Organizational Problem Solving

KEY TAKEAWAYS A management Obeya is the leadership team’s operating system made visible. It tracks the health of the business, not project deliveries. Seven boards on the walls of one room replaced opinion-based meetings with weekly data-driven sessions in 60 minutes. The agency director continued to run the Obeya after the engagement ended. The boards evolved, the weekly rhythm never stopped. An IT services agency director wanted to change how his management team worked together. He had a strategy and objectives. He also had talented people running operations, commercial development, and client delivery. What he did not have was a way to see it all in one place, discuss it factually, and solve problems before they became crises. ...

KEY TAKEAWAYS A BI team managing nearly 20 projects across several continents built an Obeya room and doubled on-time delivery in 3 months. The Obeya surfaced milestone collisions, quality failures, and ownership gaps that no status report had ever shown. Three PDCAs run inside the Obeya rescued a go-live, halved defects per delivery, and created a standard that the team still uses. Get the Full Project Obeya Template with all the boards layout: Strategy, performance, macro planning, and problem-solving. Ready to print and fill in. [Download Free Template →] ...

KEY TAKEAWAYS False defects dropped from 44% to 4% by implementing an andon system where testers call for help before reporting uncertain bugs Testing productivity more than tripled (from 1.5 to 8 tests per person per day) through a pull flow system with daily targets Failed corrections dropped from 23% to 10% using a quality wall with expert verification Client satisfaction recovered after years of complaints, with the client noting clear improvement in service quality This case study was co-presented with Arnaud Cailleau, then Director of Testing Services at Sopra Steria. [Download the original presentation (PDF)] ...

KEY TAKEAWAYS Frameworks organize work, they don’t fix it: 84-96% of Agile transformations fail because they optimize the container (sprints, ceremonies, roles) without addressing how work actually flows through the system. Define outcomes first, then work backward: Results-based coaching starts with a specific, measurable performance gap and identifies the changes that will close it, rather than adopting a methodology and hoping for results. Four practices drive measurable improvement: Performance gap framing, direct observation, value stream mapping, and root cause analysis reveal problems that retrospectives and dashboards miss. Case study proof: A DevOps team running Scrum reduced infrastructure deployment lead time from 64 to 29 days (55%) by tracing actual work across team boundaries and fixing specific root causes. Start this week: Trace one feature end-to-end, spend one hour observing your team work, and define one performance gap with specific metrics. If coaching engagements have disappointed you by promising transformation yet delivering nothing more than process buzzwords, you are not alone. ...

KEY TAKEAWAYS An Obeya is a physical or virtual space where the project lives on the walls, and the team meets weekly to decide what to change. Toyota built the first one during the Prius program in the 1990s. The method now runs in software, hospitals, banks, and creative agencies. A BI team I coached went from 24% to 55% on-time delivery in three months, cut defects in half, and raised customer satisfaction from 5.5 to 9.4. Across my engagements, I’ve used three types: project Obeya for delivery, management Obeya for business health, and product Obeya for customer fit. Pick by what you are trying to manage. The wall is not the point. The weekly conversation in front of the wall is. Without an animator running it, the room becomes wall decoration. A BI (Business Intelligence) team went from 24% on-time delivery to 55% in three months, using one room and six visual boards. ...

KEY TAKEAWAYS A value stream is the end-to-end flow of activities required to deliver software from idea to production, mapping it reveals bottlenecks, handoffs, and waste Value Stream Mapping (VSM) in tech focuses — amongst others — on lead time, process time, and percent complete/accurate (%C/A) at each step Example: A 30-person engineering team reduced delivery lead time by 45% and cut process steps from 14 to 6 using VSM and 7 PDCA initiatives The 5-step approach: Learn Lean techniques → Map “As Is” → Formulate improvements → Create “To Be” → Align on action plan VSM builds lasting capability; teams equipped with Lean techniques proactively surface and resolve delivery issues What is a Value Stream? Traditional Lean Management Definition A value stream encompasses the complete sequence of activities, both value-adding and non-value-adding, required to bring a product or service from its initial conception to the final delivery to the customer. ...

KEY TAKEAWAYS A3 Problem Solving is a structured one-page method that forces clarity: define the problem, find root causes, implement countermeasures, and confirm results. Successful A3 implementation requires pilot projects, leadership buy-in, and integration into existing team rituals — not a top-down rollout. A tech support team used A3 to eliminate a 145-ticket backlog in 2 months, boosting productivity 72% and customer satisfaction 35%. A tech support team cleared a 145-ticket backlog in 2 months. Here’s the one-page method that made it happen. ...

KEY TAKEAWAYS Root Cause Analysis goes beyond symptoms to identify core issues – essential for preventing recurring problems and developing sustainable solutions. The RCA process requires methodical validation through observation and data, not assumptions or quick conclusions. A true root cause must meet specific criteria: prevent recurrence, drive systemic change, show clear evidence, and have broader organizational impact. Every morning, from 8 a.m. until noon, a Tech Leader and his team gather around the main accounting screen only to find that the transaction data was outdated. Although the system was designed to refresh the transaction list every hours, it only does so once every morning. This situation is causing a critical delay in decision-making and costing the company valuable time. ...

KEY TAKEAWAYS When everything is marked urgent, delivery stalls. Without real prioritization based on capacity, teams drown in work and nothing flows. Good tools and talent can’t fix broken systems. AI and fast coding mean little if reviews, testing, and handoffs stay overloaded or unmanaged. Leaders must design for flow, not push for speed. The real shift comes from limiting WIP, creating pull, and making the delivery system visible and stable. Does Your Team Have the Same Problem? Take the 3-minute Delivery Flow Scorecard to find out: Your team’s flow score (0-100) Whether you’re pushing or pulling work Your #1 hidden bottleneck Find Your Team’s #1 Bottleneck (Free) → ...

KEY TAKEAWAYS Better tools and smarter engineers won’t fix delivery if the system around them is broken. Most bottlenecks come from invisible delays, unclear ownership, and overloaded workflows—not from poor coding. AI accelerates output, but it also amplifies dysfunction. Without flow visibility, fast code creation leads to more rework, review delays, and misaligned priorities. Improving delivery doesn’t require a massive transformation. Start small: make work visible, limit WIP, and fix the handoffs. These simple changes create real, lasting impact. The Pain That Won’t Go Away You’ve hired competent developers. You’ve added AI tools to speed things up. You’ve upgraded your stack, improved your CI/CD, and given teams more autonomy. ...