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Operational Excellence FAQs

When does an Operational Excellence Cycle start and end?​

An OE Cycle starts 6 weeks prior to the end of a quarter and ends 1 week into the start of the next quarter, with a full quarter encapsuled into the OE Cycle. Each year is different due to the roman calendar and holidays. The steadfast rules is -6 weeks from End of Quarter Started and +1 week from Beginning of Quarter.

Who's involved in Operational Excellence?​

Every Team Member at WeSalute. Team Member Types is defined in WeSalute Company Sturcture. Operational Excellence is a Big Hairy Audacious Goal ("BHAG") that everyone at WeSalute rallies behind.

tip

If you have a @wesalute.com email address. Congratulations you're a WeSalute Team Member.

What's the goal of Operational Excellence?​

To create a more efficent and less stressful work environment that produces innovative results focusing us on outcomes over outputs.

How does Operational Excellence work with other frameworks, such as agile, scrum, kandban, and/or waterfall? How specifically does it impact the backlog?​

Operational Excellence is about shifting our goal setting framework from output to outcomes. The short answer is yes, it does work with other frameworks, and yes you should be willing to throw out the backlog at the start of every Operational Excellence Cycle.

Realistically, you’re not going to throw away 100% of your backlog. Once Company-Wide OKRs are announced, and OKR Ideation has started it makes perfect sense to reevaluate whether you’re working on the right things. Operational Excellence, specifically OKRs and OS, sit on top of the WeSalute backlog as a filter. Here’s some helpful self questions that help frame this decision making process:

Ask: Will this work help us achieve one of our key results?

  • If the answer is no, we remove the item completely from the backlog (specifically the frontburner/backburner and it should be placed in the fridge/freezer).
  • If the answer is yes, we add it to the backlog.
  • If the answer is maybe, we add it to our backlog as learning, which in WeSalute’s case, is product discovery.

Ask: Which of the items in our backlog will help us move the fastest towards our key result?

  • The answer here becomes our next sprint, kanban card, waterfall item, or job-to-be-done.

    OKRs serve as filters for the work we choose to do now versus later. Some existing items in the backlog will make it “through” because they are aligned with the key results. Some won’t and that’s okay. The items that don’t go through aren’t necessarily deleted or thrown away. Instead they go into a “not now” backlog, such as product discovery or the freezer. As we learn more about the outcomes and key results so will our goals and perhaps a future Operational Excellence Cycle will produce a backlog of items that align with these temporarily rejected items. When Sponsors or Stakeholders ask why work plans have changed there are objective, evidence-based answers backed by key results.

Why all the discussion on Quarters?​

Time-boxing and alignment. Anchoring Operational Excellence Cycles to Quarters helps align our impact and keep our efforts time-boxed. Further, as operations grow it's important to align these efforts with fiscal cycles.

🛠️ The OKRs aspect of Operational Excellence has zero impact on your performance evaluation as a Team Member. Remember, OKRs are not business as usual ("BAU") and it is completely okay to drop an OKR mid-cycle if it is discovered to not be working.

Is Fellow private?​

There isn't any "global admin" in fellow. Access Controls & Permissions are determined by the "Share with" and if the Team Member is added to the meeting the fellow agenda is associated with. Don't lose it! Export notes and use the merge functionality in Fellow to keep things organized. If a Team Member is not on a meeting invite that the Fellow is associated with and they have not been shared the Fellow notes then nobody else has access to that Fellow data, including admins!

Is it possible to complete all the required actions during the End of Quarter period?​

Company-wide OKRs are designed to be ambitious and may span many cycles. Team OKRs should be attainable, however aspects outside of a Team's control may result in Objective Postponed, to be addressed at a later date.

Who is performing my Quarterly Review​

Your Manager, as documented and linked in Deel, performs your Quarterly Review.