Obeya
The Wikipedia definition of Obeya is “a team spirit improvement tool at an administrative level, originating from a long history of learning & improving”. I don’t love that definition, but there is some good background and more detail on that page. I prefer Jim Benson‘s definition as “a room, real or virtual, where teams can gather and access all the necessary information to act confidently, containing visualisations like Kanbans and A3s to show status, planning, and work progress”.
Thus, an Obeya is a key part of visual management and visualising the context, so propositions can emerge from the people closest to the context (i.e. Strategy Deployment).
X-Matrix
The X-Matrix is itself a visual format. Its design combines and condenses the key elements of Strategy Deployment, and their relationships, into a single page. Thus an X-Matrix is already an obvious candidate to be part of an Obeya, even if it’s just as an A3.
The Integration
I would go further, however, and say that the X-Matrix can be central to an Obeya. The X-Matrix, and the TASTE model behind it, can effectively provide the architecture for an Obeya. When you have a populated X-Matrix, the Obeya can provide additional visualisations of useful context related to the True North, Aspirations, Strategies, Tactics, Evidence, and their relationships.
Thus, the two go hand in hand. An Obeya enhances an X-Matrix with further information, and the X-Matrix provides a structure for all the information.
I’m excited to be collaborating with Jim Benson on exploring this integration further. I’m currently creating the beginnings of an X-Matrix class for Modus Institute. More immediately we are getting together to teach the class I mentioned in my previous post.
If you can make it to Brighton (UK) on Wed Oct 9th, we’d both love to see you there. It’s going to be fun, and I hope it will be the beginning of some new experiments and innovations. (And please stick around for Lean Agile Brighton the next day!)