Corporate communications teams face complex challenges in staying aligned and focused. For Siemens, a global technology leader, this was especially true with their complex structure of 9 departments, 20 teams, and over 200 people in their corporate communications function.
Timo Radzik, who began his journey at Siemens five years ago, noticed clear signs that collaboration needed improvement. Teams were starting their own initiatives without overall, transparent coordination, leading to frustration and redundancy. This prompted the exploration of Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) as a potential solution.
The Challenge: Moving from Activities to Outcomes
Like many communications teams, Siemens’ corporate communications had been primarily focused on activities and outputs and short-term measurable outcomes. When tasked with positioning Siemens as a leading technology company (rather than the household appliance brand many consumers still associated it with), teams would immediately jump to familiar actions:
- Organize an event
- Create social media posts
- Buy advertising
These activities could be measured through standard metrics like attendance, reach, and impressions. And the regular brand research answered the fundamental question: Are we changing the perception of Siemens as a tech company? But without a strategy execution framework, it was complicated to translate insights back into actions.
Teams were often caught in a cycle of continuing activities from previous years without critically evaluating their effectiveness.
Siemens’ Bottom-Up OKR Implementation
Recognizing that a methodical, experimental approach would be best, Radzik initiated what they called “Season of Discovery”: A deliberate exploration of how OKRs could be adapted for corporate communications.
The name reflected the exploratory nature of the initiative and positioned the OKR implementation as an adventure that teams would navigate together.
Key elements of their approach included:
Step 1: Starting OKRs at the Team Level
Rather than imposing OKRs from the top down, Radzik started with five teams that demonstrated high psychological safety and openness to change. His own team in data management was among the first adopters, as they were already comfortable with experimentation and new methodologies.
“We picked teams with high psychological safety… you can only start with the ones that are open for change and like to experiment,” Radzik explained.
This created momentum and generated practical examples that could be shared with the other teams and leadership. By starting at the team level, they could refine the approach and address challenges before a broader rollout.
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Step 2: Creating Excitement Around OKRs
To generate enthusiasm, Radzik created “goodie bags” for OKR shepherds (team members responsible for OKRs) that included:
- A copy of “Measure What Matters” by John Doerr
- A compass (symbolizing direction)
- Stickers to create curiosity in the physical office space
“What really works, and I learned this from my time in the video game industry, is goodie bags. Everyone likes goodies,” Radzik shared. This tactile approach helped make the abstract concept of OKRs more concrete and created visible symbols that spread throughout the organization as people placed stickers on their laptops.
The branded materials created a sense of identity around the OKR initiative and sparked curiosity among other teams who hadn’t yet adopted the approach. The investment in physical materials signaled that this wasn’t just another passing initiative but something worth investing in.
Step 3: Scaling OKRs Across Siemens’ Communications Teams
After the initial five teams began using OKRs, five more joined in the second quarter. This controlled expansion allowed the team to provide adequate support to each new group adopting OKRs.
As success stories emerged, the leadership team noticed the initiative and decided to adopt OKRs for their own strategic planning. This created a “two-sided pyramid” approach, with both bottom-up and top-down adoption happening simultaneously.
“Don’t start at the top. Start at the bottom, but try to convince the top as quickly as possible. And then you have the two sides of the pyramid,” Radzik advised, highlighting the value of this dual approach in building organizational momentum.
With leadership embracing OKRs for their strategic planning, the middle layers of the organization became more receptive to adoption. The team is now working to “complete the pyramid” by bringing the remaining teams onboard.
4. Adapting OKRs for Communications Work
Recognizing the unique nature of communications work, Siemens developed two types of key results:
- Communication-based key results: Focused on reach, engagement, and audience understanding
- Collaboration-based key results: Focused on improving how teams work together, particularly in preparation for major communications activities
This adaptation addressed a common challenge in communications teams: the disconnect between planning work and measuring outcomes. When planning an event that would occur after the quarterly OKR cycle, teams struggled to identify meaningful key results. By acknowledging that improved collaboration was a valid outcome, teams could still apply OKRs to their planning phases.
For example, when planning a major event, collaboration-based key results might include targets for stakeholder alignment, deadline adherence, and cross-team coordination. Once the event occurred, future OKRs could measure the communication outcomes.
OKR Implementation Tools and Process at Siemens
Siemens implemented a structured approach to their OKR cycle, with:
- Quarterly planning and alignment at the team level
- Annual planning for corporate communications overall
- Monthly check-ins to monitor progress
- Review and retrospective sessions to capture learnings
Radzik emphasized that the check-ins were the most crucial element: “I think that is the most important part. Whatever you define in the planning phase, especially for the first time, do the check-ins and really feel it.”
OKR Technology
Siemens used Microsoft Viva Goals as their OKR platform, which integrated well with their existing Microsoft ecosystem. This integration allowed for notifications through Teams and simplified the check-in process.
They developed a thoughtful approach to reporting that provided the right level of information to different audiences:
- Detailed tracking at the team level
- Consolidated, strategic-pillar focused reporting for leadership
“The right level of information for the right audience was a big learning,” Radzik noted. Showing leadership 200 individual OKR elements would be overwhelming, so they created consolidated dashboards that focused on strategic pillars.
The team also leveraged AI to analyze objectives and key results across teams to identify overlapping initiatives and trending topics. This helped uncover potential synergies and redundancies across the organization.
Measuring OKR Adoption and Team Maturity
Siemens tracked team maturity on two dimensions:
- How well teams engaged with the corporate communications-wide OKRs
- How effectively teams crafted their own OKRs
This data-driven approach to the rollout allowed them to identify teams needing additional support and celebrate progress as adoption increased.
How OKRs Changed Decision-Making in Siemens Communications
The OKR implementation fundamentally changed how teams evaluated their work. In one case, data showed that the team was meeting engagement targets on most social channels but falling short on LinkedIn. At the same time, research indicated that their target audience primarily received information about Siemens through LinkedIn.
Previously, these two data points might have remained disconnected. With OKRs linking activities to outcomes, the team could identify that LinkedIn underperformance was directly impacting their goal of changing brand perception. This pushed the creation of a new LinkedIn strategy to address the gap.
Results and Impact of Siemens’ OKR Strategy
After implementing OKRs, Siemens’ corporate communications teams reported significant improvements:
- Increased transparency across teams
- A clearer connection between daily tasks and larger strategic objectives
As one OKR shepherd noted, “Smaller tasks are now viewed as key steps toward larger objectives” – exactly the mindset shift the program aimed to achieve.
The data also supported these subjective impressions, with metrics showing improved transparency after OKR implementation. This success led to the decision to expand OKRs across all corporate communications functions.
Challenges and Lessons from Siemens’ OKR Journey
The Siemens team encountered several challenges during their OKR journey:
- Tool selection and migration: When Microsoft announced the shutdown of Viva Goals, it created uncertainty. However, Radzik noted that focusing on methodology over tools proved valuable, as they could more easily transition to a new platform. “I’m very happy that we had spent so much time on implementing the methodology and adapting the method to us rather than the tool,” he shared.
- Sustaining momentum: As with any change initiative, maintaining enthusiasm over time proved challenging, with some early adopters beginning to question the process after a year. Radzik noted that unlike Shackleton’s Antarctic expedition, “the journey will never end” – OKRs require ongoing refinement and renewal.
- Reporting structure constraints: Some teams remained too focused on reporting lines rather than working independently toward defined goals. This hierarchical thinking sometimes limited cross-functional collaboration.
- Organizational changes: Frequent reorganizations meant that team structures and numbers shifted during the implementation, creating additional complexity.
- Separating operational tracking from strategic OKRs: Initially, teams tried to include all their work within OKRs, resulting in an overwhelming number of elements. They learned to maintain separate project portfolio tracking for operational work while using OKRs for strategic focus areas.
Key Takeaways: What Siemens Learned from OKR Implementation
Radzik shared several crucial insights from Siemens’ OKR journey:
- Start bottom-up, then get leadership involved: Building momentum with teams that are open to change creates powerful examples that can convince leadership. This dual approach accelerates adoption across the organization.
- It’s about people, not tools: While technology supports the process, OKRs succeed because of people’s willingness to adopt new ways of thinking and working. “It’s not a tool-thing. It’s a people-thing,” Radzik reflected.
- Balance operational and strategic tracking: OKRs work best for strategic focus areas, while a separate project portfolio approach helps track day-to-day operations. Not everything needs to be managed through OKRs, but the link between OKRs and Initiatives must be clear.
- Listen first: Understanding what problems teams are trying to solve is essential before implementing OKRs. “First listen and try to find out what are the touch points and things you actually want to solve with OKRs rather than just jump right into implementation,” Radzik advised.
- Make it visible and tangible: Using physical elements like stickers and creating branded materials helped make the abstract concept of OKRs more concrete and built enthusiasm across the organization.
- Adapt the methodology to fit your context: By creating collaboration-based key results alongside communication-based key results, Siemens tailored OKRs to the unique nature of communications work.
- Focus on cycle discipline: Regular check-ins and reviews were critical to the success of the implementation, allowing teams to learn and improve their OKR practice over time.
The transformation at Siemens shows that OKRs can be effectively adapted for corporate communications when implemented thoughtfully, with a focus on team ownership and strategic outcomes rather than just activities. With the “Season of Discovery,” Siemens turned what could have been a standard implementation into an adventure that engaged teams and produced meaningful results.