In the last two blog posts we looked at the concept of lean portfolio management – LPM, and at objectives and key results – OKRs. Both of these concepts are designed to help an organization improve its ability to execute on strategy but when they are combined, organizations can take things to the next level.
Today’s word is changing fast. That means that organizations have to react to that evolution, and ideally anticipate it in order to get ahead of the curve. Every organization knows they need to do that, but there’s one big problem that they face. According to Gartner the percentage of employees willing to support organizational change has plummeted from 74% in 2016, to just 38% in 2022. That implies high levels of change fatigue, low levels of engagement, and significant difficulty in maintaining an organization capable of responding to a shifting operating environment.
To remain successful, organizations must ensure that change is less disruptive, and that all stakeholders feel that they are part of the change process rather than having change imposed on them. That’s where the combination of LPM and OKRs can really help. OKRs create a clear baseline of performance expectations, and define how success will be measured. Once those OKRs are communicated, all stakeholders understand what is expected of them and how they contribute to their employer’s success.
LPM then offers an agile approach to executing on strategy that provides work teams with freedom to operate in the ways that work best for them, prioritizing effectiveness and efficiency over policy and process. This in turn keeps employees engaged, empowers them to own their contribution to the OKRs, and feel as though they are part of how the organization is executing on its strategy.
When change is required, LPM encourages effective collaboration between all stakeholders, strengthening the sense of engagement, and OKRs make the communication of the change decisions more straightforward, while the decisions themselves are easy to understand. To close the loop LPM provides an agile approach to implementing the changes that maximizes effectiveness, minimizes disruption, and leaves the people doing the work in control of how the adjustments are made.
This combination of LPM and OKRs is a great example of how today’s organizations need to operate. They cannot simply view ideas and concepts in isolation, they must be able to combine them into an integrated approach into every aspect of work. That’s also the approach that ServiceNow takes with its unique Now platform. By allowing organizations to integrate multiple solutions on one platform, we enable organizations to achieve more than they ever could without that level of integration. To see how BAE Systems is making a successful Agile journey with Strategic Portfolio Management (SPM), check out the on-demand customer webinar.
