This was the case when a set of governances from large organizations was provided in the classroom

Can management sets used by leading organisations contribute to improving the Norwegian school system?

OCR used with great success in organisations such as Google, LinkedIn, Colonial.no, Finn.no and many more. OCR is a governance set used to set high targets, ensure clarity, high involvement and increased implementation power of organisations. 

If OKR helps motivate and engage employees in leading organisations, it can also work for students in a classroom.

In this article I will share what happened when we tested OKR on 165 students in the electoral digital marketing (DIG2102) at Kristiania College over a period of 6 weeks.

Why use OKR in classroom?

If you don't know the concept and the history behind OKR, read this in-depth article about OKR.

At some point during childhood, many children are being discouraged by curiosity and are eager to learn. I suspect that once between 3 and 3. and 9. school stages. I think that happens because kids are forced into pattern the focus of rules and instructionsSo let's say that this is the same thing as that. A pattern that grows character I rather than learning!

Watch the video for a short introduction to some of the challenges of today's school system.

The video explains part of the challenges associated with today's school system in 2 minutes.

Students should learn to break out of these patterns and have higher ambitions for their education and career! It's not about increased expectations or career path. It's about helping students find their way in life.

OKR motivates and engages and can be part of the solution to create a better education system, while today's rating system is out of date and prevents learning!

Rating Prevents Learning

Ratings shall describe the performance of a student and provide the students with an indication of how they are professional. At the same time, characters shall provide employers with a tool to distinguish jobseekers. Today's rating system is not working properly for both purposes.

Rating inflation makes grades almost valueless and popular employers like Facebook and Google have long understood that: characters are a miserable preacher on future success in a position! Characteristic is also a bad way to motivate students and employees!

Rating Playing indirect motivational factors as emotional pressure and punishment/reward. Fear of bad grades makes students more likely to choose the least challenging tasks. Characteristics also reduce the interest in learning in the interests of external motivation, and it makes them feel less happy and more anxious in learning situations.

The research is actually unique! Ratings affect student learning outcomes and motivation in a negative way (Source: Einvind Sletner and Hege Cecilie Nicolaysen).

OKR increases motivation and promotes learning

Leading companies use OKR to help employees set their own targets and work towards the targets.

OKR is playing what researchers call 'direct motivational factorsSo let's say that this is the same thing as that. It's about play, meaning and reaching its potential. These motivational factors work significantly better to motivate people to perform better and learn more.

While research and popular employers focus on less emphasis on grades, I see that many students (and teachers) focus very much on grades- What?

Why do students focus so much on grades? Can the use of OKR in classrooms help to move focus from grades to learning?

I think that using OKR in classroom fosters creativity and critical thinking in a better way than today's rating system. Characterists are just a number on paper and are in itself no indicator of success. I think OCR in school can help to engage and motivate students to learn more and aim for more long-term goals.

OKR can help move focus from grades to learning!

So we put OKR in the classroom in practice.

After having put me thoroughly into OKR as well tested control set at own workplace I decided one week before the first lecture to test the OCR system in the classroom.

At the beginning of my first lecture, I shared a personal story from my career. Then the students were assigned to create a personal introduction video that they had to publish in the closed Facebook group of the class.

The purpose of the exercises; the personal history, and the video exercise was to force students out of the comfort zone (in safe surroundings) to increase the degree of psychological protection (Apart from an interesting theme that comes more about in another article) in the class.

See presentation from first lecture

1. Set a common ambition for the class

After the video exercise, I introduced the overall goal of the class (in OKR format, without explaining the concept itself):

Objective: Make students MEET attractive in the labour market

• Key result 1: 40% of students attending all lectures should receive relevant job offers during the semester
• Key result 2: At least 50 students have been involved in launching a good online store
• Key result 3: Students have published at least 50 quality posts during March 2019
• Key result 4: 50 students have sovereign LinkedIn profiles by March 2019

I gave students an indication of what I expected for each key result:

• Come in all lectures and be curious
• Learn Shopify, Woocmmerce or similar on your own
• Learn the pyramid principle and write a lot! (exercise makes master)
• Work with the LinkedIn profile

The aim was to present an overall ambition (objective) that was easy to remember and hopefully inspiring to the students. I presented 4 concrete key results. Key results shall be specific, preferably containing a number and at the end of the quarter it shall be possible to answer yes/no if key results are achieved. If you meet all key results, the objective becomes a reality!

2. Give students an interesting problem to solve

After the introduction, I distributed the examination task comprising 4 parts:

1. Create a webshop - plan and create a webshop on a custom platform
2. Set goal (OKR) - agree with the team on the ambitions of the task
3. Create Launch Plan - Create a full and realistic launch plan
4. Writing reflection notes – Reflecting on learning process

The aim of the exam was to give students an interesting challenge that does not have a fascist answer to give them creative freedom to solve a problem on their own. Some students felt that the task was impossible, while many students considered the exam as a meaningful and exciting challenge that could lead to an exciting job before completing studies.

Three. Present the large picture and background for OKR

After presenting the exam, I went through John Doerr's legendary OKR presentationSo let's say that this is the same thing as that. The presentation provided the basis for the governance of one of the world's most successful companies. In 1999, John Doerr invested $12 million in Google, which at that time had 30 employees. The culture and working environment of Google reminded us of a typical student existence. People worked on many projects and it was chaotic. Doerr presented the control set as a gift to a young and immature organisation. In the absence of an alternative, Google OCR adopted as the right of governance. OKR has been well integrated into Google's analytical culture – and 20 years later, OKR is still being used as Google's governance – now an organisation with over 90 000 employees. After conducting the student through Doerr's original powerpoint presentation, we went through the main principles behind OKR; simplicity, clarity, transparency, ambitious goals and weekly reminders.

4. Repeat the ambition and follow up every week

After the OCR presentation, I explained how the students had to deal with OCR. I invited all the students into a separate Basecamp project. (see example configuration – requires registration) where students could read about OKR and what was expected of them. Each team had to add their team's ambitions and targets before a particular deadline. The first teams received guidance that was visible to all, while the after-salves had to adapt their ambitions based on already given guidance.

I repeated the class ambition in (next) each lecture. The teams had to report status every Friday. All students could see each other's OKR and updates. Still reminders and transparency are something of the point of OKR. When students are reminded of the goal and can see the ambitions of their fellow students every week, some kind of positive group pressure arises. The entire team must agree on the ambition. This will make the confusion go out and the team is working towards the same goal!

So it looked like that in Basecamp. There are many different OKR tools. Experts warn against focusing on software at first:

After introduction, 5 weeks of hard work began. I tried to make lectures practical and varied. I invited a number of guest lectures who told their stories and experiences (many happened to mention OKR). Each lecture focused on a theme relevant to the examination task. In parallel with the lectures, students had to work with their team at the exam. Each week, all teams reported progress. At the end of the period I could see the results and read students' reflections on OKRSo let's say that this is the same thing as that.

5. Result of OKR in classroom

I have been teaching digital marketing for 6 years and the spring 2019 was the most rewarding holiday so far. I am motivated by learning new things, and by quickly transforming knowledge into action. One of the things I like best with OKR is that it forces clarity! Clear ambitions that are inspiring and easy to remember (Objective) as well as clear key results (target) that have either been achieved – or not. Below are the results from five weeks of OKR in a classroom (based on responses from 47 students*):

• 30% received relevant job/internetship due to Electoral Digital Marketing at the University of Kristiania before the end of the semester
• 100% of students have been involved in launching a online store
• 92% have published a blog post they are proud of
• 85% has a good and up-to-date Linkedin profile *I know that the results don't draw the full picture, but they were interesting feedback.

What did I learn from running OKR in the classroom (in development)

There are many examples of successful enterprises using OKR, but few examples of use of OKR as a class room control set are available.

After a semester with OKR in the classroom, I see many parallels between how OKR is used to control modern knowledge companies against success and how to use OKR to control a classroom. I understand how and why OKR works so well for many leading achievements. OCR is not a magic spell formula for success, but a well-tested control set that plays on many basic principles leading to success.

1. Simpleness. OKR is (in theory) simple. Simple messages spread faster. When a message spreads, the chance of a breakthrough increases. If you want to get a breakthrough in organizations, the message must be easy!
2. Psychological safetySo let's say that this is the same thing as that. Both in the classroom and in the business world psychological security is the foundation for a group to succeed. Psychological security is about creating an environment where people dryly say and do what they mean without fear of being ridiculed or punished. If you establish psychological security in a group, the benefits of OKR will quickly come to the surface.
3. Structure and clarity. OKR is about structure and clarity. Clarity is one of the most important success factors in successful enterprises (Source: Deloitte Insights). Clear objectives, clear roles and clear expectations. At the start of the semester, the OKR class and students helped set ambitious and clear goals. One of the basic principles of OKR is that people should set their own goals primarily – goals that are inspiring to themselves. Internal motivation provides more ownership and better results!
4. Time limits, requirements and rhythmsSo let's say that this is the same thing as that. Time limits, demands and rhythm are central to OKR. In the school system, there is often an integrated rhythm. Students start a vacation with new subjects and will be given a character at the end of the semester. There are largely clear deadlines and requirements for students. What was not used to OKR in the classroom is the requirement for transparency and weekly reporting. Transparency is unnatural and unpleasant for many. When everyone on a team's ambitions are freely available to everyone, you avoid misunderstandings and everyone can focus on the goals set. Most students don't know what they want, and they need some framework to succeed. By presenting some frames, setting high demands, and giving tight deadlines then increased the chance of as many students hanging out on the holiday.
5. To be consistent and never to go. Success requires hard work and never giving. Recurrence works! I repeated the overall goal of the class until I was tired of saying it! Students are given important information when the message is simple and it is often repeated. The quote from Linkedin chief Jeff Weiner is well-matched – also for students: ‘When You are tired of saying it, people are starting two hear It’

All these points form the basis for success in both classroom and business. OKR amplifies all these points! OCR is a system that ensures implementation.

What didn't work in the OKR experiment?

It's hard to introduce OKR. It requires a lot of follow-up and it's unwatered for students. Not all students were hanging out with. Some students set low targets at the beginning and many students fell off on the way. There were 165 students registered to the election profession. Most of the lecture was about 100. Of these, it was only about 78 that participated in the last reporting round.

Change is difficult

At the beginning of my lecture career, I spent a lot of time teasing myself over students who didn't come to lectures. One day, a student pointed out that I should focus on the students who were motivated! That was smart! Now I spend most of the time on students hungry for learning- What? The same applies to OKR. In the classroom (as in organizations) there are many people who do not like change! Using OKR in teaching is different and it will be difficult to introduce in most schools, but it is worth trying!

Do you want to test out OKR as a control set in your classroom? Please contact me or explore the sources below!

Sources:

• Thanks to Senior Lecturer Anders Mamen for saving and good recording to the article
• Google: GPAs are worstless (Cnet, 2013)
• Valueless Ratings (Universitas, 2015)
• How company culture shifts jobyes motivation (Harvard Business Review, 2015)
• OKR for students (Whatmatters.com)
• OCR - a implementation system (INEVO, 2018)
• Track your small win to motivation big accomplishment (Teresa Amabile, 2012)
• Why does OKR work?(without talking specifically about OKR) (Simon Sinek, 2013)
• Use OKR to increase learning in organisations (Christina Wodtke, 2018)