Coffee with OKRs #19 · 5 min read
The same skills, a different floor. And the floor decides whether a goals rollout stands a chance
The question this episode starts with sounds reasonable: since we have a good Scrum Master in the company, can they lead our implementation of goals. The answer is yes. And right after it comes a second, more important one: the fact that one person can carry both roles doesn't yet mean it is one role.
From the episode · in Polish
Two roles set side by side, skill by skill, for an hour and then some
A conversation with a guest who has 15 years of experience in agile methods, about where the influence of a person working inside a team ends. The part where we hear that Scrum doesn't solve problems but makes them visible, and that removing blockers lies outside the Scrum Master's sphere of influence, starts at around the twenty-seventh minute. A summary of the similarities and differences between the two roles comes at the very end, after an hour of conversation. from 00:27:13
The recording is being edited. Leave your address and you'll get the link when it's ready.Let's start in a way that can be read without knowing Scrum. A Scrum Master works inside a single team, permanently and from within, as one of its people, not as a consultant brought in now and then. Their job is not running meetings, although that is how it is sometimes described: the description of the role covers six stances, namely teacher, mentor, coach, facilitator, change agent and remover of impediments. Facilitation here doesn't mean running the agenda either, but preparation, work with stakeholders and a communication plan. The OKR champion stands somewhere else. From day one they are anchored with the board, because their first job is to draw out the strategy and help write it down. Only then do they check whether the goals support that strategy.
When you set the two roles side by side, skill by skill, something comes out that is a disappointment for many companies: the sets are almost identical. Communication, facilitation, a feel for people, building habits. The difference lies in the level of the organisation at which these skills are allowed to work. Scrum doesn't solve problems, it makes them visible, and success depends on what the organisation does with what has come out on the table: how it prioritises it and what decisions it makes. A Scrum Master can get the blockers to be visible, but removing them is outside their influence, because they are not the decision-maker. That is a difference in mandate, not in skills, and it is worth naming it plainly before you make someone responsible for things they have no influence over.
That is where the claim comes from that sounds strongest in this episode: an implementation of goals started from the bottom, from the teams, can't fully succeed. If we don't reach the board and the owners, we don't reach the strategy, and without a strategy there is nothing to derive goals from. That is also where the second thing comes from, surprising above all for ourselves. For the first years it seemed to us that a champion needed good facilitation, the ability to ask questions and communication. Years later it is clear that the first skill is understanding what leading change involves, because implementing goals is a transformation of the organisation, not the installation of a tool. The implementations that worked were the ones whose leaders understood this.
Takeaways
Four things decided by mandate, not by skills
- 01
The same skills, a different mandate
Communication, facilitation, a feel for people and building habits are almost the same in both roles. What separates them is the level of the organisation they work at, and whose decisions can be moved from that level.
- 02
You can't start this from the teams
An implementation that doesn't reach the board and the owners doesn't reach the strategy. That is why the champion is anchored at the top from day one, and the lessons from implementations in companies from 15 people to more than 1,500 are surprisingly similar in this respect.
- 03
Look for experience in leading change
When filling the OKR champion role, check for change management, not just the ability to run meetings. Candidates are found on the board, among people who support the board, in HR, among Scrum Masters and agile coaches.
- 04
Once a cycle, check whether the method helps
This role also includes the question of whether goals are the right tool today. A company with a cash flow problem may need clear execution of tasks more than work on strategy, and it is better to name that than to implement the method because it is fashionable.
The whole topic in one place
What can an OKR owner do to make OKRs work?
This episode settles one question about two roles. If you want to see the whole division of responsibility around a quarterly goal, that is, who is responsible for the objective, who for the key results and what happens when one of these roles exists only on a slide, it is all in the text on the OKR owner. We have also gathered there the other episodes in which we dealt with roles.
Author
Lena Zhukova
founder; strategy workshops, quarterly sessions
Founder of OKR Poland. For twenty years she has worked with boards of companies from 30 to a few thousand people; she wrote dozens of strategies with them and helped implement them in more than 40 organisations.
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