Leading With Obeya

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.

Recommendations

“New ways of visual working has emerged considerably in the last few years. Obeya is a philosophy that can help you to understand how you can benefit from a visual language in your day to day business work. Visual thinking and doing is here to stay. Leading With Obeya is an engaging read to making the transition from traditional to visual management possible.” – Patrick van der Pijl – CEO Business Models Inc., speaker, author of Design a Better Business and Business Model Shift, producer of Business Model Generation

“Keeping an overview and the ability to steer when it gets big and complex in fast and dynamic environments, how do you do that? Obeya offers a solution and its practical value has been fully demonstrated in recent years. But how do you set up a good Obeya and how do you effectively introduce this tool into an organization? With his book Leading With Obeya, Tim Wiegel has succeeded in creating a book that offers many answers, but above all shows giant practical experience. The examples provide guidance, the approach gives direction, and the setup is super practical. In short: highly recommended!” – Rini van Solingen – speaker, professor at Delft University of Technology and author of How to Lead Self-Managing Teams, Formula X, The Power of Scrum, Scrum for Managers and The Responsive Enterprise

“I read Leading With Obeya with a feeling of great anticipation because, whilst many people are aware of the literal translation of Obeya (at its simplest ‘Great room’), few understand the philosophy behind its true use. I was therefore fascinated to learn how Tim would approach the topic and he didn’t disappoint. Right from the foreword Tim confronts the paradigms of how you, and your organization, works and challenges you to think differently on every page.

What I really like about the book is that Tim doesn’t expect you to agree with his every point, he simply wants you to think about how you and your organization needs to change to be successful, using the principles of Leading With Obeya to emphasize the importance of great Leadership. He uses some fantastic visuals and examples to engage the reader and he maintains an interesting narrative throughout.

The more people that are encouraged to move from a traditional management style to Lean leadership, the better, and Tim’s maiden book will help you and your organization to make the change.” – Philip Holt – Senior Vice President - Operational Excellence at GKN Aerospace and author of The Simplicity of Lean and Leading with Lean