What is Business As Usual? Many businesses confuse Business As Usual with OKRs and try to put day-to-day tasks into they. What is the problem? Should Business As Usual and OKRs be integrated? In the article below, Viindoo will clarify this issue.
1. What is Business As Usual?
A lot of people wonder What is Business As Usual and how it works. In businesses, Business As Usual is a terminology that refers to standard business activities in an organization. These activities include tasks that you or your employees have to do daily.
Find out What is Business As Usual
Some activities in the Business As Usual series:
- Assigned jobs and tasks as in the job description.
- Jobs and tasks to run and manage the business.
- Repeated daily routines.
- Manufacturing process in a sequenced manner.
In other words, B.A.U is the main task that departments have to perform. For example, the sales department has to find new orders, the marketing department generates leads, and the finance and accounting department makes reports on revenue and expenses.
Business As Usual are normal business activities that are always present in any organization. These activities help businesses operate stably, ensuring that important functions and processes of the company take place as soon as the market fluctuates.
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2. Should Business As Usual be included in OKRs?
Some business managers, after understanding What is Business As Usual, still don't know whether to include Business As Usual in individual OKRs or not? The answer is no.
Don't include Business As Usual in OKRs
That's why in addition to understanding what Business As Usual is, we need to understand OKRs. This will help you avoid mistaken OKRs for a daily to-do list.
The terminology OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) refers to the goal that the business is aiming for, not where we are, thereby helping to improve and manage performance. OKRs are not used to manage day-to-day jobs or tasks but are designed to drive the organization forward by measuring more important goals.
Here are some reasons why Business As Usual should not be included in OKRs:
2.1 B.A.U usually has little change
B.A.U is mostly fixed. Meanwhile, OKRs are the exact opposite. One of the advantages of OKRs is their flexibility with fast-paced (usually within a quarter). Updating daily goals allows businesses to react quickly to changes in the business environment and even changes in the market.
Fixed B.A.U is hard to keep up with the market
Therefore, merging Business As Usual and OKRs means losing the advantage of the flexibility and constant changes of OKRs. This can be considered as going against the dizzying changes of the market today.
2.2 B.A.U does not bring intrinsic motivation and autonomy to employees
The important thing when applying OKRs is that this method makes sense for the business. Studies show that people are capable of achieving goals set by themselves. However, the majority of the activities in Business As Usual are launched by leaders rather than by individuals.
Meanwhile, OKRs are come up by discussions between individuals and managers. Through close dialogue, Objectives and Key Results are agreed. It can be said that people who implement and build OKRs clearly understand what needs to be done to improve themselves, thereby forming an organization with meaningful OKRs.
2.3 B.A.U does not bring innovation
The goal that OKRs aim for is always challenging, which helps promote the development of the business. If OKRs are used to measure Business As Usual jobs, the innovative results will have little or no meaning for the business. Therefore, these activities only track jobs that are repeated.
The goal of OKRs is challenging for enterprise management
>>>> See More: What Is A Key Result? Examples of Effective Key Results
3. How to combine Business As Usual and OKRs in the same business
What is Business As Usual and how to operate it to bring about the best management efficiency is something that leaders are always interested in. If B.A.U cannot be included in OKRs, another method is to combine Business As Usual and OKRs. How to combine?
We need to understand that B.A.U helps businesses have stability while OKRs help organizations improve. When combining these two methods, you first need to create a set of indicators. These indicators are used to evaluate the performance of B.A.U activities.
How to combine Business As Usual and OKRs
The purposes of the combination include:
Scenario 1: If your normal business processes and activities are not producing the desired results initially, build a set of OKRs. This is to improve the results of business activities. Take note when combining that you must consider where the problem is, due to the error of the process or activity, and then create a set of OKRs to correct.
Scenario 2: If all your normal business processes and operations are going smoothly, setting up OKRs will help your business move forward and achieve your priorities. However, you also need to strike a balance between B.A.U and OKRs activities, considering how much time should be spent on B.A.U and OKRs.
The advice for businesses that are new to OKRs is to focus their time in the first quarter on B.A.U.'s activities. Over time, after B.A.U activities have stabilized, you can focus your time on implementing OKRs.
The above article is information about Business As Usual and OKRs. Hopefully, through the above content, Viindoo has helped you answer the question of What is Business As Usual, thereby helping you understand and apply business management methods effectively.
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