Why do organisations still struggle with strategic outcomes and value delivery?
Despite growing awareness of the importance of value delivery, fewer than 40% of projects achieve the full outcomes anticipated at their outset. Wellingtone’s State of Project Management Report highlights this persistent challenge: strategic outcomes and value delivery is a recognised problem in around 60% of organisations, yet post-project outcomes tracking remains one of the lowest priorities for PMOs (Project, Programme, or Portfolio Management Offices).
This gap is not due to a lack of intention. Leaders know outcomes matter, but traditional approaches are too static, too long term, or too disconnected from day-to-day project activity. As a result, outcomes often fade into the background once a project closes, and organisations lose sight of whether promised outcomes ever materialise. For a step-by-step view of the process, see our guide to benefits management.
Are OKRs and strategic outcomes and value delivery really separate things?
With Microsoft Viva Goals retiring in December 2025, many organisations are now turning to Microsoft-native tools such as Power Apps, Power BI, Planner Premium, and Teams to operationalise OKRs in their daily work.
A common misconception is that OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) and strategic outcomes and value delivery are two separate frameworks. In reality, OKRs offer a practical mechanism for delivering outcomes.
Strategic outcomes and value delivery has traditionally been treated as a one-off exercise tied to the business case, assessed months or years after project closure. OKRs shift this paradigm by creating short, iterative cycles, typically three months, where outcomes are tracked and reviewed. This reframing helps organisations focus on measurable, near-term progress while still contributing to longer-term outcomes.
If you are new to the OKR framework, you can explore our practical guide on how to write effective OKRs with examples.
What are the characteristics of organisations with mature outcomes and OKR practices?
Research and practice show that high-maturity organisations share several common traits:
- Proportionate frameworks and processes: Scalable, tailored governance that matches project size and complexity, rather than one size fits all.
- Outcome and impact focus: Success is measured in terms of behavioural change, impact on people, and organisational outcomes, not just outputs.
- Centralised knowledge hub: A PMO or equivalent structure coordinates practices, integrates data, and supports learning across initiatives. (See our article on the role of the PMO in successful OKR implementation).
- Communities of practice: Forums for collaboration, reflection, and continuous improvement, allowing lessons learned to evolve into applied knowledge.
- Continuous improvement mindset: Regular reflection and adaptation, avoiding the trap of rigid, one-off reviews.
- Assurance-driven ways of working: Processes designed to provide confidence that the right projects are being pursued and the right outcomes tracked, without adding unnecessary bureaucracy.
- Educated leadership: Leaders are trained to challenge assumptions, scrutinise outcomes, and engage in constructive conversations before, during, and after projects.
These factors create an environment where strategic outcomes and value delivery is embedded in organisational culture, not treated as an afterthought.
How can organisations assess their maturity in outcomes and OKRs?
Since 2017, Wellingtone has gathered enough data to benchmark outcomes and OKR maturity. The assessment applies three lenses:
- Theory: What best practice should look like in an ideal, resource-rich scenario.
- Practice: How theory translates into real-world conditions, with all the constraints of time, money, and competing priorities.
- Human experience: How people on the ground actually experience processes and frameworks, including where they create friction or add value.
By triangulating these perspectives, organisations gain a comprehensive maturity profile. This identifies strengths, highlights gaps, and provides a roadmap for practical improvement. You can watch a deeper discussion of these concepts in our webinar recording below.
What barriers prevent organisations from achieving maturity?
Several recurring challenges hold organisations back from embedding effective outcomes management and OKR practices:
- Benefits defined at too large a scale: Business cases often promise sweeping gains over five to ten years. These are difficult to track and politically vulnerable. OKRs break ambitions into three-month sprints, creating focus and measurable steps.
- Limited ownership: Senior executives are technically accountable, but in reality are too busy to track outcomes. Without clear ownership, outcomes drift. PMOs can play a facilitative role, ensuring accountability without assuming full ownership.
- Short-termism in the public and private sector: Government cycles and corporate priorities often shift every three to four years, discouraging long-term measurement. OKRs counteract this by maintaining continuous, shorter cycles of focus.
- Lack of benefit-driven discussions: Project selection often revolves around cost and output rather than outcomes. Embedding benefit conversations early, during planning and prioritisation, is essential.
- Output fixation: Too many organisations stop at delivering “the thing” without asking: what impact did it have on people, profit, or planet? Expanding the traditional time-cost-quality triangle to include the “3 Ps” fosters a broader impact perspective.
- Loss of momentum: Benefits conversations frequently fade once a project ends. Without regular review cycles, tracking becomes inconsistent or forgotten altogether.
How can OKRs help solve these problems?
When combined with Microsoft technology, these superpowers become even stronger, for example, Power BI dashboards make OKR progress transparent, Planner Premium links OKRs to project delivery, and Teams ensures conversations and feedback happen where work is already taking place.
OKRs provide a set of “superpowers” that directly address these maturity gaps:
Focus: Defining three to five priorities per cycle prevents scattergun activity.
Alignment: Cascading objectives link individual and team goals to organisational strategy.
Commitment: Clear ownership and visibility encourage accountability and engagement.
Tracking: Frequent measurement makes progress transparent and allows for course correction.
Stretch: Ambitious objectives motivate teams to achieve more than incremental gains.
For a deeper dive into how OKRs complement other performance frameworks, read our article on OKRs vs KPIs
What practical steps improve outcomes and OKR maturity?
To embed sustainable practice, organisations should consider the following actions:
- Engage the PMO: Use the PMO as a facilitator and integrator, ensuring outcomes tracking is embedded in governance without overburdening project teams.
- Educate leaders and stakeholders: Senior sponsors, line managers, and even accidental project managers need guidance on their roles in strategic outcomes and value delivery.
- Change the conversation: Use templates, checklists, and planning sessions to ensure outcomes and impacts are discussed from the start, not bolted on at the end.
- Map the PMO customer journey: Understand who interacts with the PMO, why momentum is lost, and what support stakeholders need to keep outcomes on track.
- Leverage OKRs as conversation tools: Use OKRs to promote better, more human-focused dialogue that considers both quantitative results and qualitative experiences.
- Apply CFRs (Conversations, Feedback, Recognition): These create the human side of OKRs, ensuring performance discussions are continuous and motivational. Learn more in our article on .
If you are currently using Microsoft Viva Goals, note that it will retire at the end of 2025. Our Viva Goals replacement article explores practical options for organisations that want to continue their OKR journey.
What lessons can we learn from industry practice?
Case studies from organisations like NATS and GWR demonstrate different paths to embedding strategic outcomes and value delivery: These organisations demonstrate how Microsoft Power Apps and Power BI can embed OKRs into the digital workplace, moving beyond spreadsheets and disconnected tools.
NATS built a dedicated strategic outcomes and value delivery team, focusing on outcome-based measurement rather than trying to monetise every benefit.
GWR leveraged Microsoft Power Apps and Power BI to centralise outcomes tracking, increasing accountability and transparency across portfolios.
Both examples reinforce the need for cultural change, executive sponsorship, and technology as enablers rather than silver bullets.
You can read more about their benefits management journeys and insights here.
Strategic outcomes and value delivery and OKR maturity are not optional extras. They are the foundation of an organisation’s ability to demonstrate value, justify investment, and execute strategy.
By reframing outcomes through the lens of OKRs, organisations can move from static, forgotten business cases to living, iterative conversations about impact. This is how success rates can finally move beyond 39 percent, enabling cultures of continuous improvement and stronger alignment between strategy and delivery.
For those seeking to take the next step, Wellingtone offers OKR adoption workshops, maturity benchmarking, and networking events designed to help organisations accelerate their journey.
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