Routines can slip. That doesn't mean you've failed.

A team away day that keeps working: the annual planning session

A team away day is often a good day. Ideas come up, plans are made, and a month later most of it has faded again. Not because the ideas were bad, but because nothing was done to follow them up.

The annual planning session is an away day with a plan that sticks. Everything the day produces is on the board at the end, where the team looks in every meeting.

What you do in an annual planning session

• Looking back. At What went well and What we've learned, and at the goals that weren't achieved.
• Choosing. Are the lanes and the direction of each lane still right? What comes first this year, and what do we stop?
• Recording. New goals with a deadline, and the steps per month, on the board.
• Agreeing. Does the meeting schedule still fit, and are the golden rules still right?

Does your team already work with an Obeya, but didn't do Obeya basics with us? You can also book an annual planning session on its own. The new year then goes onto your own board. Without an Obeya, this isn't possible: the annual planning session builds on the team's board and meeting schedule.

Vision session: why we do it

Every board starts with the panel Why we do it. That is the vision: why the organisation or the department exists, and what the teams align their lanes and goals with. Without that vision, each team chooses its own direction, and there is nothing to test the goals against.

In the vision session, management develops that vision with our support: short enough to remember, concrete enough to derive goals from. It forms the basis for the first training day of Obeya basics. A year later, it's time to review the vision: does it still reflect what's going on?

A vision session can also be booked on its own, for a team that already works with an Obeya. For example, when there is a new strategic plan that isn't on the boards yet. More about this on the page from strategy to execution.

Peer sessions for Navigators

What are peer sessions? A peer session is a regular meeting in which people with the same role discuss questions from their own practice. There is no teacher who gives the answer. The group helps each other move forward by asking good questions.

For Navigators, this is valuable. The role is difficult: setting limits without cutting people off, staying out of the content, bringing the corridor conversation into the meeting. What one Navigator runs into in their own meeting, others often recognise. In the peer sessions, Navigators from different teams discuss what happens in their meetings, and what they will do differently next time.

Peer sessions are available as a single session or as a fixed annual series. They can also be booked on their own for Navigators of a team that already works with an Obeya.

Help with a problem that is stuck

Sometimes something is stuck. A goal hasn't moved for months. The same problem is on the agenda every time. Everyone has an opinion about it, but nobody knows what's really going on.

Then it helps to work through the problem together, using a fixed approach: first explore what's going on, and only then come up with solutions. In Obeya basics, the team already learns how to tackle a problem that is stuck. For a large or persistent problem, we guide the team through that approach.

The team also gets online learning and a dedicated section in the software, so the work on the problem stays visible. This can also be booked on its own, for a team that already works with an Obeya.