Leading with Obeya: Using a Big Room to Lead Successful Strategies

In 2014 when Tim Wiegel was introduced to the concept of Obeya, pieces of a puzzle started falling into place. The Obeya (Japanese for ‘big room’) is a physical space where visual management is used to align operational teams and leadership in their efforts to translate strategy into meaningful day-to-day work and results. Toyota started using Obeya during the development of the Prius in the 90’s. Both the car itself and the way it was developed were a huge success from a project management perspective. A growing number of companies and teams are learning about the advantages of working with Obeya in industry, consumer goods, IT, finance, telcom, healthcare, government and ngo’s.

Using Obeya not just for a project, but to lead the organization itself is the answer to a much needed alignment between leadership and operational teams. It helps develop the ability to have meetings that create meaningful context and avoid distractions such as bias, ego and over-complexity. When used throughout the organization, it supports the development of a systematic approach to leadership that enables consistent, coherent and effective decision-making. In search for cause-and-effect under the umbrella of a committed purpose and clarity on strategic direction, the systems-thinking approach of Leading With Obeya helps teams move from fire-fighting to improving the performance of their organizational system sustainably.

Working with Obeya is a way to maximize your human leadership potential.

Leading With Obeya is the first comprehensive book about how to do it right. Tim Wiegel is a dedicated Obeya coach who has witnessed firsthand the breakthrough changes within teams when strategy leads to meaningful action and performance. He aims to drive development of community knowledge of Obeya with the Obeya Knowledge Network, involvement in the Obeya Association and regular blogposts at ObeyaCoaching.com

Tim Wiegel is a dedicated Obeya coach and consultant who’s driven to witness firsthand the breakthrough changes that are made within teams and organizations when strategies and performances are aligned, especially when using the Obeya. He has worked with various banks, IT and communications companies and has guided the Obeya transformation with all of them.