Obeya for local government: connecting councils and teams
Local government brings together council priorities, service areas, departments and teams. The council agrees its programme, and the senior management team turns it into goals on its board. With Midflyt, teams at each organisational level below the council have their own boards, connected across the organisation. Goals from the council programme are passed to the teams responsible for delivering them. Issues are escalated to the organisational level that can resolve them. Decisions are then communicated back to the teams that raised the issues.
How councils, management and teams connect
The example below shows how a local authority might be organised. The senior management team and each organisational level below it can have their own boards. Each local authority chooses which boards it needs. Local authorities that use programme management can also create boards for individual programmes.
| Level | Where work is organised | Purpose and responsibilities |
|---|---|---|
| Council (elected) | The council programme | The council agrees its programme, which provides the starting point for the boards. |
| Management team (civil service) | The management team's Obeya board | Turns the council programme into goals and assigns responsibility across service areas. |
| Service areas | An Obeya board for each service area: Social, Physical, Public Services and Operations | Shows how each service area contributes to the council's goals |
| Departments | An Obeya board for each department, linked to its service area's board | Reviews departmental goals and issues holding up teams' progress |
| Teams | An Obeya board or a Kanban board for each team | Organises day-to-day work and links it to wider organisational goals |
Integrated working: what it means for a team
Integrated working means tackling an issue as a whole, together with everyone who contributes to it. Not each department working on its own part, but working together based on what residents or the area need. A resident planning a renovation deals with permits, inspection, customer services and sometimes the Social service area. For them, it's one question.
For a team, integrated working means three things:
- Knowing what you contribute to. The team sees which goal of the local authority its work supports, and what its own part is.
- Seeing where you're waiting for someone else. Work that depends on another department is visible to both teams, with an owner.
- Deciding together. If a decision affects several departments, they are informed directly, not second-hand.
On the boards, it looks like this. Teams link cards across boards, so both sides can see what the other is doing. With Send to board, work goes to the inbox of another board in the local authority. And you can adopt a decision from another board. If the original is revised, the adopted decision is updated too.
It works the same way at a province, a water authority or in social services. The levels have different names, but the idea is the same.
Turning the council programme into goals and actions
The council agrees its programme. The senior management team's board starts with Why we do it, based on the council programme. The management team then adds the goals, with one row for each theme. This turns the coalition agreement into a set of goals, each with an owner and a timeframe.
Use Send to board to send a goal to the relevant service area's board. The receiving team chooses where to place the goal on its board.
Service areas, departments and teams turn the goal into practical actions and provide feedback on what they can realistically achieve and what support they need.
When all work linked to a goal is complete, the goal at the next organisational level is automatically marked as complete. For example, the management team can see that 3 out of 5 linked items are complete.
Mission-driven and programme-based working on the boards
Many local authorities work not only through the line organisation, but also through missions and programmes. In mission-driven working, a societal challenge is central, such as housing, poverty or a liveable neighbourhood. People from different departments work together on that challenge. In programme-based working, you bring projects and ongoing work together under one programme, with one goal and its own governance.
A mission or programme can have its own Obeya board, alongside the boards of the line organisation.
- The mission's board starts with Why we do it: the mission itself. Then come the goals, the metrics and the steps per month.
- The work stays in the line organisation. With Send to board, work goes to the inbox of the department or team that carries it out. That team places it on its own board.
- Progress is reported back. Once all the work under a goal is finished, the goal on the mission's board is ticked off automatically.
- Bottlenecks have a place. Issues the mission cannot resolve on its own are escalated to the management team's board, and the decision is communicated back.
That way, a team doesn't have to track its work in two places. On its own board, it sees both its own goals and its contribution to the mission.
Example: permits, integrated across departments
This fictional example shows how goals, issues and decisions move between boards across organisational levels and teams. A permit application often involves more than one department, especially under the Dutch Environment and Planning Act.
| Direction | From | To | What happens |
|---|---|---|---|
| Down | Management team | Physical service area | The management team sends the council's goal, Issue permits faster, to the relevant service area's board. |
| Down | Physical service area | Permits, Inspection and Enforcement department | The service area turns the goal into departmental objectives and passes them to the Permits, Inspection and Enforcement (PIE) department. |
| Down | PIE department | Permits team | The department assigns the work to the Permits team, which uses a Kanban board. The team explains that faster processing is possible, but it needs additional legal staff. |
| Up | Permits team | PIE department | The team sends a card labelled Too few lawyers to the department's board. It is placed under What's holding us back? and added to the meeting agenda. |
| Up | PIE department | Management team | The department first explores what it can resolve itself, such as redistributing work. If this is not enough, it escalates the issue through the service area to the management team. |
| Down | Management team | Permits team | The management team makes a decision about additional capacity. The decision is communicated back to the Permits team and recorded on the relevant card. |
| Sideways | Customer Services team | Permits team | Residents often ask front-desk staff for updates on their permit applications. The Customer Services and Permits teams link their cards about front-desk waiting times, so each team can see what the other is doing. |
From departmental plan and annual plan to the work of the week
Every department has a departmental plan or annual plan. It sets out what the department wants to achieve this year, derived from the council programme. The hard part isn't writing it; it's keeping the plan alive in March.
On the department's board, the plan becomes work:
- every theme from the plan is a lane, with its direction;
- every goal is in the lane where it belongs, with an owner and a period;
- a metric shows progress, for example how many applications were handled within the deadline;
- the steps are in the months, so everyone sees what's coming up now.
A fictional example from the Social service area. A social support team has a goal in its annual plan: residents should know sooner where they stand. On the board, the goal has a metric for lead time. The months show what the team does: in March, a standard first conversation for every new application; in May, a new allocation of home visits. In the meeting, the team sees every month whether the goal is on track.
If a team prefers a simpler board, it can use a Kanban board with the Goals and planning way of working. Read more about Kanban.
What helps: active management involvement
The network of boards becomes more effective when management teams take part in regular board meetings. This involvement can develop over time; it doesn't all need to be in place from day one. These practices help:
- Red signals a need for help. Welcome red cards as an opportunity to identify where support is needed, without assigning blame.
- Start with the difficult problems. Begin the meeting with issues that are holding up progress.
- Respond with support or a decision. When an issue is escalated, the management team provides practical help or makes the decision needed to move it forward, for example on additional legal staff, rather than simply requesting a report.
- Close the loop. Communicate the decision back to the team and board that raised the issue.
- Make decisions together at the board. Use the information on the board to guide discussion and agree on next steps.
- See the work first-hand. Managers occasionally join team or departmental board meetings to understand what's happening and ask how they can help. The aim is to support the team, rather than check up on it.
Find out how a local authority can get started on our Implementing Obeya page.
Training at every organisational level
Teams at each organisational level receive training suited to their needs. The order of training depends on where your local authority begins its Obeya implementation. This approach supports Obeya in local authorities and other government organisations.
In a vision session, the management team develops a shared vision and sets direction together. Using its own board, it practises running meetings and making decisions together.
In Obeya basics, each service area or department builds its own board, aligned with the local authority's overall direction.
Each team builds its own Obeya or Kanban board and learns how to run meetings using it.
In The Navigator training, Navigators learn how to prepare for meetings, guide discussions and follow up on agreed actions.
Frequently asked questions about Obeya in a local authority
What is integrated working?
Integrated working means tackling an issue as a whole, together with everyone who contributes to it. Departments don't each work on their own part, but based on what residents or the area need. For a team, it means knowing what you contribute to, seeing where you're waiting for someone else and deciding together on matters that affect several departments.
What is mission-driven working?
In mission-driven working, a societal challenge is central, such as housing or poverty, rather than the department. People from different departments work together on that challenge. In Midflyt, a mission can have its own board. Send to board passes the work to the teams in the line organisation, and progress is reported back automatically.
What is programme-based working?
Programme-based working means bringing projects and ongoing work together under one programme, with one goal and its own governance. A programme has more components than a project and usually runs longer. It can have its own board, with goals, metrics and steps per month. The teams that carry out the work see their part on their own board.
Is this also area-based working?
It fits well with it. In area-based working, you start from a neighbourhood, village or area and look at what's going on there, together with residents and partners. An area team can have its own board, or there can be a lane per area on the department's board. Boards can be connected within the local authority. Work that involves a partner outside the local authority goes on your own board as a card, with an owner who stays in contact with the partner.
How do you translate the council programme into execution?
The council agrees its programme. The senior management team puts its goals on its board and sends them on to the service areas. Every level translates the goal into its own work and reports back on what's feasible. Progress is reported upwards automatically.
Does the whole local authority have to take part at once?
No. You start where it fits: with management, with a single department or service area and its teams, or with a team keen to get started. The network grows from there. In a local authority, that could be the management team, the Physical service area with its departments and teams, or the Permits team. Read more on Implementing Obeya.
Does Obeya suit work with statutory deadlines?
Yes. A deadline can be a metric on the board. The team then sees every week which applications are approaching their deadline, and can act before a deadline passes.
How does Obeya relate to lean?
Obeya comes from lean. You don't need a lean programme to start. If your local authority already works with lean, an Obeya fits in well.
Can we work together with partner organisations outside the local authority?
Boards can only be connected within your own organisation. Work that involves a partner organisation goes on your own board as a card, with an owner who stays in contact with the partner.
Is the software suitable for local authorities and other government organisations?
The software is GDPR-compliant and takes the Dutch government's information security baseline (BIO2) as its starting point. Permissions apply per board, and a private board stays closed, including to a connected AI. More on Privacy and security.
Curious how the boards in your local authority could work together?
In a short meeting, we'll explore your council programme, the organisational levels and the meetings together.