How a global health company rebuilt trust through Obeya

Trust is fragile in organisations. Once broken, it rarely returns through slogans or campaigns. I witnessed this first-hand when I worked with Roche Diagnostics in the Netherlands.

The company faced a big challenge. It needed to keep serving patients and customers well while also going through big changes in the organisation. Leadership was shifting. Silos grew stronger, and people began to doubt that promises of empowerment would come true.

In this context, Obeya sparked the rebuilding of trust.

When trust is at risk

Change is not new in global health companies. But for Roche Diagnostics, the pace of change had accelerated. Digital disruption, customer expectations, and internal reorganisation collided at the same time.

For employees, this created uncertainty. Would the new leadership truly empower them, or would it be command-and-control under a new label? Would the organisation’s noble purpose of helping patients actually connect to their daily work, or stay in the realm of strategy slides?

 When trust weakens, behaviour follows:

• Teams protect their own patch rather than share it.

• Leaders retreat to approvals instead of enabling decisions.

• Energy drains into politics rather than progress.

The risk was clear: without rebuilding trust, no change would stick.

The illusion of progress

On the surface, plenty was happening. New roles were introduced. Agile terms appeared in the vocabulary. Strategy was shared in town halls.

But beneath the surface, old habits persisted. Decisions stayed slow and centralised. Silos blocked collaboration. Mid-level leaders were trapped between expectations from their superiors and disappointment from their teams.

The illusion was that activity equalled progress. In reality, without trust and alignment, the transformation risked becoming theatre. 

This is where visual management and Obeya in particular, changed the game.

What Obeya really is

Obeya means big room in Japanese. It is not a wall of sticky notes. It is also not a dashboard of KPIs. At its core, it is a cockpit for making decisions.

Imagine a space where purpose, priorities, goals, and progress are visible at the same time. A place where leaders and teams meet often to understand information, make decisions, and share results together.

At Roche Diagnostics, we started small. An Obeya wall showed strategic priorities, performance goals, and key initiatives. It was digital, so everyone could access it. And it became the place where leadership conversations shifted from reports to dialogue.

The turning point

In the beginning, the Obeya felt uncomfortable. Some leaders worried that making priorities so visible would expose tensions. Some teams feared that transparency would lead to micromanagement.

But the opposite happened. 

By highlighting decisions and progress openly, conversations became more sincere. It became easier for leaders to see where bottlenecks were formed. And  instead of placing blame, they asked how they could redesign the flow. Teams connected their work to the bigger picture, reducing duplication and silos. And perhaps most importantly, people saw that promises of empowerment were not just words. They were becoming practice.

Slowly but surely, trust started to be restored.

Obeya as a decision cockpit

The Obeya at Roche Diagnostics quickly evolved into more than a wall. It became the organisation’s cockpit.

• Purpose-guided priorities: Everything on the wall links directly to the company’s mission of improving patient outcomes.

•  Strategy became clear: Long-term direction aligned with short-term goals, creating coherence across all horizons.

• Decisions happened quickly: Leadership didn’t wait for the next report cycle; they took action straight away.

• Ownership spread: Teams recognised their role in the larger story and felt part of the result.

• Rhythm created resilience: regular cadences replaced firefighting with steady adaptation.

 With this rhythm, culture shifted. Trust was no longer a campaign; it was a practice.

What made the difference

 Looking back, three elements stand out as turning points in their journey:

1. Leadership vulnerability: Leaders allowed their decisions and trade-offs to be visible. This was a break from polished narratives and signalled authenticity.

2. Collective ownership: Change wasn’t a project done to employees. Instead, all colleagues took part through sessions, retrospectives, and feedback loops.

3. Purpose as anchor: The Obeya did not just show projects. It showed how everything connected to patients and customers. That link made the work meaningful, not mechanical.

Results that matter

Trust is somewhat difficult to measure, but its effects are unmistakable. At Roche Diagnostics however, rebuilding trust with the help of Obeya produced real, tangible results:

• Colleagues reported feeling more involved and empowered.

• Decisions were made closer to where knowledge lived.

• Customers noticed the difference, reflected in an 85% satisfaction score.

• Leadership described the process as having a lighthouse: A guiding point of clarity in the fog of change.

As a result, change became less about surviving change and more about shaping it together.

From Roche to your organisation

Not every company faces the exact challenges Roche Diagnostics did. But every organisation knows what it feels like when trust starts to fray. Promises ring hollow. Silos strengthen. Engagement fades.

The lesson we can learn from Roche is that rebuilding trust is possible but it requires visibility, rhythm, and courage. Obeya isn't a silver bullet, but it's a strong framework. It makes purpose and strategy clear, and it turns leadership into a team effort.

The leadership courage test

Ultimately, Obeya is not about walls or tools. It is about leadership courage.

• Courage to let decisions see the light of day.

• Courage to admit when progress has stalled.

• Courage to build trust not through words, but through visible, shared practices.

When leaders take that step, culture shifts. People stop protecting themselves and start protecting the mission. And organisations stop performing change and start becoming adaptive.

Obeya Fundamentals

 If this story sparked your curiosity, the best way to explore Obeya is to experience it. In our Obeya Fundamentals course at TwinxterAcademy, you will explore about the philosophy, roles, and principles of Obeya. You’ll also discover how to apply it in your own setting. It is a practical entry point for leaders who want to see how visibility transforms trust, alignment, and decision-making. For many, it is the start of a new way of leading.

As a certified Obey Coach, I can highly recommend exploring this first before going any deeper into building your own Obeya.

How trust is shaped

Trust cannot be commanded. It must be earned, step by step, decision by decision. At Roche Diagnostics, Obeya provided the space and rhythm for trust to be rebuilt. Not through slogans, but through transparency. Not through campaigns, but through shared ownership.

And that leaves me with a question worth asking in your organisation: If trust is shaped by what people see, what are your walls saying today?

If you are interested to read more on this, you can read the full case here.

Twinxter and Alize understood the challenge we faced very well (transform while running a business). They supported the Leadership Team, the Transformation Office and all the people in the organisation with the essential ingredients for success. Alize and Twinxter had a pragmatic approach, delivered candid and useful feedback, offered a lot of knowledge we could tap into and was a lighthouse that kept us going.

Esther de Rooij, General Manager Roche Diagnostics NL