Create and manage Initiatives

What Initiatives are

Other than Goals and Key Results, which measure outcome, Initiatives describe the work activities that influence OKRs and are clearly defined hypotheses about what might have the biggest impact on getting closer to the target value of a Key Result.

 

Initiative Timeline

In Workpath, Initiatives can be found in the Goal Room of the Goal they contribute to as well as on the page of the team that owns the Goal. However, the best way to view and manage your own Initiatives is on your For Me Page, right below your Goals.

This Initiative Timeline allows you to plan, visualize and communicate the Initiatives and projects that are happening towards Goals directly in one view with the Goals, drawing a connection from what is worked on (Output) to what should be achieved in Goals (Outcome). 

It will appear automatically as soon as you are assigned as the owner to at least one Initiative and will show all of your Initiatives from all Goals of the selected cycle.

 

Managing Initiatives

Create

If a Goal has no Initiatives yet:

1. Navigate to the Goal Room
2. Click on the green Plus in the Initiative sections
3. Give the Initiative a title, an optional description as well as a start and end date
4. Link the Initiative to a Key Result
5. Click on "Create"

If a Goal has at least one Initiative already:

1. Go to the For Me Page and scroll down to the Initiative Timeline
2. Click on "Add Initiative" next to the Goal you want to add an Initiative to
3. Give the Initiative a title, an optional description as well as a start and end date
4. Link the Initiative to a Key Result
5. Click on "Create"

View

Click on the arrow icon next to a Goal to expand it or click on Expand Goals to the right to expand all Goals and see their Initiatives.

Move

1. Grab the Initiative bar to move it without changing its duration
2. Grab and move the blue boxes one the ends to adjust start or end date without entering the editing mode

Add

1. Click Add Initiative on the right next to a Goal
2. Fill in Title and optional Description
3. Select Owner, Start date and End date
4. Link Initiative to a Key Results
5. Click Create to save the new Initiative

Edit

1. Move cursor over the Initiative
2. Click Edit
3. Edit or delete Initiative 
4. Click Save after making changes

Update

1. Move cursor over the Initiative
2. Click Update
3. Select current status
4. Add optional comment
5. Click Update status to save changes and notify Goal stakeholder

💡 To make sure you don't lose track of your Initiatives, recommended actions as well as reminder emails are sent out to you to inform you about the Initiatives for which the start or end dates have passed without being updated to in progress / done. 

 

Jira and Azure DevOps integrations

Initiatives can also be added from and connected to Jira or Azure DevOps. Learn how to set both integrations up here and here respectively.