The HOT seat; Building a governance of trust

“This is so frustrating, Alize. Why is it so difficult to define our strategy and objectives Why don’t we know what our customers really need?”??

The leaders of the executive team I coached, thought it was their job to manage the entire organisation, being in control and know it all. But how to create a company-wide, transparent overview where all parameters, such as the company’s purpose, vision, mission, values & principles and strategy come together, for everyone to see and learn from? During one of their learning sessions, I advised them to start using visual management, like the Obeya*. This advice was quickly accepted and set off a crucial breakthrough in their Leadership Team.?

* Obeya is Japanese for ‘large room.’ The concept originated at Toyota, where they call it the Adrenaline Room. It can be a physical and/or digital room where you visualise your entire organisation. This helps to build a Governace of Trust through company alignment, from purpose to vision to mission to strategy and execution. So you are able to deliver value to employees, customers, other stakeholders and society alike.?

Addressing the elephant in the room?

For several weeks this executive team was struggling to define the relevant milestones. Increasingly frustrated, they worked on their new Miro walls. Working with new tooling is already a challenge for anyone, but as an executive team, defining milestones with a top-down approach for the entire company, is a clear mission impossible. Not to forget, to come to a definition of what success actually should look like.

Eventually one of the executive leaders addressed the elephant in the room: ‘I think we are not able to do this on our own. We lack the proper input from our employees and our customers. I myself, do not have clear view of what our customers expect from us in the coming year. We simply do not have enough information.’ After a short break they knew what they had to do as the leaders of the company. A failure? Not really. A lesson? Most certainly.

Leaders start to set the example

The Leadership Team organised a company-wide meetup and where the entire team stood in front of all their employees. With organising such a meet-up, they made themselves vulnerable and it allowed them to share their story about everything they have gone through, with everyone. The start of the transformation, their struggles and lessons learned. Each of them told a different part of that unique journey and included their personal story as well. At the end, the company CEO explained to all employees: ‘It is very clear that we cannot make these crucial, future decisions on our own. In fact, we do not want to. You are the most valuable people we can think of, the foundation of our organisation. We as a team believe in this change and we want to create our future organisation together with you. Now the crucial question is, what do you want?’

You could hear a pin drop. After the first tentative clap, the applause steadily grew. Everyone had questions and some are even that much excited, that they wanted to start immediately.

'We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.’ - Albert Einstein

Employees and customers in the hot seat

Employees and the executive team started to experiment on several initiatives. Focused on finding solutions and solving impediments in iterations, while using the Obeya and new technologies to help them along the way, they

• Introduced the Hot Seat, a central space in the Obeya where they engaged with customers and stakeholders in order to have conversations about their struggles and needs.?This would help them to gain different perspectives and create a shared understanding of the issues.
• Improved the?Obeya?they visualised the shared purpose, vision, mission, strategy, values & principles of their organisation
• Defined milestones and objectives,?aligned to the strategy and based on customer- and stakeholder needs
• Aligned teams to focus on execution, created a dialogue about which topics really mattered and prioritised work accordingly.
• Used data and metrics?to support their analysis, monitor progress and measure the impact of their efforts.?
• Created the ultimate Lean Process,?based on their organisation’s purpose, values & principles.?
• Created a steady company rhythm?and started to work in iterations to solve problems early in process, celebrate success, review learnings, continuously improve, and stay aligned.?

As a result, the involvement and engagement of the employees was huge and significantly accelerated their company’s transformation.?

The benefits

Working with the Obeya created a Governance of Trust that broke down barriers and changed their lives. There is a reason why ‘People and Interactions’ is the first value in the Agile manifesto. The Obeya helps realise exactly that magic.

It offers employees a space where they can share their story, their struggles, their failures, and successes. They not only feel heard by the Leadership Team and colleagues, but by having these valuable conversations, they also learn from each other, get different perspectives in thinking and?find the help they need to further improve and grow.?

Breaking barriers and changing your leadership system from control to trust will help you to improve efficiency, internal communication, increase innovation, enhance employee engagement, and job satisfaction. Furthermore, it will also help you to make more informed, data-driven decisions, and reduce the risk of costly mistakes.

As mentioned, working with visual management tools like the Obeya is a great way to start building a Governance of Trust. It literally opens the doors of your organisation and allows your teams to take ownership. The more information it contains, the better you can break down internal barriers and deliver valuable results.

Keep in mind, it’s not about the tooling’s, it’s about having the right dialogues aligned to the shared and connected purpose, which will make the difference.?

Now it’s your turn. Which of the above initiatives appeals to you? Who would you like to invite in the HOT seat, to start execute on purpose?

As I believe in the power of sharing, don’t miss this amazing opportunity. Download my FREE E-book, “Leading with Agility ” –?Transform your business with people-driven agility.

This eBook offers you a wealth of tips and nuggets you can experiment with to find your way of working and thinking. A human approach that revolves around people and purpose. That helps you create a differentiating and inclusive journey towards the future of work.?

Prefer to talk further about how to improve your journey towards Business Agility? Get in touch for a chat .?

Thanks for reading this blog and looking forward to your response!

If you think this is of value to others, then please share it with your network. I would highly appreciate that.

Every day is a great day to start transforming the way you change.?

Don’t hesitate to connect. I look forward to meeting you soon.

Have a great day!

Alize Hofmeester

Passionate about living by purpose. Founder of?Twinxter ?/?TwinxterAcademy . Author of?Purpose Driven People , creating business agility & sustainable growth. Co-author of Agile People Principles, Transformational Leadership in the fitness and physical activity sector & Emergence. Creator of the People Journey Circle. Keynote speaker.

It's my purpose to spark the human X-factor and create purpose driven spaces, where everybody is able to grow.

How? Put people & purpose at the heart of your organisation and drive a people-led transformation.