Elevate Construction

Jason continues the logistics series with the second installment, covering concepts 9 through 20 of his 28 logistics rules. He walks through breaking the project down into bite size areas, managing supply lines like bottlenecks (with the unforgettable Schroeder family bathroom analogy), why workers should arrive at materials that are already staged the night before, the forklift, hoist, and crane operators as deputized assistants of the senior superintendent, public protection, the tenth man pre construction principle (and the nickname "Shredder" that earned Jason), and the requirement to build five separate detailed logistics drawings, not one.

What you'll learn in this episode:

• Why projects must be broken down into bite sized areas with named owners for staging, trades, access lanes, and trailer slots

• How to map supply lines and identify the single bottleneck on the project that must always be busy

• Why workers mobilizing materials in the first hour is one of the most wasteful patterns in the industry

• Why the forklift, hoist, and crane operators are deputized assistants of the senior superintendent, like generals guarding bridges

• Public protection as a logistics duty, not a checkbox

• The shoring, crane, and hoist principle: it's about knowing the options and asking the right questions

• Why every project must have plan A, B, C, and D worked out, not just plan A

• Why the entryway is the single most important area on the site and sets the standard for everything else

• Why a tenth man during pre construction is the only way to catch what the team missed

• The five separate logistics drawings every project needs: make ready, concrete, exterior and interior, closeout sitework, wayfinding and safety

Spiritual first, then temporal. Plan it completely on paper before you step foot on the site, and the project has a fighting chance.

If you like the Elevate Construction podcast, please subscribe for free, and you'll never miss an episode. And if you really like the Elevate Construction podcast, I'd appreciate you telling a friend (Maybe even two 😊).

Also, here are links to our YouTube Channels:

· Jason Schroeder YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4xpRYvrW5Op5Ckxs4vDGDg

· LeanTakt YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/leanTakt

· LeanSuper YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzQDevqQP19L4LePuqma3Fg/featured

· LeanSurvey YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-Ztn3okFhyB_3p5nmMKnsw

Jason opens what will be a multi episode logistics series with the quote that frames it all: amateurs study tactics, armchair generals study strategy, real experts study logistics. He walks through the first cluster of his 28 logistics concepts using real project examples (a multi hundred million dollar stadium renovation and a three billion dollar data center with 32 cranes at peak) and lays out the principles that separate operationally excellent projects from chaotic ones. He builds toward the colorful framing that workers will eat you, smoke you, and rebel against you if you don't give them basic dignity, then closes with the wayfinding airport analogy.

What you'll learn in this episode:

• Why logistics is the number one consideration on every project, not scheduling or strategy

• Why transportation and movement are necessary nonvalue add and must be minimized

• How just in time works in real life: a buffer plus supermarkets (laydown areas), not zero stock

• Why stacking and interfaces matter more than schedule, with the basement and stadium examples

• Why a project must give workers proper smoking areas, eating areas, and restrooms or pay the cultural price

• Why signage and wayfinding need to be as clear as an airport, and how high rises and microprocessing plants get workers to areas

Treat workers like humans. Treat materials like inventory. Treat the site like a system. That's the foundation logistics gives every other discipline.

If you like the Elevate Construction podcast, please subscribe for free, and you'll never miss an episode. And if you really like the Elevate Construction podcast, I'd appreciate you telling a friend (Maybe even two 😊).

Also, here are links to our YouTube Channels:

· Jason Schroeder YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4xpRYvrW5Op5Ckxs4vDGDg

· LeanTakt YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/leanTakt

· LeanSuper YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzQDevqQP19L4LePuqma3Fg/featured

· LeanSurvey YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-Ztn3okFhyB_3p5nmMKnsw

Jason continues the total participation series with the fourth installment: showing the team what winning looks like, daily. He pulls in the principles from Own the Gap on closing the distance between a company's vision and the work happening in the field, the phrase he and Weston Woolsey repeated on projects ("see what winning looks like"), and Niklas Modig's Jidoka principle of making the team's standing visible so problems can surface. He shares the self-performed concrete crew story where breaking down production targets by code, by crew, and by day transformed random task work into a team solving problems together to hit a number.

What you'll learn in this episode:

• The three engagement requirements: connection, relevance, and measurement

• Why visual systems without targets don't actually motivate anyone

• The principle from Own the Gap: close the distance between the company vision and the daily work

• The self-performed concrete story: visual production targets by crew and code daily

• The civil example: linear footage by station by ten minute increments to expose what's holding the crew back

• The Jidoka principle from Niklas Modig: see the target, see the gap, and the team will surface the problems

If you don't define winning, your team can't win. And if your visual systems don't include the target, they're just decoration.

If you like the Elevate Construction podcast, please subscribe for free, and you'll never miss an episode. And if you really like the Elevate Construction podcast, I'd appreciate you telling a friend (Maybe even two 😊).

Also, here are links to our YouTube Channels:

· Jason Schroeder YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4xpRYvrW5Op5Ckxs4vDGDg

· LeanTakt YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/leanTakt

· LeanSuper YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzQDevqQP19L4LePuqma3Fg/featured

· LeanSurvey YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-Ztn3okFhyB_3p5nmMKnsw

Jason continues the total participation series with the third installment: how visual systems are what actually make total participation possible. He walks through a recent conference room visit where a lean engineer had pulled the foreman huddle plan, the PPC, the variances, the inspection tracking, the logistics maps, and the phasing maps into a single visible workspace. He shares the DPR thirty second test for understanding a project's plan and lays out a long checklist of everything on a project that should be turned into a visual system. He closes with the real measure of success: can the superintendent leave the site for a doctor's appointment or a kid's baseball game because the visible systems carry the plan without them.

What you'll learn in this episode:

• Why the leader's hardest job is getting the plan out of the builder's head and onto a wall

• The complete foreman huddle wall: weekly work plan, PPC, variances by role and reason, labor hours, overdue RFIs, overdue roadblocks, daily huddle agenda

• The DPR thirty second test: if you can't see the plan in thirty seconds, the team doesn't have one

• Why a plotter isn't a budget question, it's a participation question

• The long checklist: traffic control, way finding, fence screens, parking, ice and water, restroom signage, right to know area, permitting, deliveries, hoist instructions, stair tower access, valves, benchmarks, fire extinguishers

• The measure of success: can the superintendent leave the site because the visible systems carry the plan

Get the plan out of your head and onto the walls. That's how a team starts solving problems before the superintendent even gets back.

If you like the Elevate Construction podcast, please subscribe for free, and you'll never miss an episode. And if you really like the Elevate Construction podcast, I'd appreciate you telling a friend (Maybe even two 😊).

Also, here are links to our YouTube Channels:

· Jason Schroeder YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4xpRYvrW5Op5Ckxs4vDGDg

· LeanTakt YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/leanTakt

· LeanSuper YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzQDevqQP19L4LePuqma3Fg/featured

· LeanSurvey YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-Ztn3okFhyB_3p5nmMKnsw

Jason continues the total participation series with the second episode in the sequence: how to actually create the culture that makes total participation possible. He shares the St. Louis project assessment story with a company that had touch plan, pull plans, zone maps, and roadblock maps all in place, ready for Takt. Then he gets honest about how easy it is to get triggered by a single four star review, the Gary Vee reframe Katie sent him, and Lauren's brutally funny "don't quit your day job" text about his Lady Gaga adlib. The core teaching is three layered: a culture of total participation is built on safety, vulnerability, and purpose, with the morning worker huddle as the practice that delivers all three at once.

What you'll learn in this episode:

• The St. Louis project where touch plan, zone maps, and pull plans were already set up for Takt

• Why a culture of total participation requires safety, vulnerability, and purpose in that order

• Why the morning worker huddle replaces fourteen separate siloed cultures with one project culture

• How the project leader's vulnerability allows the leader's purpose to become the worker's purpose

• Why a hard nosed leader running worker huddles actually triggers rebellion, not buy in

• The list of purposes workers can connect to: cleanliness, the owner, families, end users, the building itself

Safety enables. Vulnerability connects. Purpose drives. That's how one culture replaces fourteen.

If you like the Elevate Construction podcast, please subscribe for free, and you'll never miss an episode. And if you really like the Elevate Construction podcast, I'd appreciate you telling a friend (Maybe even two 😊).

Also, here are links to our YouTube Channels:

· Jason Schroeder YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4xpRYvrW5Op5Ckxs4vDGDg

· LeanTakt YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/leanTakt

· LeanSuper YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzQDevqQP19L4LePuqma3Fg/featured

· LeanSurvey YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-Ztn3okFhyB_3p5nmMKnsw

Jason kicks off a series on total participation, recording on the way to the airport for a project assessment trip to St. Louis. He credits Paul Akers for distilling this concept and walks through how Paul implemented total participation in his own facility, where everyone, from leadership to the floor, cleans bathrooms, runs morning huddles, takes before and after lean improvement videos, and participates as a single culture. Jason then shares how he applied this on the Bioscience Research Laboratory project with worker morning huddles, visual systems, 5S cards, eight wastes cards, awards, and culture building. He closes with the central image of the episode: a percentage graph asking what percent of the plan and culture each level of the team actually knows.

What you'll learn in this episode:

• Paul Akers' philosophy of total participation in his factory: everyone cleans, huddles, and participates

• Why morning worker huddles (not foreman huddles) are one of the highest leverage practices Jason ever implemented

• The visual systems on the Bioscience Research Lab project: signage, lean boards, hoist visuals, gates, walkways, huddle areas

• The pattern: respect for people, stability, eight wastes and 5S training, huddles, rewards, awards

• The percentage graph: what percent of the plan and culture do the PM, super, FE, foreman, lead persons, and laborers actually understand

• The goal: not 100 percent for one person, but high percent across every person on site

Total participation isn't a memo. It's not a core value on a wall. It's everyone, every day, knowing the plan and acting the culture.

If you like the Elevate Construction podcast, please subscribe for free, and you'll never miss an episode. And if you really like the Elevate Construction podcast, I'd appreciate you telling a friend (Maybe even two 😊).

Also, here are links to our YouTube Channels:

· Jason Schroeder YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4xpRYvrW5Op5Ckxs4vDGDg

· LeanTakt YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/leanTakt

· LeanSuper YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzQDevqQP19L4LePuqma3Fg/featured

· LeanSurvey YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-Ztn3okFhyB_3p5nmMKnsw

Jason takes on a culture problem he finally put words to after a recent project walk: too many leaders are spending their energy on CYA (covering their own backside) instead of finding and fixing problems. He pulls in Paul Akers' eight wastes and 5S system, the principle that the only real problem is when you think there are no problems, and a memorable (and admittedly off the rails) Lady Gaga Bad Romance riff about falling in love with roadblocks. He closes with a direct charge to call out the energy waste of CYA wherever it shows up, because the energy spent hiding problems is the energy that should be solving them.

What you'll learn in this episode:

• Why the only real problem is thinking there are no problems

• The Paul Akers loop: learn the eight wastes, 5S the area, find and fix what bugs you

• Why a fixed mindset turns problems into reflections on the leader instead of opportunities

• Why CYA energy is energy that could have been spent solving the problem instead

• Why a roadblock is really a flow block, and finding it is how flow gets unblocked

• The challenge: call out the CYA culture, teach the people, and if they won't be taught, let them work elsewhere

Stop hiding problems. Start hunting them. The team that loves the problem the most wins.

If you like the Elevate Construction podcast, please subscribe for free, and you'll never miss an episode. And if you really like the Elevate Construction podcast, I'd appreciate you telling a friend (Maybe even two 😊).

Also, here are links to our YouTube Channels:

· Jason Schroeder YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4xpRYvrW5Op5Ckxs4vDGDg

· LeanTakt YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/leanTakt

· LeanSuper YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzQDevqQP19L4LePuqma3Fg/featured

· LeanSurvey YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-Ztn3okFhyB_3p5nmMKnsw

Jason records through allergy raspiness and shares a moment of clarity from a recent Takt simulation he ran with Spencer Easton in Indianapolis. After watching a team go from 16 minutes in round one, down to 9 to 11 minutes with Takt, and finally to 4 minutes 55 seconds with Takt control, he points to what actually made the difference: the huddles, pre install meetings, first run studies, and mockups. The line that came out of the room is the title of the episode: quality is not a quality system, it's a flow system.

What you'll learn in this episode:

• The Takt simulation results: 16 minutes baseline, down to 4 minutes 55 seconds with full Takt control, a 66 percent reduction

• Why huddles, mockups, pre install meetings, and first run studies are flow tools, not just quality tools

• Why installing it right the first time is the fastest way to gain schedule, not the slowest

• The two to twelve times multiplier of rework when quality is skipped

• The reframe: when you need to hurry up, you add quality steps, you don't remove them

Quality control isn't a separate department to be managed. It's how the schedule actually flows.

If you like the Elevate Construction podcast, please subscribe for free, and you'll never miss an episode. And if you really like the Elevate Construction podcast, I'd appreciate you telling a friend (Maybe even two 😊).

Also, here are links to our YouTube Channels:

· Jason Schroeder YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4xpRYvrW5Op5Ckxs4vDGDg

· LeanTakt YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/leanTakt

· LeanSuper YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzQDevqQP19L4LePuqma3Fg/featured

· LeanSurvey YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-Ztn3okFhyB_3p5nmMKnsw

Jason records through allergy fatigue to take on a hard truth that holds builders back from promotions every day: your work does not speak for itself. He shares the story of a senior superintendent who had all the technical skill but didn't get the general superintendent role because he didn't share, mentor, or build influence. He pulls in Brendon Burchard's High Performance Habits on influence as a leadership trait, the Bush vs. Clinton campaign contrast, the Gordon Ramsay Hell's Kitchen analogy, and Simon Sinek's trust vs. performance matrix to make the case that quiet high performers are actually low trust performers, because communication and trust are tied together.

What you'll learn in this episode:

• Why the line "my work speaks for itself" is a self imposed career ceiling

• Brendon Burchard's High Performance Habits and why influence is one of the six habits

• The Bush vs. Clinton lesson on showing up vs. assuming the work will be enough

• Why a high performer with low communication is a low trust team member, like a silent chef in Hell's Kitchen

• Simon Sinek's matrix: high performers with low trust don't stay on Navy SEAL teams

• The translation of "I'm just going to do my job" into what it actually means

• The list of ways to share without bragging: tour projects, warn others, mentor, scale ideas, present

If your work mattered, share it. If it didn't, the silence wasn't going to protect you anyway.

If you like the Elevate Construction podcast, please subscribe for free, and you'll never miss an episode. And if you really like the Elevate Construction podcast, I'd appreciate you telling a friend (Maybe even two 😊).

Also, here are links to our YouTube Channels:

· Jason Schroeder YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4xpRYvrW5Op5Ckxs4vDGDg

· LeanTakt YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/leanTakt

· LeanSuper YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzQDevqQP19L4LePuqma3Fg/featured

· LeanSurvey YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-Ztn3okFhyB_3p5nmMKnsw

Jason shares a sharp lesson from a recent Takt control simulation he ran with Spencer Easton at Shield Sexton, where he watched a superintendent making a commitment on behalf of a trade partner. He paused the simulation to teach a foundational principle: trade partners must make commitments directly to each other, look each other in the eye, and use their own emotional capital to build trust. He frames it through the emotional bank account analogy and explains why a superintendent who spends emotional capital on everyone else's behalf will never have any left when it really matters.

What you'll learn in this episode:

• The Takt control simulation results: 13 to 16 minutes with traditional scheduling, 8 to 9 with Takt, 5 minutes with Takt control

• Why trade partners must look each other in the eye and commit, not have the superintendent commit for them

• The emotional bank account analogy applied to construction relationships

• Why a superintendent who spends emotional capital everywhere has none left to fix what really breaks

• How direct foreman to foreman commitments turn into social accountability across the project

• How this practice ties into Patrick Lencioni's model of trust, healthy conflict, accountability, and results

Don't be the bottleneck. Let your foremen see, know, and act as a group. The trust they build is the trust the project runs on.

If you like the Elevate Construction podcast, please subscribe for free, and you'll never miss an episode. And if you really like the Elevate Construction podcast, I'd appreciate you telling a friend (Maybe even two 😊).

Also, here are links to our YouTube Channels:

· Jason Schroeder YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4xpRYvrW5Op5Ckxs4vDGDg

· LeanTakt YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/leanTakt

· LeanSuper YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzQDevqQP19L4LePuqma3Fg/featured

· LeanSurvey YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-Ztn3okFhyB_3p5nmMKnsw