[DSRP Evidence](https://dsrpevidence.org/)

# Systems Thinking with Obeya

## Details

**Authors** Berg Wig, B.

**Year** 2023

**Publisher** Institute for Learning Organizations

**Kind of work** book

**Reading level** beginner

**Kind of engagement** reach

[Read it](https://www.amazon.com/Systems-Thinking-Obeya-Bjarne-Berg/dp/826932891X)

## In authors' words

### Abstract

[Amazon page is robots-disallowed; text assembled from the publisher/Goodreads listing and the author's own published book introduction, largely in paraphrase.] Systems Thinking with OBEYA will be an essential addition to the library of any Lean, agile, or system-minded practitioner. The book bridges theoretical concepts with practical application for organizational learning, emphasizing how an Obeya brings together people from different functions to collaboratively identify and overcome organizational challenges, ultimately improving teamwork and accelerating collective learning, viewing organizations as complex adaptive systems that improve through better individual and collective learning. From the introduction: 'The world is undergoing rapid and increasingly complex changes than ever before.' Organizations can either maintain traditional 'command and control' hierarchies or shift toward learning-centered systems; the author calls this 'a paradigm shift' and proposes 'modern learning rooms with interdisciplinary teams and user involvement where one sees — thinks and act together.'

### What they set out to do (purpose)

A practitioner book on the Obeya ("big room") method: interdisciplinary teams sharing one learning space, treating the organization as a complex adaptive system that improves through collective learning.

### What they found (results)

Organizations face a choice between command-and-control hierarchies and learning-centered systems; the author calls the shift to shared learning rooms — seeing, thinking and acting together — a paradigm shift.

## Commentary

### In short

Practitioner book building on DSRP.

### Response

Bjarne Berg Wig is a leading authority on Obeya, lean and organizational learning, and this book builds his account of the method on DSRP — interdisciplinary teams working in one shared learning space, with the organization treated as a complex adaptive system that improves through collective learning. Adoption by an established figure writing for his own field, rather than a citation from within systems thinking.

**Patterns it shows** D, S, R, P

**How to cite this** Berg Wig, B. (2023). Systems Thinking with Obeya. Institute for Learning Organizations.