A digital strategy is about more than just making plans and implementing technology. Success depends on execution: how well workplace teams understand, contribute to and collaborate around the strategic goals. This is where many organisations get stuck. Strategy and execution often remain silos, leading to missed opportunities, inefficiencies and frustration.
A powerful solution to this is the Obeya approach. An Obeya can help bridge the gap between strategy and execution, thereby improving your organisation's digital strategy.
What is an Obeya?
Obeya (Japanese for “big room”) is a visual collaboration concept rooted in lean management and used to optimize strategy, execution and collaboration. It is a physical or digital space where teams and leaders come together to:
Visualize strategic goals and progress.
Discuss problems and opportunities.
Make decisions faster.
An Obeya provides oversight and connects everyone within an organisation through transparency and ongoing communication.
Why is an Obeya valuable for a digital strategy?
In the context of a digital strategy, an Obeya can help manage the complexity and dynamics of technology projects. Here are some of the benefits:
Transparency between strategy and execution - An Obeya makes the digital strategy visible to everyone. Think KPIs, roadmap milestones, and the results of ongoing projects. Teams on the shop floor understand not only what is expected of them, but also why it is important.
Faster decision-making - Because all relevant information is shared in the Obeya, bottlenecks can be identified and resolved faster. This prevents delays in projects and ensures that teams remain agile.
Shop floor engagement - The shop floor plays a crucial role in implementing a digital strategy. By involving them in Obeya sessions, they feel co-responsible for results and are better able to align their work with strategic goals.
Continuous learning and improvement - An Obeya makes it easier to evaluate data and results. What is working well? What could be better? This cyclical learning process is essential in a digital strategy, where markets and technologies are constantly changing.
How does an Obeya work in practice for digital strategy?
An effective Obeya often includes the following elements:
Visual strategy board - This board displays the vision, goals and KPIs of the digital strategy. This provides a common understanding of where the organisation is working toward.
Project status boards - This is where ongoing projects and initiatives are visualised, including milestones, risks and progress. This helps to see how day-to-day work is contributing to the strategy.
Problem solving space - A place to share roadblocks and challenges so that teams and managers can collaboratively come up with solutions.
Data and insights - Reports, customer insights and other relevant data are shared to ensure decisions are fact-based.
The power of connection with Obeya
A digital strategy becomes successful only when strategy and execution work together in harmony. The Obeya provides a framework to strengthen this collaboration. It makes strategy tangible to the shop floor, improves communication and accelerates decision-making.
At a time when technology is changing at lightning speed, the ability to be flexible and focused is a competitive advantage. Obeya is the key to achieving this and makes your digital strategy not just an aspirational plan, but a practical reality.
Do you already have experience with the Obeya approach? Let us know how it has helped your organisation!
New book: 'Strategy in digital transformation'.
You can find more explanations and examples about the role of obeya in a digital strategy in my new book “Strategy in Digital Transformation. The e-book will be published in 2025 and later the paper version.
This will be a read and do book that will help you successfully create, share, execute, measure and optimize digital strategies.
In each case, you will find the TIMAF strategy game, 10 worked out examples and many exercises.
With the poster digital strategy and game cards, it becomes a real do-book. The idea is that, based on the book, you can get started creating a digital strategy yourself.
Free webinar: Executing a successful digital strategy
The webinar 'Executing & Optimising your Digital strategy in Digital transformation' will give you the instruments and examples to answer these questions and improve the organisation's strategy to execution alignment and operational excellence for digital transformation.
Join the free webinar on January 23rd, 2025.
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