Jimmy Sjölund
In many organizations, strategic planning is the responsibility of only a few individuals. A management team might meet in a secluded offsite location, develop a corporate strategy or a set of team goals, then reveal them to the rest of the company. Sometimes they distribute a presentation afterward and might issue updates throughout the year. However, these updates often come from the same small team that originally developed the strategy—and only if the results align with the objectives.
The rest of the staff might get an update from time to time, especially if they're below budget targets (which they likely have no idea how to translate to their daily work) and need to improve before the next quarter. More likely, the plan winds up on the company intranet, where it languishes, never to be seen again until next year—when it's replaced with the new strategy or goals for the upcoming year. In some cases, they might reference it when presenting their new plan.
Is this just a dystopian picture I'm painting? Or have you worked in one of these companies?
Strategic planning of any type is more effective when it's open—that is, when leaders open their planning processes to feedback, and when progress toward the plan is transparent and clearly evident. To make this work, open leaders can visualize the plans to make them accessible to all organizational stakeholders. And in my view, "organizational stakeholders" refers to everyone in the company!
But why make plans open in the first place? What are the benefits?
In short, openness ensures that Linus' Law applies to strategies as well as code: "Given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow."1
Everyone benefits from an open approach to planning. When the entire team or organization knows the direction we're headed and why, we can all continuously evaluate together whether what we're doing is contributing toward this goal or whether we should stop what we're currently doing because we realize it's not helping us on our path. Another significant benefit is the potential for continuous improvement of the strategy through feedback from everyone in the company.
Over the years, I have acquired some simple and effective methods for achieving this. And in this chapter, I'll share them with you.
The Open Decision Framework2 is a tool for making collective decisions in a transparent and inclusive way. It is useful for open leaders who seek to build open organizations or communities. Open leaders can integrate steps from the Open Decision Framework into their plans or decision-making processes.
Recognizing that many organizations face difficulties in creating and sustaining an open organizational culture, a community of practitioners created the Open Decision Framework to help make the art of open decision making more concrete and repeatable. The Red Hat3 People team created the framework based on the organization's decades-long history making open decisions at scale. Today, many groups have helped refine this open resource, which now includes contributions from The Open Organization community4, new research and materials from Duke University5, writing from organizational and workplace scholars, and various other community resources.
The Open Decision Framework has been designed to help decision makers and leaders seek diverse perspectives and collaborate across teams and geographic areas to facilitate better decisions. In short, it's a practical method for making business decisions that include the needs and values the people in the organization. The framework demonstrates best practices and offers guidance on balancing transparency with the need for confidentiality.
Open decisions share three essential characteristics:
- Transparent: Transparency is key to building trust and ensuring informed participation. People need to be aware of existing problems and ongoing decisions, know who is responsible for making decisions, understand the requirements and constraints, and be clear on how they can contribute.
- Inclusive: Inclusivity is equally important. Those affected by decisions should have a voice in the decision-making process. Actively seeking diverse perspectives ensures more comprehensive and effective outcomes.
- Customer-centric: Consider the people involved or affected as customers with competing needs and priorities. When a decision benefits some but may disappoint others, focus on managing relationships and expectations while maintaining productivity.
While potentially slower initially, open decisions ultimately result in stronger buy-in, faster adoption, and better outcomes. Involving diverse perspectives leads to fresh ideas and early identification of potential issues, ensuring decisions align with strategy and culture. This alignment facilitates smoother implementation and reduces the risk of disengagement or project abandonment.
We use open organizational principles to make open decisions. These principles include:
Transparency. An open exchange of ideas is critical to creating an environment where people are empowered to learn and use existing information for creating new ideas. By making information accessible to all affected parties, transparency ensures that work and decision-making processes are visible, allowing others to monitor progress, understand the reasoning behind decisions, and contribute to potential improvements when needed.
Inclusivity. Open decisions welcome diverse points of view but also implement specific mechanisms for inviting multiple perspectives into dialog wherever and whenever possible. The strength of this approach lies in the evolution of the best ideas. The openness of the process allows for innovative ideas that may not have been considered otherwise. The diverse perspectives within the group bring fresh ideas that you might not have anticipated.
Adaptability. To be adaptable is to embrace continuous learning and improvement. This involves releasing work early and often, viewing failures as learning opportunities, and encouraging experimentation to solve problems in new ways. Open decisions often unfold iteratively; that is, they are the product of several smaller decisions and adjustments that accumulate over time and in response to feedback and experience.
Collaboration. When we are free to collaborate, we create. Together, we can solve problems that no one person may be able to solve on their own. Those most affected by a change can help influence it by identifying misconceptions, filling data gaps, and making necessary course corrections.
Community. Communities form around shared values and common purposes. When organizational stakeholders see their values and purposes reflected in the decisions the organization is making, they feel more connected to its mission and are more likely to understand how their individual actions connect to and support the organization's overall purpose. So when they are facilitating open decisions or planning in the open, open leaders should ensure that these values and purposes are reflected in the work. This communal approach not only multiplies productivity but also builds trust in the decision-making process, regardless of the final outcome.
A3 reports are the result of a work method or problem solving approach that emerged from Toyota and the Toyota Production System6, which one could say ignited the worldwide "lean" movement. Toyota uses A3 reports for many purposes—from status reports to proposal and policy changes to (most notably) problem solving. The name of this method derives from the paper size it once required: the largest possible size you could still fit into a fax machine (today, as less is more, Toyota also promotes A4 reports!).
An A3 report should contain all necessary information for handling a specific problem or making a particular decision. The format differs depending on whether it's an A3 for problem-solving, a proposal, a status report, or a briefing on strategic plans, but in general it includes:
- A short description of the issue or background
- A status report of the current situation
- A description of future state or goals/targets
- An analysis of or a statement on the root cause (in case of problem solving)
- Suggestions for alternative improvements or solutions
- A recommended action, next steps or a time plan
- An analysis of the cost and value (if applicable)
- Follow up
The A3 process is based on the Deming Cycle: Plan, Do, Study, Act. One of the advantages of an A3 report is that it makes plans visible and easier to read quickly, but it is essential to remember that it is only one step in the decision-making process. Another component is the nemawashi process, which emphasizes slow and consensual decision-making.
Many people will circulate and discuss an A3 report before it's presented to decision makers or management. Feedback it receives along the way helps to refine the report so that when it's time to make a decision the information is clear and to the point. This approach may lengthen the decision-making process, but when everyone is on board, implementation is much faster.
It's imperative to stress again: the A3 is not the tool. The A3 is the result of the iterative process of analyzing the situation; it's the visualization method. In Toyota Kata, it's used in the dialogue between the mentor and the adept. The important thing is how and why an A3 is developed and used, not the format or the report itself.
By nature, a strategy-focused A3 is future-oriented, gathering future goals and needs, and cascading down through the organization to people's daily work. The visualization is important and easily communicated by this one-page condensed message. In the nemawashi process, many have already had the opportunity to give feedback and through the visualization of the A3 everyone can quickly be reminded of the strategy and how their work is aligned with the goals and achievements.
This process closely resembles the recommendations in the Open Decision Framework. This similarity suggests that the research behind the framework may have drawn inspiration from A3 reports and the Toyota nemawashi process, as they share core principles.
In our exploration of the ways open principles are reflected in open decision-making practices, we've seen how collaboration, community, and adaptability contribute to better decision-making and outcomes. But how can we translate these principles into a physical or virtual space that encourages these values? Enter the Obeya Room, a concept originating from lean manufacturing, specifically Toyota's renowned production system. "Obeya" translates to "big room" in Japanese, and aptly describes a dedicated space designed to nurture teamwork and decision-making, particularly for complex or time-sensitive initiatives.
Imagine a room with walls covered in visual representations of a project or initiative: charts tracking progress, graphs depicting key metrics, and sticky notes capturing ideas and concerns. This is the essence of an Obeya Room—a visual command center that provides a shared understanding of goals, progress, and potential roadblocks. This high level of transparency keeps everyone aligned and allows for quick identification of any emerging issues.
But an Obeya Room is more than just a set of walls covered with visual aids. It's about creating a collaborative environment where team members can readily connect and communicate. In today's hybrid, global world, easy access to the Obeya Room is crucial, whether team members are working nearby or connecting remotely. Virtual Obeya Rooms, using collaborative online platforms, can effectively replicate many of the benefits of a physical space. These digital hubs can host shared documents, visualizations, and communication channels, ensuring that even geographically dispersed teams can maintain a high level of transparency and connectedness. This accessibility facilitates spontaneous discussions, brainstorming sessions, and problem-solving, leading to a greater sense of shared ownership and responsibility.
The Obeya Room, whether physical or virtual, also serves as a central hub for regular meetings, such as daily stand-ups or weekly progress reviews. These structured check-ins ensure everyone is informed, can contribute their perspectives, and can address challenges promptly. This continuous feedback loop, combined with the visual nature of the space, promotes a culture of continuous improvement, where issues are identified and addressed quickly, and progress is tracked transparently.
By encouraging open communication and collaboration, an Obeya Room reinforces the open principles we've discussed. It provides a space where:
- Diverse perspectives are shared and valued, leading to more informed decisions.
- Community buy-in is established through transparent communication and shared understanding.
- Adaptability is encouraged by facilitating the identification and resolution of issues in real-time.
While the concept originated in manufacturing, the principles behind the Obeya Room can be applied to any field that values collaboration and efficient decision-making. From software development to healthcare, any organization can benefit from creating a dedicated space, physical or virtual, that embodies the principles of openness, transparency, and continuous improvement.
Planning and working in the open always has advantages:
- People and groups that come together with a shared purpose are extremely powerful. With clear priorities communicated everywhere and shared with everyone, you'll get a much better understanding of how your work contributes to the organizational big picture. This improves your autonomy as you can steer your own actions toward the common goal.
- Transparency helps facilitate feedback loops. Being able to make decisions closer to the source is beneficial, of course, but transparency can also improve collaboration and feelings of community. You never know what inspiring or useful feedback you might receive from unexpected sources.
- Visualizing work can make the imaginary wall between management and workers disappear, and which encourages everyone to feel more engaged in their everyday work.
Whether you choose to implement the Open Decision Framework, utilize A3 reports, establish an Obeya room, or, like me, combine these methods, the key takeaway is this: Embrace transparency and encourage feedback. By doing so, you'll cultivate growth within your community and organization, and ultimately, achieve better outcomes by focusing on the right course of action.
Footnotes
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Raymond, E., The Cathedral and the Bazaar. Available online at http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/cathedral-bazaar/cathedral-bazaar/. ↩