At the end of the quarter (or when your goal cycle completes), score each goal based on whether you achieved the desired impact. Failure is ok; it means the team was stretching to achieve amazing results. By the same token, celebrate the great achievements and especially when they were hard-won.

The process of closing out OKRs should be a team effort -- everyone worked together to deliver the results, and everyone should come together to see the results. It’s critical to pause and take the moment to reflect, celebrate wins and learn from both successes and missteps.

After the lead provides a final score on their Key Result based on the metric that was being tracked, go through each KR as a team. Ask why the OKR was hit or missed, and continue drilling down into the reasons why until you’ve found the core reasons for success or failure. This makes it easier to avoid the same pitfalls or replicate the same success in the future.

Turning the process of closing your team’s OKRs into more of a ceremony can make it into a milestone moment. Moving slowly through each Key Result and taking a moment to celebrate the wins and dig into the growth opportunities in an end-of-quarter meeting takes OKRs from a theoretical goal-setting exercise to a way to come together and truly see all of the progress that has been made as a team.

Before starting a new quarterly OKR cycle, it’s important to reflect on the previous cycle and make necessary adjustments. This is a great time to look at scores, determine where changes need to be made at the company level, and incorporate lessons learned into planning for the next cycle ahead.