Building World-Class Operations as a COO with OKRs

Chief Operating Officers are great firefighters. At least, that’s what our COO of Gtmhub Seth Elliott insinuated on The Horizontal Thinkers Roundtable: COO Edition: 

“The COO is about strategic growth acceleration and cross-functional efficiency. And putting out fires.”

But world-class operations are built on more than reacting to what’s happening in your organization. Excellence in the COO role, as Seth said, requires building cross-functional teams, balancing efficiency, and effectiveness, and keeping growth at the forefront of operations. To borrow from Seth again:

“It’s about optimization for the mountain and not the hill.”  

COOs need a framework that can manage these expectations. The only one that holds up? OKRs .

As a COO, you’re tasked with rapidly disseminating information and optimizing the process behind what teams do with that information. OKRs grant the greatest transparency and alignment possible in a framework, which means they are already optimized for the COO role. 

However, successful operations require trust and a degree of autonomy from the COO, not micromanagement. OKRs enable teams to pursue their process with a focus on outcomes rather than outputs. Teams can discover their own “how” when they are aligned with the COO’s “why,” using a culture of transparency to drive alignment and take pressure off the COO.

If you haven’t put 2+2 together, OKRs are a COO’s secret to building world-class operations! We’ve created the resources below specifically tailored to Chief Operation Officers and improving operations. 

Resources

OKRs: COOs Can Drive Sustainable Change with This Breakthrough Approach

?  Whitepaper  

Great if you’re looking for: 

• An overview of OKRs from the Chief Operating Officer’s perspective
• Lessons on amplifying your effectiveness as COO
• How to supercharge your operations with transparency and accountability through OKRs
• Sustainable change as a practical benchmark for your organization

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The Horizontal Thinkers Roundtable: COO Edition

 ? Roundtable  

Great if you’re looking for: 

• Discussion from Chief Operating Officers best practices 
• Frameworks for COOs should use to manage operations and account for scale 
• Goal setting and creating focus at the company and personal level
• How to align and engage teams for better operations

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COOs, Orange Juice, and OKRs: Getting the Most Squeeze from Your Operations  

?  Blog post  

Great if you’re looking for: 

• How OKRs optimize the organization and operations for Chief Operating Officers 
• The problems that OKRs solve for the COO specifically 
• Why OKRs create engagement, eliminate redundancy, and save resources 
• An introduction to setting the OKR framework for your organization 

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OKRs Turn COOs into Transformation Leaders  

?  Blog post  

Great if you’re looking for: 

• An understanding of the spectrum for managing OKRs 
• Why Chief Operating Officers are becoming the focal point for OKR rollouts in organizations 
• How to create methods for adopting and wielding OKRs across the organization

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Gtmhub Marketplace: Become a world-class supplier management organization  

?️  OKR Template  

What this does for you: 

• Demonstrates a live template for a Chief Operating Officer OKR 
• Provides a launching point for your personalized OKR 

Looking to get started with OKRs? Try Gtmhub FREE for 7 days!