Request a Contribution for a Goal

To get started, here's a quick guide on the benefits and how-tos of Contributions in Workpath:

Why to request a contribution

Many of the biggest blockers in organizations originate from dependencies between teams, as teams need each other to achieve their Goals and priorities.

In the OKR process, the Alignment phase is usually where teams identify alignment potential and dependencies, meet and negotiate the terms of the alignment, and document the collaboration. However, this is often a lengthy, costly, and intransparent process, where it is hard for teams to keep an overview of what is needed from them and how others will support them.

Workpath's Contribution Requests allow teams to request the contribution of another team towards their Goals easily to make sure there are no unknown dependencies.

The requested team can manage and respond to all requests in one view, and when a request is accepted, the team becomes a stakeholder of the Goal and can collaborate to achieve it.

How to use Contribution Requests

Request a Contribution

View requests

Accept or decline requests

Delete a request

 

Request a contribution

Contributions can be requested throughout the whole cycle for any Team Goal in Workpath. To request a contribution,

1. Navigate to the respective Goal Room and then the Contribution section on the right
2. Start creating a request by clicking on "Request Contribution".
3. Specify what you need from the other team ideally including a time estimation. Under "What needs the contribution?" you can either select the entire Goal (selected by default), or select a specific Key Result that you'd like the other team to take ownership on or create an initiative for.
4. Click Send to notify the other team

💡 After the request is sent:

• The Team Lead of the requested team will get notified on the platform and via email
• It usually makes sense to get in touch with the other team to clarify details
• Requests appear on the Team Page for the requesting as well as requested team, where they can be further managed (see next sections)
• Like Goals, Contribution Requests are publicly visible in Workpath incl. for viewers

View Contribution Requests

The drafting and alignment phase of the OKR cycle is where many teams think about their capacity for the upcoming cycle, and how they intend to split this between their own Goals and supporting others.

Workpath supports this by displaying contribution requests directly below the Team Goals on the team page. From here, the team can get a clear picture of what is requested.

On the Team Page, the section Contributions > Requests shows:

• The total amount of Contribution Request the team has received and has already agreed to contribute to
• All requests made to the team, i.e. what other teams need from this team
• All requests made from this team to other teams
• An overview of what is needed and when it was requested
• The status of the request: Pending, Accepted or Declined

Additionally, you can use the filter option to quickly find the information you actually need and only see requests your are currently interested in. By clicking on Filters on the right, all listed Contribution Requests can be clustered based on their current status. The request counter on top will always reflect the total amount of requests regardless of the current filter settings.

To access the details of a Contribution Request, i.e. the full description of what is needed or any comments made in regard to the request, click the View button on the right. Doing so will open a new modal providing all information at one glance.

Accept or decline requests

The details of a request can be opened directly from an email, notification or from the overview of requests on the team page described above. From here, any member of the requested team can accept or decline the request, and optionally add a comment to give context as of why.

Before accepting a request, it can further be detailed how the next steps should look like:

1. Collaboration: Actively work together on a Goal by either creating a Key Result or creating an Initiative.

If a Key Result was selected for collaboration, the option "Take Ownership of this Key Result" instead of "Create Key Result" is offered.

After the request has been answered, the decision will be sent to the Team Lead of the requesting team and if accepted

• The requested team becomes a stakeholder of the Goal
• The Goal appears on the Team Page of the team that is now contributing to it

2. Alignment: Formally align the respective Goals in Workpath with the alignment functionality

After the request has been answered, the decision will be sent to the Team Lead of the requesting team and if accepted and aligned

• The respective goal will be listed in the alignment section on both the requesting and requested team's goal room

 

Delete a request

You can delete a Contribution Requests as long as it has not been accepted yet. Follow these steps to do so:

1. Navigate to the page of the team for which the contribution has been requested
2. Scroll to Collaborations and open the "is requesting" tab
3. View the request you would like to delete
4. Click Delete Request