vital role.

Providing this context and facilitating strategic alliances turns leaders into architects of fluid structures around value, avoiding frustrations and fostering a collaborative environment. Practices that help at this stage include double-entry matrices mapping the areas of the organization and their dependencies so that, hand in hand with a leader's agenda to catalyze conversations based on such mapping, the path is smoothed for teams. For the example we shared earlier, the leadership teams in operations, logistics, and maintenance were sponsors of the change, driven in turn by the HR team, which was an ambassador of the OKR model at the organizational level.

By breaking silos and working around value, we are building an approach not only focused on results but also a business culture that thrives on collaboration and innovation.

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