Cloning is a handy tool that can help your OKR process run much more efficiently. First we’ll show you when to use cloning, and then how to do it.
There are two key situations in which cloning might come in handy:
1) Quickly Setting Up New Objectives for the CURRENT Time Period
Say you’ve just spent the better part of an hour carefully crafting your OKRs for Q2 and aligning them for the best results. Now you realize much of your team has similar OKRs: members of the same team are working on similar tasks, and junior members tend to have ‘junior’ versions of the OKRs that their managers have.
Instead of starting from scratch (and possibly introducing errors in the process), you can use the clone function to make a duplicate copy of the Objective, then make some quick edits to reflect individual targets.
Cloning makes it simple to get set up quickly, while still allowing the flexibility for personalization.
2) Carrying Over Unfinished Objectives to a NEW Time Period
Now let's say you're scoring and closing Objectives in Q2 in preparation for Q3. You notice that you have unfinished Objectives which you would like to continue working on, so you decide to roll them over to Q3.
Cloning is a more effective way to do this than simply editing the time period of the unfinished Objective. By making a clone, you can ‘reset’ the Objective progress for the next time period, while saving your progress in the current time period - otherwise it would appear as though you haven't made any progress at all in Q2!
You can edit the cloned Objective to reflect the leftover portion of the goal in Q3, while making sure that the work you’ve already accomplished is still attributable to Q2.
How to Clone a Single Objective
Step 1. Hover over the Objective and select ‘Clone’ from the dropdown on the far right. You can also do this from the Objective page by selecting Actions -> Clone.
Step 2. Choose options from the dialogue box:
By default, Ally will default to the current time period (useful if you are duplicating new Objectives). If you are carrying over unfinished Objectives into the future, choose the appropriate time period from the dropdown menu.
Choose to keep the original Objective owner, or assign a new one.
Choose to clone both objective and key results or simply the objective.
Step 3. If necessary, edit or tweak the newly cloned Objective, including changing key results or KPIs to reflect the remaining work in the new time period.
How to Clone Multiple Objectives
Step 1. Choose the Objectives you wish to copy by selecting the checkboxes to the left of the Objectives.
Note: Only open Objectives can be cloned in bulk; objectives that have already been closed must be cloned on an individual basis.
Step 2. Click the "Clone" button in the blue bar that appears above the list of objectives.
Step 3. Choose the options from the dialogue box, similar to above.
Note: The cloning process takes place on the back end of our software, so it will take a short time for the system to produce a clone. The bigger the number of objectives chosen to clone, the longer it will take. Please be patient and do not make multiple attempts to clone the same objective.