Any company where teams are not able to define robust metrics, move very slow on the learning and growth. In most of the companies, the metrics defined and tracked at team levels are not relevant at all. But there are companies who are able to define the relevant and robust metrics at the team level, and Amazon is one of them. At Amazon, metrics are defined and established before every initiative and objective is taken up. The progress on those metrics are measured on a real-time basis. Every initiative is a genuine scientific experiment focused on whether it will deliver value to the custome ..read more

The current process of yearly goal-setting practice in most of the companies is dead. The 3 major reasons for this dead-end process are: It doesn’t make sense to employees, managers, and management. It doesn’t help in getting work done on business objectives which the company wants to achieve the next 12 months. It only states WHAT needs to be achieved, the HOW part is missing. Let’s look at how this traditional process works in a typical company Traditional goal-setting  Why it’s done in a way it’s done: The current goal-setting is done to get the annualized rating of an employee & take t ..read more

One of the biggest reasons for failed OKR(Objective & Key Results) implementation is Cascading OKR’s. Cascading means your Line of Business(LOB) Head Key Results becomes the Objectives for the reports of LOB Head. And then the flow of cascading goes own till the last mile in the company. It looks something like this: OKR CascadingThe 3 major flaws with Cascading OKR’s If your OKR cycle is quarterly, which means you create and close OKR’s every quarter, then you end up spending too much time going top-to-bottom. What if the cascaded OKR ownership needs to be changed? In 90 days, deciding yo ..read more

It’s the department heads and teams under them who takes care of executing companies strategic projects (strategy execution). And these strategic projects are the ones which will in-turn drive companies growth in future. And most of the time these strategic projects & goals are delayed because of the number of reasons. The CEO’s/PMO office struggles to get the work done on these strategic projects; forget about getting them done faster. “Capitalizing on time is the critical source of competitive advantage”.And most of the time, execution is delayed because: a) No one is focused on how we c ..read more

  The biggest challenge for leaders who drive strategy execution is the lack of visibility on who is executing and who is not. And most importantly building predictability in Achievement.  Very soon, qilo will be unveiling it’s Navigator feature. Which will empower CXO’s to clearly see the depth of the iceberg!  Whatever Strategy Execution Software model you use, OKR, BSC, Hoshin. If not executed well is just theory without impact. Unveiling soon ..read more

In most of the companies, goal-setting is done to either achieve one or all three perspectives mentioned below. To achieve the annual sales targets. To achieve the annual operational plan and strategic priorities. To fulfil the annual checklist activity of performance management. Ever wondered why all 3 works in silos and doesn’t connect with the big picture? Almost all the companies do the exercise of annual sales target setting but do the half cooked job for setting goals to achieve the annual operational plan and strategic priorities. If done right, goal-setting helps you to accelerate grow ..read more

When we started qilo, we had only one Purpose in mind- how can we make Organizations Perform Better? During this journey meeting with hundreds of CXOs across the globe, one unifying theme that came out – THE only matrix of Performance which matters is Company Performance if that is not happening rest all is just execution with zero results. So, if this is the main agenda then what is the reason for the disbelief amongst CXOs and employees is the way Performance Management process is executed? Here are my top reasons why companies are struggling in this. 1) Lack of Alignment; on company’s goals ..read more

In Part 1 of this post, we looked at what should be the purpose of your Performance Management(PM). If the core purpose of PM is beyond annual Performance Measurement, keep reading. If you think that process of performance management can be one of those interventions that can help you to achieve higher levels of productivity and performance at the organization, congratulations you are able to realize the potential of PM. At qilo, we call this new potential of PM as Performance Enablement. Just think of your organization as a machine, a well define PM process can help you to enhance the account ..read more

Performance Management(PM) is dead. The existing way of performance management has become increasingly bureaucratic/burdensome, costly, low-value to employees and managers. Further to this, it has zero or sometimes negative contribution towards overall company growth. You probably have read many blogs/articles stating these claims. Everybody is talking about it, but nobody is talking about what is missing in current approach and what needs to be done to be future ready. By merely shifting the annual activity to quarterly will not help. And by just doing way from ratings will also not help, in ..read more

  Ram Charan wrote in his book execution – the future companies are the ones who will execute well in Strategy, People, and Operations. While strategy and operations are very well defined the challenge has always been in the crucial link “people” – aligning them is the key to organizational success. Performance Management is a subject where sometimes process’ overwrite people and culture. And somehow we create an environment wherein performance of an individual is judged like a Miss Universe pageant, where you are asked the most clichéd question – why should you be the miss universe and the p ..read more