Modus Live Online Obeya Calendar | Modus Institute | Collaboration Equation Book

We work in companies to be in the company of others. Human others. We smile. We laugh. We get upset. We … do things. Sometimes fun things, sometimes frustrating things.

Often work is painful, with too many tasks, too many voices, and no clear place to start. When this happens, it’s tempting to just blame it on other people, want to put our heads down in isolation and “get real work done.”

But anyone that’s tried this knows they get part way into things and need to talk to someone. And then, because they have isolated themselves, that either means they interrupt someone else (in isolation) or they just don’t ask. Then… rework, misunderstandings, and worse result.

Isolationism sucks. We’d all rather show up to a team where everyone sees what matters, helps each other out, solves real problems, and gets things done. We want to create a go-to spot for the team to align, work, help, solve problems, seize opportunities, and always keep improving. This is called an Obeya or Mission Control or … so many names, I’ve lost track. One location where people know (know is a very strong word) that progress can be made, problems solved, and opportunities realized. It’s how people know the team has their back.

To Align

Beyond jargon, we are building a room where people can align. They process and agree to move forward. No more doubt, guessing, or passive aggression. When a team sees the same picture, they know what matters and what actions to take. Alignment does not mean everyone agrees on every detail. Alignment is when we agree on direction, and that frees us up to work smarter, not harder.

To Work

Work is more than a hundred tickets in your kanban or sixty cranky emails. Work is more than plans, more than dictates. Work is the best thing each of us could do right now to support our strategy, our plans, and our team. So, in an Obeya, we want to make that happen. Show people what’s in play today, what’s done, and what’s up next. Work stop being an invisible threat and becomes manageable. Overload will still exist, be we see it and can adjust to it. Meetings required to talk endlessly about what we are going to do and when go away. Status meetings shorten dramatically. The number of times you ask for clarification … and so on. This means less stress because you know what to do, and the team can trust the process.

To Help

If we don’t help each other, everyone’s issues are our shared bottlenecks. So we make this a space where we step up for each other. If a teammate’s stuck, we give them a push. You see where help is needed and offer it. When you need help, it arrives without you feeling lost or judged. Help stops being a rescue and becomes simply doing the work together. This is self-organization.

To Solve

Problems aren’t problems. Work is filled with surprises, it’s how we deal with them that is important. An Obeya lets us deal with surprises reliably, predictably, and collaboratively. When a challenge pops up, the team gathers, looks at the facts, and tackles it together. Solving things together means decisions come easier, faster, and with better results. People trust what they see and what they know. People trust predictability. The problems will change, the response should not. Solve immediately and together.

To Seize

Opportunities hardly ever announce themselves, but they sure are ignored. They are unplanned and inconvenient. When your team has a shared place to spot new directions, you also have a larger number of people looking for them. Profit and market share and customer value stem from these opportunities. Often they are lumped into “problems,” but opportunities are different. They are something that isn’t happening at all that, if successful, could have a lot of positive impact. The visual space, the Obeya, is where these ideas or options can be quickly looked at… and acted on.

To Improve

Improvement isn’t just about process. As professionals we are improving ourselves, our team’s way of working, our tools, our product, our relationships internally and externally… And if you aren’t improving at best you are stagnating, at worst you are moldering. With a shared space, you don’t just fight fires; you learn from every week, every project, every bump in the road. The team grows stronger, the product better, the market awareness more resilient…because you can see what’s working and what needs to change.

Humane Work is reader-supported and we thank you all who have subscribed. It means a lot to us! If you’d like to help keep this work going, become a paid subscriber.

What this Means to Me

I watch this all the time. Teams that take the time to work together, to see what’s important and make sure they are communication lose confusion and gain action. Some stick with it, some lose it, that’s part of how we humans work. We’re lousy at self-care, we’re worse at caring for others. We always think it’s someone else’s job. It is painful to see, I wish more people would invest just a little time to make the pain go away.

We have an ongoing series of Obeya classes at Modus Institute. You can grab one at your leisure or come to a few lean coffees and just get to know us. Or we can consult. Or you can grab a Collaboration Equation book. But please do something to help your team.

Also, if you are in the UK in Nov 2025, you can come to Jim and Karl’s Visual Leadership Class!

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit humanework.substack.com/subscribe