The Routine Surprise - Always Evolving Obeya

Aug 22 / Jim Benson
Yesterday I finished something. It was done. It had moved to the done column. It was no more. It had ceased to be…

And yet, it came back, because Tonianne watched the video in the evening and caught a few things. I came in the next day, early and ready to work on this.

I was going to do the write ups for the Problem Discovery modules in our new class. But, because I have the Obeya, I first took a quick look to see what others were doing and what changes had been made.

Much to my surprise, and not necessarily delight I saw this:
Tonianne had found quality issues in one of the videos that was “done.” 

This wasn’t “technical debt” or “improvements to be captured later”. This wasn’t something that we had to discuss in our stand up or our huddle. This wasn’t something that was buried in a card on a kanban. It wasn’t an offhand request I might have missed in Slack.

This was an obvious visual call-out, in context, on our board. The orange stickies are an immediate callout I can see, even zoomed out.

So I was going to zoom in and work on Module Two and go to work. Instead, I could see...again in context...where I was needed. I didn’t need Tonianne to “tell me”. The work was clearly communicated and completed before she even stepped foot in the office.

This is routine work. This is a routine exchange. Without the always evolving Obeya, it would have been buried, an interruption, or an annoyance. As it was, it was simply handled and the day progressed. Psychological and operational flow was achieved.

This is What We Do 🥰 - Come Join

If these ideas are interesting, you should check out our Lean Agile Visual Management (LAVM) Program.

Our primary goal is to help people work together in more visual, aligned, and supportive ways. Take a look or chat with us.

The world seriously needs people who can do this.