FOM tools such as agenda management, voting or minutes are also ideal for OKR meetings

A contribution from the FOM Magazine

We're all familiar with meetings like this: You get together comfortably and exchange ideas. After ten minutes at the latest, you ask yourself: Why am I here?

Many meetings are a waste of time. They do not pursue a clear goal and afterwards you are just as smart as before. To avoid this, there are standardized management systems. One of them is the so-called "OKR" method, which is now used in many organizations.

What does OKR mean?
OKR stands for Objectives & Key Results. In German "Zielsetzung und Ergebnismessung". The aim is to set qualitative goals for the organization and to measure the achievement of these goals using quantitative results.

One objective, for example, could be to increase the readership of the FOM Magazine. Key results could be to have 10,000 monthly readers by June 01 and 25,000 by September 01.

The Objectives & Key Results are set in a meeting, written down and then reviewed, discussed and adjusted if necessary in a follow-up meeting.

How do OKR meetings work?
OKR meetings follow a fixed procedure. The OKRS framework is suitable for this purpose.

  • O: Objectives & Key Results
    Definition of the Objectives and Key Results.
  • K: KPIs
    The participants - or the participating teams - present their KPIs and present the development of the KPIs since the last session.
  • R: Resources
    This is about all issues related to budgets and personnel.
  • S: Structure
    To achieve OKRs, the organization may need new processes, or existing processes may need to be changed.

What are FOMs?
Regular readers of FOM Magazine are already aware of this, but here's a quick reminder for all newcomers:

FOM stands for Formal Online Meetings, which are digital assemblies, meetings and committees. Unlike conventional online meetings, they must follow the specifications of the respective organization's bylaws. Due to these regulations, the requirements for such meeting formats are significantly more complex.

There are various software solutions for organizing FOMs in a legally compliant, cost-efficient and largely automated manner. They map the entire process from organizing the FOMs to conducting and following up, provide tools for legally compliant digital voting & elections, participant and voting rights directories, automated minutes and much more.

What do FOMs have to do with OKRs?
OKR reviews should be largely standardized, for example using the OKRS framework. Standardization makes it easier to prepare and conduct the meetings, and everyone knows what to expect.

FOM software contains many tools that are also useful for standardized OKR meetings. Therefore, they are the ideal tool for organizing and conducting OKR meetings.

1. agenda management
Like an FOM, an OKR meeting should follow a set agenda that guides through the OKRS framework.

2. participant management
During OKR meetings, certain participants should be present, similar to FOMs. With a FOM attendee management, you can create attendee lists for your various OKR meetings and send the invitation directly to the appropriate attendees.

3. votes & elections
How democratic is your organization? It may be a good idea for your team to set its own goals and then vote on them. The advantage is that team members are then emotionally invested in the goals. Since voting & elections are a necessary part of any FOM, such a tool is standard in FOM software offerings.

4. follow-up
OKR meetings must be followed up, as well as FOMs. Each participant should get a meeting protocol. FOM software creates such minutes automatically. Depending on the software, you can even have all participants sign them digitally.

A practical example
Let's assume you are responsible for marketing the toothpaste, toothbrush and dental floss product lines in your company. To set the goals of your teams, you work according to the OKR method. An OKR meeting with FOM software could now proceed as follows:

1. team invitations:
You log into the system and create a participant directory. Each product team is stored in a separate directory. So now when the Toothpaste Marketing OKR meeting is coming up, you can send the invitation including dial-in data to the toothpaste team with just a few clicks. When the meeting starts, all participants can dial in with a link.

2. OKRS agenda:
Before the meeting, set an agenda in which they go through the O-K-R-S scheme. During the meeting, the agenda is displayed to the participants.

3. votes:
If you want to vote on individual items during the meeting, you can use the Voting & Elections tool. You can hold either open or secret ballots. In the participant directory, they can specify who has how many votes. If, for example, the team leader is to have veto power, you can also specify that.

4. meeting minutes:
After the meeting is over, minutes are automatically created that each participant can download in a secure login area. You can then send it to all participants and even have them sign it. At the next OKR meeting, you can use this protocol to remind all participants of the previous meeting.

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How do you use FOM software in your organization? And how do you organize your OKR meetings?
Write to us at contact@fom-magazin.de.