October 2026 - Elevate Constructionist

Multi-Train Takt Planning: How Trains of Trades Flow Through a Phase

Posted on October 12, 2026October 13, 2026 by Team Jason Schroeder

Read 10 min

Here’s the deal. You do not have to have everybody on a project site going the same speed and the same distance apart. All you have to do is have every train of trades going the same speed and the same distance apart. That one idea changes how a Takt plan should be built, and in my experience it is how the large majority of Takt planning in the United States actually gets done.

Short answer: Multi-train Takt planning breaks a project into phases, such as foundations, superstructure, exterior, and interiors, and runs one or more trains of trades through each phase. Each train is a sequence of trades moving at the same speed and the same distance apart. Different trains can move at different paces. As long as every train has rhythm, it is still Takt, and it adapts to real projects better than forcing one Takt time on the whole job.

What Is Multi-Train Takt Planning?

When most people think of Takt planning, they picture a cascaded visual with a bunch of colored boxes. It is really beautiful, and everything in it is going the same speed and the same distance apart. That picture is helpful for the calculator, and it is helpful for teaching. It just is not how most projects in the United States actually run.

Multi-train Takt planning starts with phases. Inside each phase, you run one or more trains of trades, each with its own rhythm.

In this post, I will cover phases, trains of trades, and four mistakes to avoid. If you are new to the method, start with my overview of the Takt Production System.

Single-Train vs. Multi-Train Takt Planning

Single-train Takt planning is where you force everything into one Takt time. Typically, people do it with a five-day Takt time. Crews then have to adjust their crew composition to fit into what is called a Takt wagon.

I do not have a problem with that. There are times when it is appropriate. But most of the time, the way to look at construction is that you have phases of work, and each phase has its own trains of trades.

	Single-train Takt planning	Multi-train Takt planning
Takt time	One Takt time for everything, usually five days	Each train of trades has its own Takt time
Zoning	One set of zones	Each phase has its own unique zones
Crews	Crews change their composition to fit one Takt wagon	Trades are grouped into trains that flow together
After a delay	Hard to get back on rhythm, so trades get pushed	Move the Takt times wherever they fit inside the week
Where it fits	Teaching, the calculator, and some projects	Most projects in the United States

What Is a Phase in Takt Planning?

Here is how I break a typical job into phases, each one start to finish:

The overall site make-ready
The foundations
The superstructure
The exterior
The interiors
The site work

A phase is a start-to-finish geographical location with its own unique zones. Phases are not durations of time.

That means you are not going to have the same zoning on your structure as you will on your exterior. Those are two different phases with two different sets of zones. You are also not going to have the same trades flowing through those two phases. The trades that flow through your structure are not the ones that will be installing your exterior components.

So it is not everybody on the job following one Takt time. We break the project down into phases first.

What Is a Train of Trades?

Inside a phase, you have trains of trades. A train of trades is a sequence of trades going the same speed and the same distance apart within the train. Notice I said within the train, not within the phase.

That train flows through the phase on its own rhythm, and other trains of trades can flow through that same space too.

Two Trains in One Phase on Commercial Interiors

Here is a clear example, and it happens on commercial interiors all the time. The finish trades will be a separate train. They are more variable, and they have more of what we call zone transitions. That train of finish trades will sometimes even go at a different pace as it flows through.

So you have two trains in one phase. On interiors, you can actually have as many trains as you need.

What I do not recommend is having every individual trade going its own speed. On a typical interiors phase, my trains look like this:

The rough-in train of trades goes through first.
The finishes train of trades follows.
Punch list goes through at a faster pace. You should have very little punch list in the Takt Production System.

A Multifamily Example With Four to Five Trains

Here is another easy example. In multifamily, the structure is a lot of times separate, but framing is usually part of the interiors phase. In that interiors phase, you might see these trains:

Framing goes up with the plumbing.
If the team decides to build top down, you will have another train for your Gypcrete.
The main train of trades then flows down through the building.
A very fast train follows for your meter banks, final clean and closeout, labeling of the rooms, and maybe flooring.

That is at least four to five trains going through the interior sequence. In my experience, that is how Takt works best in the United States.

Takt Means Rhythm

Some people push back on this. They tell me you have to have one Takt plan with one Takt time. I disagree. Takt is more about the flow of trades than it is about Takt time. Takt time is only one component.

Takt is an older German word for rhythm. We could have called it flow planning or rhythm planning.

So whether you force one Takt time within a phase or run a couple of different trains of trades through it, they usually finish at about the same time. Here is a secret, though. In my experience, the multi-train Takt planning method often finishes sooner. It is also more adaptable, and Americans understand it better.

Why Multi-Train Planning Is Still Takt

Multi-train planning is still Takt because every train of trades is still flowing. From there, the work comes down to three things:

Bring the trains closer together.
Make sure each train magnetizes as many independent activities as it can.
Manage the intersections between trains so that everybody can flow.

That’s it. That is how simple it is.

You also do not have to have rhythmic work to do Takt. The key is to identify your phases, get the right zoning through the calculator, and then run as many trains of trades through each phase as you need. As long as each train has rhythm, you are good to go.

What Are the Four Things You Never Do in Takt?

These are some of the biggest misconceptions in the industry:

Never force a five-day Takt time.
Never use the weekends as the Takt time drumbeat.
Never use Saturdays as a buffer day. For how buffers should actually work, see my guide on how buffers work in Takt planning.
Never use a one-to-one setup for Takt wagons. Mechanical will typically have multiple wagons, and finishes will naturally and consensually have multiple activities within a wagon.

What Goes Wrong With One Five-Day Takt Time

If you teach that everything has to be one Takt time, that it has to be a five-day Takt time, and that the weekends are your Takt time drumbeat, you will get into some pretty big problems.

First, you will waste a lot of time. Usually your Takt time is four, three, two, or one day, or even a portion of a day.

Second, using the weekends overburdens and hurts people. That is the opposite of respect for people.

Third, if you have a delay, try getting back on rhythm when you are using five-day Takt times between the weekends. It just does not work. You have to keep your Takt times smaller and let them land wherever they fit inside the week.

Fourth, a Takt plan with one five-day Takt time between the weekends, laid out at a high level using wagons, is still a push schedule. Once you get into a delay, you will start pushing trades to work Saturdays. You will start pushing trades to make up time. You will keep pushing and pushing. I have written before about the truth about overtime, and this is exactly how it creeps in.

Here is how you should see it instead. A phase has your trains of trades flowing on a rhythm. The Takt time hits wherever it needs to inside the week, not on the weekends. Everybody is flowing, the plan can absorb the impact of a day, you just move the Takt times, and you do not even worry about the weekends.

How Do Toyota and BMW Run Multiple Lines?

Multi-train Takt planning is superior, and it surprises me that people get stuck on single-train Takt planning. It is not how it works, and it is not how Toyota does it.

In Toyota’s manufacturing plants and at BMW, wherever they use in-line manufacturing, they run multiple lines, even when they are building one type of car or one type of component. Construction is the same. One phase can and should have multiple trains.

For the details, see our books Takt Planning and Takt Steering & Control. Pull Planning for Builders shows how to package it all together. For a guided walkthrough, see the Takt Production System Masterclass.

So here is the challenge. Pull up your current Takt plan. If it forces one five-day Takt time across the whole job or leans on Saturdays, break the project into phases, give each phase its own zones, group your trades into trains, and let each train flow on its own rhythm.

Bottom line: Identify your phases, zone them right, and run as many trains of trades as you need, because as long as each train has rhythm, you are still doing Takt.

If your project needs superintendent coaching, project support, or leadership development, Elevate Construction can help your field teams stabilize, schedule, and flow.

Want your team trained on this? See our Last Planner® System and Takt training.

On we go.

FAQ

What is multi-train Takt planning?

It breaks a project into phases and runs one or more trains of trades through each phase, so the whole job does not have to share one Takt time.

What is a train of trades in Takt planning?

A train of trades is a sequence of trades going the same speed and the same distance apart within that train. Several trains, such as rough-in, finishes, and punch list, can flow through the same phase.

Does Jason Schroeder recommend a five-day Takt time?

No. I never force a five-day Takt time, because most Takt times are four, three, two, or one day, or a portion of a day.

Can you use Saturdays as a buffer in Takt?

No. Using Saturdays or weekends as a buffer or a drumbeat overburdens people and turns the plan back into a push schedule. Keep your Takt times inside the week instead.

Is multi-train Takt planning still real Takt?

Yes. Takt means rhythm, and every train of trades still flows on a rhythm.

If you want to learn more we have:

-Takt Virtual Training: (Takt Virtual Training)
-Check out our YouTube channel for more info: (Elevate Construction on YouTube)
-Listen to the Elevate Construction podcast: (Elevate Construction Podcast)
-Check out our training programs and certifications: (Training Programs and Certifications)
-The Takt Book: (The Takt Book on Amazon)

Discover Jason’s Expertise:

Meet Jason Schroeder, the driving force behind Elevate Construction. As the company’s Founder and COO, he’s dedicated to taking construction to new heights. With a wealth of industry experience, he’s crafted the Field Engineer Boot Camp and Superintendent Boot Camp – intensive training programs engineered to cultivate top-tier leaders capable of steering their teams towards success. Jason’s vision? To expand his training initiatives across the nation, empowering construction firms to soar to unprecedented levels of excellence.

The Trade Partner Preparation Process: 6 Steps

Posted on October 6, 2026October 13, 2026 by Team Jason Schroeder

Read 9 min

Months to Buy Out, Thirty Minutes to Prepare: The Six Step Trade Partner Preparation Process

Here’s the deal. We might spend months buying out a trade partner and no more than thirty minutes preparing them to actually build. That is a mismatch. We invest heavily in choosing the trade, and then we leave the preparation to chance. I want to walk you through the key steps we should follow as part of the trade partner preparation process, so that we can be successful.

Short answer: The trade partner preparation process is six steps that get a trade ready to build after buyout: (1) purchasing, (2) a pre-mobilization meeting within two weeks of the executed contract, (3) a pre-construction meeting three weeks before the trade starts, (4) an initial (first-in-place) inspection, (5) follow-up inspections, and (6) a final inspection.

Why This Is Most of the Game

People hear pre-construction meetings and say, oh, that again. I would rather eat black licorice than do this. But I am telling you, if you master this, it is most of the game won.

Ask why projects drift at the two-thirds point. Most of the time, it is because of dissolving logic in a CPM schedule that pushes everything to the last third. But the other part of it is complexity. In the middle third of the project, the project delivery team is building complex things and doing less of the actual preparation. That is why the latter part of projects typically drifts, and I do not want that for you. The preparation work does not go away. It simply gets pushed later, into the part of the project where the team has the least capacity for it.

The 47 Things

Let’s say you are looking at a phase of work in construction. This is not our focus, because our focus is everything that happens before it. Pretend that every first task, or wagon, has forty-seven things that need to be prepared ahead of time. All of those things have to be done ahead of time by the project delivery team, and they have to be leveled by level of effort, according to how much that person can accomplish in a week.

We have to understand that a person only gets about twelve to sixteen productive hours in a week amidst everything else. We have to consider PTO and all of their interruptions. And that is for one wagon. It matters, because the team’s time is limited and every item competes for it. Across many work packages, it is forty-seven times forty-seven things that have to be moved back and leveled forward, so they can be started on time and the project delivery team can get them done on time.

Now you may be thinking, Jason, you are freaking me out. Here is the deal. This can all be broken down into different phases, and that is exactly what we do in our construction company. My favorite way of doing it is the trade partner preparation process.

The Six Steps

Here are the six steps.

Purchasing.
The pre-mobilization meeting.
The pre-construction meeting.
The initial inspection.
Follow-up inspections.
The final inspection.

Let me take them one at a time.

Step One: Purchasing

The first step is purchasing, which means an executed contract. That means actually buying out the trade properly, with the right inclusions, making sure everything is compliant, and making sure we have selected the right trade partner.

We have to do this on a buyout schedule. Take your actual production schedule for the project and work it back to the supply chain. Find out when you have to have that trade bought out. That tells you when you have to have your executed contract, and before that, when you have to have finished design. Do the purchasing on time, so the trade can start long lead procurement, coordination, and any permitting on time. If the buyout is late, everything that follows is late, because the trade cannot start the preparation until it has an executed contract.

Step Two: The Pre-Mobilization Meeting

The second step is the pre-mobilization meeting, held no later than two weeks after you have an executed contract. It can be a meeting or an email, but I prefer a meeting. You sit down with the trade and say, we have an executed contract, and we have all of your inclusions. Now we need to start coordination, permitting, long lead procurement, supply chain management, and getting our quality and safety plan in place. Start, start, start. This is the start of all of the trade preparation for the project. Two weeks is the maximum, and you can do it right away. The point is that the preparation starts as soon as the contract is executed, not weeks later.

Step Three: The Pre-Construction Meeting

Some people call it pre-install. Hensel Phelps calls it the preparatory meeting. Whatever you call it, it is the meeting three weeks before the trade starts, not two. This is where you collect all of it and make sure all of the items are done, and where the foreman and the superintendent for the trade are brought together to understand the plan.

The purpose, and I cannot stress this enough, a visual definable feature of work. I will call it a card, a board, an installation work package, or a checklist, however you want to do it. It is visual instructions of what is expected from the crew when they go build, so they have a visual, boots on the ground.

The foreman, the superintendent for the trade, and the PM should leave one hundred percent aligned with the team, with a visual that says, this is what I am going to do out in the field. Let AI take your notes for Procore, and let the project engineer or project manager create that visual with the trades during the meeting. Do they know what is going on, and are we one hundred percent ready?

Why Three Weeks, and Why I Cancel the Meeting

The reason it is three weeks before is that if the foreman and the superintendent come not ready, I cancel the meeting. I say, we will host it next week, which is two weeks before the start. I am not punishing them. They have to come prepared, one hundred percent ready to go.

Everything should hit the crew as a full kit. That is how you get a full kit, and the pre-construction meeting is key.

All of the information.
All of the materials.
The equipment.
Clear space.
Permissions.

Step Four: The Initial Inspection

Once the trade has started in its first zone, you do a first in place mock-up or a first in place inspection, which Hensel Phelps calls an initial inspection. This is where you ask the crew whether they are building first out of the gate according to the visual definable feature of work, the installation work package. It is really cool stuff.

Step Five: Follow-Up Inspections

The fifth step is to continually inspect handoffs with that visual definable feature of work, the installation work package. The visual keeps the inspection tied to what was agreed in the pre-construction meeting, so the handoffs are checked against the same standard the crew was given before they started.

Step Six: The Final Inspection

The final inspection is where you do not let them go. Hold on to them until you have reconciled change orders, punched everything out, finished as you go, and made sure the work is complete. If you let them go before you are done, try getting them back. That is just human nature, and I am not making fun of anybody.

Putting the Six Steps Together

That is purchasing, the pre-mobilization meeting, the pre-construction meeting, the initial inspection, the follow-up inspections, and the final inspection. Those six steps are the trade partner preparation process. Each step prepares the next one, from the executed contract, to the meetings that get the trade ready, to the inspections that confirm the work and the handoffs match the plan.

If your project needs superintendent coaching, project support, or leadership development, Elevate Construction can help your field teams stabilize, schedule, and flow.

So here is the challenge. Look at your current project and ask how much time you spent buying out your trade partners compared with preparing them to build. Then pick the next trade starting and schedule its pre-mobilization meeting and its pre-construction meeting.

Bottom line: We might spend months buying out a trade partner and no more than thirty minutes preparing them to actually build.

On we go.

FAQ

What are the six steps of the trade partner preparation process?

Purchasing, the pre-mobilization meeting, the pre-construction meeting, the initial inspection, follow-up inspections, and the final inspection.

When do the pre-mobilization and pre-construction meetings happen?

The pre-mobilization meeting happens within two weeks of the executed contract, and it can happen right away. The pre-construction meeting happens three weeks before the trade starts. The pre-construction meeting happens three weeks before the trade starts.

What is the trade partner preparation process?

It is the six steps a general contractor uses to get each trade ready to build after buyout: purchasing, a pre-mobilization meeting, a pre-construction meeting, an initial inspection, follow-up inspections, and a final inspection.

Why does Jason cancel the pre-construction meeting if the foreman and superintendent are not ready?

Because they have to come prepared, one hundred percent ready to go. He is not punishing them. He hosts the meeting the next week, which is two weeks before the start.

Why hold a trade until the final inspection?

Because if you let them go before the work is complete, change orders are reconciled, and everything is punched out, it is hard to get them back.

If you want to learn more we have:

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Decision by Council, Not Consensus

Posted on October 6, 2026October 13, 2026 by Team Jason Schroeder

Read 10 min

Council, Not Consensus: Ask How, Not What, Once the What Is Decided

Here’s the deal. There is a defective behavior, or culture, that is eating into progressive companies and hurting them. I did not decide to talk about this because I was annoyed. I have been mulling it over in my head for quite some time, doing a little research, and I finally came to a conclusion that I think will save you a lot of time. First, a quick sidebar that connects to it.

Short answer: Decision by consensus lets one person stop an idea everyone else supports. Decision by council works better: everyone weighs in once, then the leader or the most qualified person makes the call, and the whole team backs it. Once the ‘what’ is decided, ask people ‘how,’ not ‘what.’

A Meeting Is Not a Briefing

I heard this definition from a colonel in the Marines, and I really liked it. There is a difference between a meeting and a briefing. A meeting is where you bring people together intentionally, for the purpose of weighing in on something and making a decision together. It has to have a purpose, and it needs to be focused. A briefing is where there is a plan and you are getting people up to date.

His point was that if it is a briefing, keep it a briefing. You can do briefings through phone calls, texts, or other messages. Do not talk at people and call it a meeting, because you waste their time. If it is a meeting, have an agenda, keep it focused, and do it the right way. Here is how I think about the ones we use.

The team meeting, the strategic planning and procurement meeting, and the trade partner weekly tactical are meetings.
The foreman huddle, the worker huddle, and the crew huddle are huddles.
A huddle is really a combined briefing, a multidirectional briefing.

So there are differences between meetings and briefings, and between meetings and huddles.

The Culture I Am Warning Against

Now to the main topic. I have been working with organizations that are progressive and dynamic, but they only progress with inside influences, and in individual silos. Even some of my favorite companies do this. They do not network. They do not share. They do not scale, and they do not standardize anything. For the most part, they do not invite or allow outside input. Any of their innovation, and they have a lot because they hire brilliant people, comes internally, not from the collective or from outside sources.

You can have a progressive culture and still take outside influence and scale, if you have the right culture and mindset. Here is the mentality I am warning you against. These companies get trapped in decision by consensus.

How One Person Stops an Idea Everyone Likes

Decision by consensus is not a thing. It will stall you every step of the way. Here is an example, and nobody knows who I am talking about, so please do not get offended. I have been working with some interesting progressive companies, and I told them we have the solution right now. We can implement Takt and the Integrated Production Control System, and we have the visuals, the tools, and the support team.

One person says, I love this. A second person says, I love this. A third says, I love this. The fourth says, we have to do this, this is going to save our clients so much money and unburden hundreds of people. Then you ask one person in one department who, because of the system they are in, has to say, I do not like the idea. If the company got outside help, networked, or scaled, they could not take credit for it. So they say, let’s keep this in house. Let’s wait. I am not sure we are ready. The entire idea fails, and now we are heading ever backward instead of ever forward.

Council, Not Consensus

I remember a quote from someone at DPR that described what the culture was supposed to be. He said, yes, we are all equal, but some of us get paid to make riskier decisions. Everybody is equal, and everybody has a voice, but somebody has to make a decision.

So here is the pattern I follow instead of decision by consensus. It is decision by council, and it works everywhere. I have tried it. Here is how it works.

Either the leader makes the decision, or, regardless of who the leader is, there is a person on the team who is most qualified to make it.
Everybody gets to weigh in, like Patrick Lencioni and Gino Wickman write about, but only once, because more than once is politicking.
The leader, or the person the team has appointed because they are best suited, makes the call.
Because everyone has weighed in and has faith in the person making the call, they all back the decision, get on board, and move forward together in unison.

This is not the same as Nemawashi, building consensus before acting. Nemawashi is about laying the groundwork with people before a decision, not giving one person the power to block it.

I am borrowing the phrase ever forward from DPR, and I love that core value. When a bureaucrat or fear-based person says no to an idea everyone else supports, we are no longer ever forward. Think about someone whose role depends on the current system, say a senior scheduler who does not yet know the Takt system. They may understandably hesitate, because it could feel like a threat to their role. In a council system, they weigh in, and the leader can still make the call and do what is right.

The Difference Between What and How

Here is the point I most want to make. There is a difference between what decisions and how decisions. If you ask a group of people what they want to do, you will get answers shaped by where they sit. The leader says, I want to improve operations and make money. The superintendent says the same. The project manager says the same. The trade partner says, I want a schedule I can follow. The senior scheduler says, I want a department where my intelligence, wisdom, and experience are valued, and I feel safe, with job security in my role.

We should not ask people what they want to do when the company is already heading in a direction. It is like asking my kids, do you want to take a shower, do you want to go to school, do you want to be nice to each other, or do you want to do anything besides play video games? They would say no. Most adults are not kids, and I am not being disrespectful, but if you truly ask people the what question, you will not always get the answer you need.

Do not ask what questions if the what has already been decided. If you are the senior leader on a project, and you know you need to finish on time with a better schedule, that it needs to flow, and that you want to respect people, the what is decided. Do not ask the senior scheduler whether you should hire an outside consultant to show there is a better system. You will not get the right answer. Ask how.

We are going to clean this job, and the question is how we can do it.
We are going to learn Takt construction, and the question is how we are all going to lean in and do it.
This is the milestone we are hitting, and we pull planned and scheduled it together, so the question is how we are going to get there.

Sometimes you do ask what. But if the what is decided, do not patronize people by telling them they have a say.

An Example From a Company in Canada

I was working with a company in Canada, and we were talking to a trade partner about jobsite cleanliness and safety. I said, this is already decided. The leader of that company has said they will build the safest, cleanest, most organized, and happiest jobs in Canada. The what is decided. You get to weigh in on how.

What and How Questions

Be very careful when you ask what and how questions, because most of the time the what is already decided. With the Last Planner system, you do not ask trade partners, do you want to hit this milestone? You say, you get to hit this milestone, so how are we going to do it? Create a council culture, where people weigh in, buy in, and then somebody makes the decision. Never decide by committee, or by consensus, where you need a unanimous decision. You will never make the right decision that way.

If your project needs superintendent coaching, project support, or leadership development, Elevate Construction can help your field teams stabilize, schedule, and flow.

So here is the challenge. Before your next decision, ask whether the what is already decided. If it is, ask how, and give everyone one chance to weigh in.

Bottom line: Don’t ask people what questions if the what has already been decided.

On we go.

FAQ

What is the difference between a meeting and a briefing?

A meeting brings people together intentionally to weigh in and make a decision together, with a purpose, an agenda, and focus. A briefing gets people up to date on a plan. Do not talk at people and call it a meeting.

What is decision by council?

Everyone weighs in once, and then the leader or the person best suited makes the call. Because the team has weighed in and trusts that person, they all back the decision and move forward together.

Why is decision by consensus a problem?

Because it stalls everything. One person who disagrees, often because of their role in the current system, can stop an idea everyone else supports, and the company goes ever backward.

When should you ask how instead of what?

When the what has already been decided. Ask how the team will get there, and do not tell people they have a say in something already decided.

What is the difference between decision by council and decision by consensus?

Consensus needs everyone to agree, so one person can stop an idea. In decision by council, everyone weighs in once, then one qualified person decides and the team backs the decision.

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Decision by Consensus

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They Talk About What They See

Posted on October 6, 2026October 13, 2026 by Team Jason Schroeder

Read 7 min

People Will Talk About What They See

Here’s the deal. I have been doing field walks that have been really impactful on me, and I want to share a lesson I am learning from them. I do not know if I have covered it enough in the podcast format, and if not, I apologize, because it is really killer stuff. People will talk about what they see.

Short answer: People on a construction project only talk about what they can see. If your huddle only shows the schedule, you get status updates. Put zone maps, the six-week make-ready lookahead, roadblocks, constraints, and the Takt plan in front of the team, and the conversation moves to the issues that actually drive the project.

Why Do Huddles Only Cover Status Updates?

This is a big thing for me, because if you are going to be on a construction project and manage it properly, you have to be able to see it. You cannot manage what you cannot measure, and you cannot measure what you cannot see. There is a corollary to that, and it is this. People will talk about what they see.

What Should a Visual Huddle Board Show?

In the Integrated Production Control System graphics I put together, there is a picture of a train going down the tracks, with the tracks out ahead. I have asked this before. How would you like to be on a train going 80 miles an hour and not see but five feet in front of you? How would you like to drive that train and never be able to get out of the cab and inspect it?

Out ahead are roadblocks, which are items that need to be cleared ahead of the train of trades. Part of the train itself are constraints. These are items that are part of the design of the train, and they can be adjusted to remove constraints and to increase your capacity, flow, or speed.

Now imagine that you can see a quarter of a mile out ahead of you, and that you can inspect the train. Now you can control the speed of the train. You can keep the train maintained, and you can stop it if there is ever a problem.

The Cow on the Tracks

Say you only see five feet ahead, and somebody tells you there is a cow a quarter of a mile (about 1,300 feet) ahead. If you cannot see it, you do not have all the information. You would want to know the following.

Whether the cow is standing still.
Whether it is five feet away from the track.
Whether it is a herd of cattle heading toward the front of the train.
Whether it is heading toward you.
Whether it is on the track, or fifty feet away, and whether it is an issue at all.

If you do not have visibility, you cannot really do anything.

What Happens in a Last Planner Huddle

Here is what I want to say. In Last Planner meetings, I want to say one hundred percent of the time, people talk about what they can see. If you get a team in a huddle saying, I am on level five today, I am on level two, I am doing this, I am over here, I am going to go do that thing that you can already see and read on the schedule, that we have already covered multiple times, that I did yesterday, and I am not doing anything new today, that is all they are talking about.

The reason they are talking about it is not that they are boring, ignorant people. It is that it is the only thing they can see.

Show More, and They Will Talk About More

The more visual you make your system, the more discussion you will have around a team. Here is how it builds.

Bring the six week make ready look ahead into the huddle with visual zone maps, and they will talk more about make ready.
Show on visual maps where people are supposed to be, where they are, and how close they are to other contractors, and they will talk about more.
Show roadblocks on those maps, like I talked about in the last podcast, and they will talk about how to remove them.
Show the Takt plan, how work is packaged, and how the pull plan is working, and they will talk about the sequence and the flow of the train.
Put constraints up on your visual board and teach them, and they will talk about constraints.

You cannot have a good team without that team seeing the plan and anchoring around something. It is absolutely crucial.

Benign Conversation Means Benign Visuals

If you go to a huddle, a briefing, or anything on your project site, and you hear them talking about benign, milquetoast things, it is because they can only see and measure milquetoast things. If you want them to get down into the meat of the issue, you have to have meat visuals.

When people argue with me about CPM and say, yes, this is a more visual schedule, but what about this, I would say that even if nothing else about Takt were good, and there are a million things, the visual nature of the system alone is a big reason to choose it. The Takt plan, Last Planner, and the huddles are already visual, and they are already good. Last Planner, Takt, visual environments, really good huddles, and roadblock tracking maps where you literally track by zone are great. People start to talk about those things because they can now see them. Once they talk about them, you have engaged the wisdom of the team. Once you have engaged the wisdom of the team, now you can win.

A Schedule That Hides Information

I am at a loss when somebody says they want a seventy-six page schedule that hides the information from people. I believe that is holding on to classical management principles that care about the money and not about the people.

I just want to say one more time, people will talk about what they see. Audit your meetings. If they are not talking about it, they cannot see it. You had better find a way for them to see it, or your project is not going to progress.

If your project needs superintendent coaching, project support, or leadership development, Elevate Construction can help your field teams stabilize, schedule, and flow.

Want your team trained on this? See our Last Planner System and Takt training.

So here is the challenge. Audit your next meeting or huddle. Notice what people are talking about, and ask what they cannot see yet.

Bottom line: Audit your meetings. If they’re not talking about it, they can’t see it.

On we go.

FAQ

What does “people will talk about what they see” mean?

It means the topics a team discusses are limited by what they can see. If the huddle only shows the schedule, people only talk about where they are and what they are doing. If it shows zone maps, roadblocks, and constraints, they discuss those.

Why does Jason use the train and the cow example?

To show that you cannot control what you cannot see. A driver who only sees five feet ahead cannot tell whether a cow a quarter mile away is a problem, and a team that cannot see roadblocks cannot act on them.

How do you get a team to talk about roadblocks?

Show the roadblocks on visual maps in the huddle. Once they are visible, people start talking about how to remove them.

What should you do if your meetings are shallow?

Audit them. If people are not talking about something, they cannot see it, so add the visuals that bring it into view.

People Also Read:
Total Participation & Visual Systems Book

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Roadblock Tracking Maps

Posted on October 6, 2026October 13, 2026 by Team Jason Schroeder

Read 7 min

Roadblock Tracking Maps: See the Speed, the Distance, and the Roadblocks

Here’s the deal. I chose this topic because it is really relevant to where we want to go with operational control and steering. It is a really neat concept, and I feel like I have not done a good enough job in the past explaining it, although I have mentioned roadblock tracking maps before. The idea is that we want to see where we are.

Short answer: A roadblock tracking map is a floor plan (we build ours in Bluebeam) where every room or zone is colored to match the Takt wagon that has finished work there, with roadblocks marked on top. One look shows where each trade is, how fast it’s moving, how far apart the trades are, and which roadblocks are in their path.

Speed and Distance

One of the things on my mind is being able to see speed and distance. I think that one day, when we have the best Takt software in the world out and available, that software will automatically notify us if the trades are not going the right speed together, and if they are not the right distance apart. It would work from where the trades are in the zones, in their rooms, or at a certain station along a pipe run, or wherever it is.

What we are trying to do is prevent trades from hitting each other. We want to keep everybody going the same speed, because that is really how you flow. Those are important considerations to me.

We Visualize Things Spatially

Not very many people like to look at any kind of schedule. We like to visualize things spatially. It helps with memory, it helps with comprehension, and it is the way we plan and prepare work.

The Map I Borrowed From a Project at DPR

I loved this, and I borrowed it from a project at DPR on the Banner Good Samaritan campus. They were building an emergency department and a bed tower expansion, and they had everything in Bluebeam. The zones were on Bluebeam, and they changed the status of each room to show where that room was, meaning which activities had been completed.

Say one trade is pink. If that trade had gone through all the rooms in the building, all the rooms would be pink. If the trade behind the pink trade was green, that green would start to show up room by room throughout the building. I could tell where every trade was based on where their colors were, and the colors matched the Takt wagons.

I also put roadblocks on this map. The key thing for me was that I could tell, right then and there, whether the trades were going the same speed and the same distance apart. I loved it, and these maps were huge. Here is what they showed.

Each room or area was color coded to match its Takt wagon.
I could see where each trade was.
I could see the distance between trades.
I could see the speed they were going.
I could see whether they were going to finish within their Takt time and meet their end date.
I could see the trades in relation to any roadblocks.

When a Wagon or a Room Has to Come Out of the Train

Another thing I could see wonderfully is when we had to detach a wagon or boxcar from the train, or detach a room or an area from the zones of the Takt plan, because of an owner change or an owner design change, I could see that and keep everyone going and focused on contract work.

How to Build One in Bluebeam

Set up statuses per wagon. Create one Bluebeam status for each Takt wagon.
Give each wagon one color. When a wagon finishes a room, mark the room in that wagon’s color.
Add a roadblock markup layer. Mark roadblocks on their own layer so they sit on top of the colors.
Assign an owner and a rhythm. Name who updates the map, and update it daily before the huddle.

How to Use It

I do not understand how people run Takt plans without these maps, and I do not mean that as a criticism. Everything is about the visualization of time and space. If you are heading in the direction of creating these, I want to encourage you that it is worth it. Here is how.

Build it in a Bluebeam project and status the actual rooms themselves.
Bring the maps up in every one of your meetings and huddles, in real time.
Have field engineers and project engineers keep them up to date with the foreman and the trades.
Talk in your meetings and huddles about problems, and about variations in the speed and distance the trades are apart from each other.

With this, you make better decisions. You talk about the how in meetings instead of the when.

The Time Is Now

If you have not implemented roadblock tracking maps, the time is now, and I promise you it is worth it. You will be able to monitor the speed and the distance of the trades, and how they relate to roadblocks and certain constraints. You will see which areas or zones may have been taken out and put onto a separate schedule, and which boxcars may no longer be part of the train. You can pull the map up in any one of your meetings.

If your project needs superintendent coaching, project support, or leadership development, Elevate Construction can help your field teams stabilize, schedule, and flow.

Want your team trained on this? See our Last Planner System and Takt training.

So here is the challenge. Status your rooms in the color of each Takt wagon, add your roadblocks, and bring the map to your next huddle.

Bottom line: Everything is about the visualization of time and space.

On we go.

FAQ

What is a roadblock tracking map?

A map of the project where each room or area is color coded to match its Takt wagon and statused as work is completed, with roadblocks shown on it. It lets you see where each trade is, how fast they are going, and how far apart they are.

Why use a map instead of only a schedule?

Because people like to visualize things spatially. It helps with memory and comprehension, and it matches how we plan and prepare work.

What software do you use for a roadblock tracking map?

We build ours in Bluebeam, using status markups on each room, colored to match the Takt wagons.

What can the map show when an owner makes a change?

You can see when a wagon, room, or area has been detached from the train or the zones, so everyone stays focused on contract work.

How should the map be used?

Build it in Bluebeam, status the rooms, and bring it to every meeting and huddle, kept up to date by the field engineers and project engineers with the foreman and trades.

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Monthly Field Walks

Posted on October 6, 2026October 13, 2026 by Team Jason Schroeder

Read 10 min

Monthly Field Walks: Walk the System, Write It Down, and Come Back Expecting It Done

Here’s the deal. Monthly field walks are crucial. If you own a business, if you are a general superintendent, if you are any part of the leadership team of a construction company, or if you oversee multiple projects, you have to do monthly field walks. I have talked about this before, but not in this light, so let me take you through it.

Short answer: A monthly field walk is a structured walk of each project, measured against the Integrated Production Control System, not a casual pat on the back. Walk from one end of the job to the other, write everything down, send each item to one of the four winds (do it, delegate it, schedule it, delete it), leave with an action list with names and dates, and come back in a month expecting it done.

The Rhythm of Daily, Weekly, and Monthly Checks

Every month you walk each project and check key things. If you need checklists on what to check, we can typically get those to you pretty quickly, so reach out to me. Here is how the checks stack up across the three rhythms.

Daily, a leader, project executive, or general superintendent should make sure communication is scaling from the teams, roadblocks are removed, there is prompt communication and action on any major owner items, and the team is functioning properly.
Weekly, we check team health and roadblocks again, along with the exposure log, the job cost report, key submittals, and how the relationship with the owner is doing. We also check the status of upcoming quality process items, plus cleanliness and organization, typically around the same time as the team meeting.
Monthly, we do a project risk assessment and project check-in, walk the project, do a BIM check-in, and do something for the owner to pre-sell. We dive into a few things, and we make sure the schedule and team health are in good shape.

Most of these checks center on safety, quality, schedule, BIM, cost and financials, procurement, self-perform work, risk, buyout, RFIs, submittals, change orders, site utilization, and team health. Those are always in the back of our minds.

Walk Against the Integrated Production Control System

The main thing you should be walking your project against is the Integrated Production Control System. Go through the system components.

Check how the team is working, whether we have won over the workforce, and whether we have a really good system for onboarding.
Check that we have a functional schedule, and that the preparation and behaviors we bought out in pre-construction are being implemented on the project.
Check that we have a great procurement and buyout system, plus prefabrication and logistics systems.
Check that our quality, zero tolerance, and roadblock systems are working.
Check that the Last Planner visuals, meetings, and culture are working, and that our Takt system is working with the right schedule deliverables.
Check that we are holding each other accountable with zero tolerance, a daily correction method, quality at the source, and contractor grading.
Check that we are measuring the right KPIs, including quality, schedule, the financial snapshot, risks and opportunities, buyout, material procurement, roadblock removal, and team health.

When we walk a project each month, we do it according to the Takt, Last Planner, Lean system components and the accountability systems that keep the project online.

What People Typically Do Wrong

Here is what people typically do wrong. They say, I will go do a project walk, and then they walk, say, I like this and that, and say hi to the team. If that is all you do, you have not done anything.

There need to be expectations for the project, and those expectations need to be clear, established, scaled, reinforced, and taught. When you walk, the huddle boards, visuals, and meeting systems should be there so you can actually measure things. Because the system components have been made clear, scaled, standardized, and taught, you then measure against them. It is not a negative, big brother kind of thing. You say, we have walked the buildings, we have looked at your schedule, and we have looked at the finances. This month, we really need to improve onboarding. What is your plan? Let’s make a plan.

The next big step might be weekly procurement meetings. For roadblocks, you are doing great, so now let’s start tracking due dates. You leave after your walk with key things that, a month from now, should be up to speed. When you come back, you expect them to be done. That is how you start to scale. When people know you are coming, they know there is a need to implement. You create a need, and you drive progress.

How to Do the Walk

There is a way to do a walk, and there is a way not to. Get the team focused and clear, with no distractions, and start at one end of the project and go to the other. As soon as something comes up, it gets written down. I tell the people walking with me not to be on their phones unless they are writing something down. Do not take radio calls, and do not go squirreling on me. Let’s focus, and we are going to do everything in one piece flow.

One time, somebody said, Jason, you do not want me to squirrel, but you want me to do it one piece flow? I explained that everything you see goes to the four winds. Here they are.

Do it. You do the thing right away, and it is done.
Delegate it. You send it in your WhatsApp chat to the foreman, the self-performed laborers or carpenters, a project engineer, or in an email.
Schedule it. You put it on a meeting agenda or your calendar to do later.
Delete it. You do nothing with it, because it is already being taken care of.

Say we see a pile of trash. If we can pick it up, we just do it. If we know trash pickup is already coming, we include it in the list. If we need a foreman or carpenter to pick it up right away, we send it out with a picture. If the crew is already coming to get it in thirty minutes, we do not do anything with it. When you delegate, be very specific. Put a name on it, name the location, and give a time, such as by tomorrow at 8 a.m.

What Gets Walked

Then you keep walking. We go up to the signage and see which signs need fixing. We look at the lay down yard and make a plan for it. We check the schedule and ask whether we are on our Takt times in the right zones. We look at ladders, the roof, the stairwells, and the elevator. We look at safety, cleanliness, and organization.

By the time you get back to your office, you should have looked at all of the key components of the Integrated Production Control System and actually done something as you walked. You are also teaching the superintendents, PMs, assistants, and engineers how to do a walk, and they mimic the behaviors. There is no, I will remember it later. Everything is written down, acted upon, and dealt with right away. Everything goes somewhere, whether it is a text chat, a to-do list, a schedule, a meeting agenda, or a visual. It does not go up into the ether of your memory.

Back at the Office

Back at the office, you scale the key components. This is our plan for cleanliness. This is our plan for coordination. You are going to start worker huddles next week. This is how you can improve some of these visuals. These are the two or three things you need from corporate, and we can handle them. You leave with an action list with people’s names and dates. Then, when you walk the job again in a month, you continually make progress.

Companies that do this, with real builders evaluating against a real system and holding each other accountable, will win, and you will elevate as a company.

Substance and Dessert

I have seen leaders who just go out and pat everybody on the back, love everybody up, and leave. You should do that, but there is never anything of substance to it. You have to have a standard that says, this is what we want our projects to look like. Scale it, standardize it, and teach it. Then do an actual audit with real feedback, write a list of things that will actually be done in the next four weeks, and come back and expect it to be done.

You cannot just go out and do butterflies, kittens, rainbows, and unicorns. You have to have some substance, some action, drive, grit, and accountability. Then you can have your rainbows and unicorns. It is like not eating dessert until you eat your dinner. You have to have your meal and your dessert, but you cannot just have the dessert.

If your project needs superintendent coaching, project support, or leadership development, Elevate Construction can help your field teams stabilize, schedule, and flow.

So here is the challenge. On your next walk, put the phone down, walk from one end to the other, and send everything to the four winds. Leave with an action list with names and dates, and come back in a month expecting it to be done.

Bottom line: Everything’s written down. Everything’s acted upon. Everything’s dealt with right away.

On we go.

FAQ

Who should do monthly field walks?

Business owners, general superintendents, anyone on the leadership team of a construction company, and anyone who oversees multiple projects.

What should a field walk be measured against?

The Integrated Production Control System, meaning the Takt, Last Planner, Lean system components, and accountability systems, with expectations that are clear, scaled, reinforced, and taught.

What are the four winds?

Do it, delegate it, schedule it, or delete it, meaning do nothing because it is already being handled.

How often should construction leaders do field walks?

Monthly for each project, with a structured checklist based on the Integrated Production Control System, plus daily and weekly checks on team health, roadblocks, cost, and owner items.

What makes a walk effective?

Focus, writing everything down, acting on it right away, and leaving with an action list with names and dates, then coming back in a month and expecting it to be done.

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Project Closeout: The Superintendent’s Role, with NCCER

Posted on October 6, 2026October 13, 2026 by Team Jason Schroeder

Read 10 min

Featuring Adam Hoots, Kevin Rice, and Patty Stephan.

Project Closeout: The Superintendent’s Role From Day One to Done

Here’s the deal. This conversation was recorded with Adam Hoots of The Lean Builder, Kevin Rice, Elevate’s Chief Visionary Officer (COO at the time of recording), and Patty Stephan, then a senior product manager at NCCER, which was developing what launched as its Construction Superintendent Certification Program. Project closeout is one of the topics in that program, and Patty wanted to hear it from practitioners. Here is what came out of it.

Short answer: Project closeout starts on day one, not at the end. Build a closeout submittal register at the start, start commissioning early, shift the team from starting to finishing at the two-thirds point, and make the superintendent the timekeeper who drives the job until the owner is happy, not just until the work is done.

The Project Where I Checked Out Too Early

We had an eighty million dollar project. It was beautiful. We finished right on time, and we absorbed changes through thirty percent of the building. The owner was a raving fan, we hit our budget targets, and the team was happy. It was clean, safe, and organized.

At the end, I mentally checked out as the superintendent. I thought, we are good, I am out. But the owner said, no, we are moving people in, I want to change things, I want to redo certain rooms, and I want you to help with the move-in. We did not have a plan. I was close to disconnecting and angering a client we had spent three or four years taking care of.

That is the first lesson. The superintendent is the overseer. We are not done when the project is done. We are done when the client is happy.

What Being the Overseer Means

Adam said respect for people can get confused with just being nice, when it also means taking command and ownership, protecting the plan from start to finish. Kevin said the superintendent is the master facilitator, standing between all the moving parts and making sure they fit into place. We are not in manufacturing, delivering a product. We are delivering an experience, and that goes all the way to moving people in and making sure the space is what they want.

Start From Day One, Shift the Mindset at Two-Thirds

Closeout is more than documents. It is lien waivers, owner training, commissioning with facilities management, and every deliverable in the specs being handed over and accepted. It is like buying a car. Where is the owner’s manual, where do I get service, and where do I get more training?

Start from day one. Create a submittal register for the closeout documents as well as for procurement.
Commissioning starts on day one too, not at two-thirds of the project.
At the two-thirds point, change the mindset from starting up to finishing. Confirm the substantial completion requirements, get the documents ready, and make sure commissioning is on schedule.

Patty added that you should gather documentation as you go so you are not scrambling to build a turnover package at the end. I think of it as plan, build, finish for each scope. In planning, the pre-construction meeting covers the contract requirements. In building, you build for turnover and facilities management. In finishing, you reconcile change orders, punch the work, and collect closeout documents before releasing final payment and before the trade demobilizes. One of the guests heard one piece flow in that, and another heard Little’s Law. Small batches, limited work in progress, finish as you go. Accurate documents also matter for the safety of the people using the building, and rushing at the end hurts accuracy.

Who Drives It

Adam asked who is responsible. I would build the team and set targets as a project executive. The project manager and project engineer should track it, but superintendents often say, that is an office problem. It is not. Superintendents are engaged in procurement, MEP systems, commissioning, final inspections, and the definition of completion, and they are the timekeeper who drives it to the end.

Kevin described teams that play tennis, hitting the ball back to the PM and then back to the superintendent, until nothing gets delivered. It has to be a team effort, and the question is how you move the ball forward in your role.

Closeout Meetings

Hold intentional closeout meetings, scaled to the scope. A small scope might get an email, and a large one a series of meetings. Hold them close to the completion of the work, with the right people, and send the agenda ahead, filtered from the submittal register: turnover, warranty, and training documents, plus the spec requirements. A good meeting covers the following.

Completion status and the punch list, including engineer, architect, and end user walks.
Lessons learned, and whether we met the owner’s top ten conditions of satisfaction.
Warranty documentation, maintenance information, attic stock, training and training videos, and commissioning status.
How we will help the owner use the information as they move in.
Next steps, lien waivers, contract terms, and closing out change orders.

Kevin added having the owner grade us, with an evaluation form. That is one of the best marketing and sales techniques we have. It is also why I tie final payment to completion. If an ice cream shop handed you a cone without the caramel and asked to be paid, you would not pay. We want to help trades with cash flow, but final payment waits for punch, closeout, training, and documentation.

Punch Lists

Kevin said it plainly: I hate punch lists. If you give crews what they need to finish within their zone, and check the work before they move on, a punch list goes from twenty-five or thirty pages to two. Walk the last five units, punch them right there, and have the foreman grab the workers. A list is for things like missing hardware. Otherwise, you get the whole chain of taking photos, uploading, emailing, reminding, and verifying. A list of fifteen hundred items should be two or three hundred or less.

Takt gives a measurable standard each Takt time, so you can QC as you go. Adam said it comes down to respect for the worker. Assign specific responsibility for list items, and follow up.

Missing Materials and the Scrum Board

Somewhere between two-thirds and halfway through that last third, have the PM and project engineer flip all the drawings and specs and do an inventory count of what is missing. It may be a Knox box, a transom, or a closure, and you will find ten to a hundred and fifty items. Then use a Scrum board for the big items that will hold you up, like an access panel in a stairwell or a cabinet redesign in a kitchen. If I am a project director at that point and I do not see a Scrum board and a master list of the last hundred and fifty things, I do not know that anyone has a plan to finish. Kevin added that you should put your best guess for procurement and installation durations on paper and see the effect on substantial completion.

Substantial Completion

Very few teams learn the substantial and final completion requirements early enough. Post them on a large sign in the trailer, and put them in your schedule network with buffers. They include the following.

Preliminary balancing report.
Engineer’s walk and the architect’s punch list.
Life safety testing and certificates, including elevator, fire alarm, and sprinkler.
A fully functional HVAC system, controls, and internet.
Exits, and ADA and life safety signage.

I would move the commissioning and testing mindset forward by at least six weeks.

Contract Closeout and Critical Documents

Close out vendors and purchase orders. Verify contractual and legal obligations are complete, obtain closeout documents, arrange the warranty requirements, revoke access rights and security passes, perform a post-contract evaluation and lessons learned, and archive the records. Adam added that you should pull information for the next project, like how long scopes took. Make sure something in the schedule triggers all of this.

Critical documents include accurate as-builts, especially electrical, low voltage, and site utilities, because inspectors will check them. They also include closing permits, operations manuals with training, regulatory documents, elevator and fire marshal documents, utility transfers, ADA inspections, the crane permit, the certificate of occupancy, notices of substantial completion and final acceptance, and lien releases. Even after all of it, the owner may want change order work, so have a way to approve, track, schedule, and supervise it.

Closing Advice

Kevin said closeout takes a team, and if you realize you are part of it, you deliver a remarkable closeout. Patty said to plan for closeout from the first meeting and start the file, so nothing can get you at the end. Adam said a six-month job once took a year to close, and the owner will remember the last month or two. Respect the craft, yourself, and your owners.

My closing analogy is teaching kids to drive. Two rules. Do not hit the car in front of you, and stay in your lane. Then keep looking ahead. Two lights from now, we turn. Before the curve, hit the brakes. A superintendent keeps the team looking forward, and that moves commissioning, testing, and closeout forward in our minds.

If your project needs superintendent coaching, project support, or leadership development, Elevate Construction can help your field teams stabilize, schedule, and flow.

So here is the challenge. Start your closeout file today, and at the two-thirds point confirm your substantial completion requirements.

Bottom line: We are not done when that project is done. We are done when the client is happy.

On we go.

FAQ

When should closeout planning begin?

On day one. Create a submittal register for closeout documents, and shift the team’s mindset to finishing at the two-thirds point.

Who drives closeout?

It is a team effort. The PM and project engineer track it, and the superintendent drives completion as the timekeeper and is engaged in commissioning, inspections, and procurement.

How do you avoid a huge punch list?

Finish as you go, by giving crews what they need and checking the work in each zone before they move on.

What goes in a closeout meeting?

Completion status, punch list, lessons learned, the owner’s conditions of satisfaction, warranty, training, and commissioning, and closing out lien waivers and change orders.

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Don’t Get a False Sense of Security

Posted on October 6, 2026October 8, 2026 by Team Jason Schroeder

Read 9 min

The False Sense of Security: A Checked Box Is Not a Working System

Here’s the deal. Today I want to talk about getting a false sense of security, and how it can hide inside almost any system we use. A colleague named Kevin raised this with me on a recent trip, and I really appreciated it. He said there is a similarity across some of these systems. When they are sub-optimized, and not implemented right, they give you a false sense of security. I really like that thought, so let’s anchor it.

Short answer: A false sense of security is believing a system works because a box got checked. A CPM schedule, a pull plan, or a beautiful Takt plan can all hide problems until it’s too late. The fix is to verify them: check buffers, leveling, zones, zone density, procurement, and how the plan ties into the master schedule.

The False Sense of Security in CPM

If you use the critical path method, CPM scheduling, on an activity level and not a phase level, meaning it is too detailed, almost every part of that scheduling system will work against your production system. The reason it is so widely scaled is that it gives the project manager and the project team a false sense of security. Here is what that sounds like.

It is in the schedule.
My senior scheduler knows what is going on.
It is in the contract, so it must be right.
We have a legal precedent to protect us.
My trade partner signed on to it.

None of those protect us if the project is late. We are still on the hook.

When the Schedule Is Lying

Those schedules also hide trade stacking, and in that way they end up lying to you. A third of the way through the project, you say, we are good. Halfway through, you say, I think we are good. Nearing two thirds of the project, you say, I do not know, it is a little sketchy, let me check in with the team. And then, after that, you are in a full blown crash landing.

This happens all the time, and every builder knows what I am talking about. How in the world did this project take a turn so fast? It is because the schedule was lying. It is non-transparent, and it gives people a false sense of security.

It Can Happen With Last Planner

The same thing can happen with other systems. Say you have implemented the Last Planner system, and people tell you, this is the cat’s meow. You did a pull plan, and now you are implementing from a weekly work plan. Check whether the following are true.

The material procurement is aligned.
The work has been broken out into the right number of zones.
The plan has been looped into your master schedule.
You have confirmed that the plan is realistic with the supply chain.
Your weekly work plans are based on an overall flow, broken out by zone.

If they are not, then you have a false sense of security. You think, we pull planned it, we should be good. No, no, no. There is so much more to it.

It Can Happen With Takt Too

I will throw Takt in there as well. Someone says, Jason said Takt planning is the cat’s meow, we have Takt, we are good. You are good if you are compliant with the Takt guide on the Takt website, meaning the following.

You have buffers.
You have leveled your wagons.
You have leveled your zones.
You have analyzed zone density.
You have all of the key components specified on the website.

If you have not, a beautiful looking Takt plan can still give you a false sense of security. Dig in.

A Lesson From Surveying

Here is an analogy from a different scope of work, surveying. I used to teach quite a bit about how to do traversing using the compass rule. There is software that will do it with least squares, and that is fine. We would traverse through a network of points and close the traverse. At the end, it would give you a linear error of closure, and then it would give you your accuracy. If you were one in 100,000, that meant it would take 100,000 linear feet of surveying to be off by a foot. First order accuracy was what we were always targeting.

When teams closed their traverse, they would say, we were one in 85,000, we are good to go, done. Now they had a false sense of security. All a closed traverse tells you is whether you surveyed consistently. To know whether you have the points in the right place, you have to take the traverse coordinates and overlay them with the given coordinates, and see if there is a mistake. We would take an accurate traverse of five points, overlay it with the actual site plan the surveying company gave us, and in some cases a point was off by 0.08, 0.20, or 0.80 feet, and in some cases as much as six feet in the wrong location.

So you did not find out there was a problem when you did the traverse and checked the accuracy. You found the problem when you overlaid the traverse with the given information.

Apply It to Your Schedule

You can create a CPM schedule, hit F9, have it be inside the box, say I trust my scheduler, and have a false sense of security until you check it. You do not know that it is right. In fact, I would ask you to look at it like a liability.

You can implement Last Planner, say we have a pull plan, thank goodness, and check the box. You have a false sense of security until you dig into it and make sure all trades were represented, the durations are confirmed, you have the right number of zones and the right batching, and you have a plan to loop the pull plan into your master schedule and filter it onto the weekly work plan. You then collaborate and implement in a strategic way with buffers. If not, you may have a massive problem.

Do not go to sleep on me. Your team created a Takt plan, and it looks beautiful. Dig in. Does it have buffers? Did it level the wagons? Did it level the zones? Did you analyze zone density? Do you have the key components?

Ask What Happened After “I Did It”

When somebody tells you they did it, the answer is the question that comes next. You created a Takt plan, great, what did the review look like? You did a pull plan and you are implementing Last Planner, great, what does that look like from a production and scaling standpoint? You have a CPM schedule, okay, how are we going to analyze the flow within it? You have to take it all the way to the end.

It is like what I wrote about in Conversations & Consequences. I talked to them, I am good. No. If you stop there, you have a false sense of security. You communicate, and then, when you communicate again and you are not getting what you want, you implement consequences.

Other Resources I Recommend

If you want to learn Lean construction properly, here are the resources I really love and encourage you to dig into.

This Is Lean, by Niklas Modig, which is a must read.
2 Second Lean, by Paul Akers.
The 14 principles of the Toyota Way, and the book, The Toyota Way.
The Lean community on social media, where there is so much more to learn from and you can really make progress.

You can absolutely analyze and compare Lean manufacturing and Lean construction. That is a fantastic resource.

If your project needs superintendent coaching, project support, or leadership development, Elevate Construction can help your field teams stabilize, schedule, and flow. Want your team trained on this? See our Last Planner System and Takt training

So here is the challenge. Pick one system you believe is working, and dig down until you have a firm knowledge of whether it is actually right.

Jason Schroeder said it plainly: “I’m asking everybody to finish the last 5% of everything that they do.”

On we go.

FAQ

What is a false sense of security?

It is the feeling that a system is working because a box has been checked, such as having a CPM schedule, a pull plan, or a Takt plan, when it has not been checked all the way down to whether it is actually right.

Why does Jason say CPM schedules give a false sense of security?

Because they hide trade stacking and are non-transparent. The team feels protected by the schedule, the contract, and a senior scheduler, but none of those protect the project if it is late, and a project can look fine until it suddenly crashes.

What does the surveying story show?

That a closed traverse only tells you the survey was consistent. You find a problem when you overlay the traverse with the given coordinates, where points can turn out to be feet away. In the same way, a system is only verified when you check it against what is real.

What should you ask when someone says they implemented Last Planner or Takt?

Ask what the review looked like and how it works from a production and scaling standpoint, and whether the key components, such as buffers, leveled wagons and zones, and zone density analysis, are actually in place.

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Conversations & Consequences

Posted on October 6, 2026October 14, 2026 by Team Jason Schroeder

Read 7 min

Conversations and Consequences: “I Have Had That Conversation” Is Not Enough

Here’s the deal. I had an epiphany on a project site I was touring the other day, and it is really impactful, so I want to share it with you. It came from a simple moment during a field walk.

Short answer: On a construction project, ‘I’ve had that conversation’ is not enough. Construction is a compliance-based industry, so after you’ve informed, trained, coached, mentored, and corrected, the next conversation has to come with consequences, such as stopping the crew or the work, or calling the supervisor. Consequences are never punishment or anger.

The Moment on the Field Walk

I was walking with a group, and we were talking about an area that needed to be cleaned up. I was giving some suggestions. One of the superintendents said, well, yes, I have had that conversation with him. It was an innocent comment, and it was not a big deal. But it dawned on me that every time we have a situation with a compliance piece, there are two parts. There is the conversation, and there are the consequences.

We Are a Compliance-Based Industry

Some people in the Lean community rail against compliance-based leadership. I have been on a few rants about that recently. But here is the reality. We are not Netflix, and we are not YouTube. We are not in the entertainment industry. We are a compliance-based industry, and we have to comply with the following.

Safety regulations.
The plans and specs.
Local standards of care.
The authorities having jurisdiction.

I love Netflix culture. But some people say we cannot use compliance-based leadership. Actually, you can, and you should. We are not a go-do-whatever-you-want, fluffy, creative kind of company. We are a compliance-based company.

From what I understand, even companies like Google, Facebook, and Netflix, which give most of their people more latitude and flexibility, run their legal and HR functions, and anything where they must comply with the laws of the land, as compliance-based divisions.

Conversations Come First

Saying I have had that conversation is not enough. And yes, I want to listen to people. Yes, we want to give people the chance. Yes, we want people to buy in. Yes, we want to coach them. There is a scale for this, and you do not jump to consequences right away.

Informing.
Training.
Coaching.
Mentoring.
Correcting.
Consequences.

The Next Conversation

So I said to the superintendent, great, you have had the conversation. But the next time, it is conversation and consequences. They do not get to have you talk to them again about a safe and clean environment and then just decide not to do it. That is not how it is done.

I was not talking down to him. We had a really good rapport. I told him I just want to make sure that the next time you have that conversation, you get results. And if you do not, the second C word is consequences. He said, okay, yes, I will have that conversation again, and if that does not work, there will be consequences.

What Consequences Are, and What They Are Not

Consequences are never punishment. They are never negativity, and they are never anger. Here is what they look like.

We stop the crew.
We stop the work.
We have the conversation.
I call your supervisor.

There will be consequences to not doing the right thing on this project. There is always a conversation, and if that does not work, there are consequences. That is what real accountability looks like: everyone knows what was agreed, by when, and what happens if it does not get done.

How to Have the Second Conversation

The second conversation is not a longer version of the first one. It is a different conversation, and it has three parts. You say all three out loud.

First, say what was agreed. Start with facts, not feelings. “Last Tuesday we agreed your crew would clean the level three corridor at the end of every shift.” You are not guessing at motives or digging up old history. You are restating a commitment the person already made.

Second, say the deadline. A request with no date is a wish. “I need that corridor clean and staying clean by start of shift tomorrow, and I will walk it with you at seven.” Make the deadline specific, and make sure you are the one who comes back to check it.

Third, say the specific consequence. Name it before the deadline passes, not after. “If the corridor is not clean tomorrow, I will stop the crew until it is, and I will call your supervisor.” Say it calmly, with the same rapport you had in the first conversation. This is information, not a threat. The person should walk away knowing exactly what happens next, so nothing that follows is a surprise.

Then ask them to say it back to you. That is what the superintendent did on our field walk when he told me he would have the conversation again, and that there would be consequences if it did not work.

Moving From Coaching to Correcting to Consequences

Here is how the scale plays out on a housekeeping issue like the one on that walk.

It starts with coaching. You walk the area with the foreman, explain why clear access matters for safety and flow, and ask what is getting in the way. Maybe the dumpster is too far from the work area, or nobody has time built into the day for cleanup. You fix what you can together. This is a conversation about the system, and it is the right place to start.

Two days later the corridor is cluttered again. Now you move to correcting. You use the three parts. You restate what was agreed, you give the deadline, and you name the consequence. The standard has not changed, and the person now knows the next step.

If the deadline passes and nothing has changed, you follow through. You stop the crew, you have the conversation, and you call the supervisor. Because the consequence was named in advance, you are not reacting out of frustration. You are doing exactly what you said you would do.

At every step, ask whether the system is part of the problem before you assume the person is. Consequences are for a decision not to do the right thing, not for a plan that never gave the crew a way to do it.

If your project needs superintendent coaching, project support, or leadership development, Elevate Construction can help your field teams stabilize, schedule, and flow.

So here is the challenge. The next time you hear yourself say, I have had that conversation, ask whether the conversation got results. If it did not, decide what the consequence will be before the next conversation happens.

Bottom line: There will be consequences to not doing the right thing on this project.

On we go.

FAQ

Why does Jason say construction is a compliance-based industry?

Because we have to comply with safety regulations, the plans and specs, local standards of care, and the authorities having jurisdiction. He says compliance-based leadership is appropriate here and is not a bad thing.

Is having one conversation enough?

No. Jason says the next time it is conversation and consequences. A person should not be able to hear about a safe and clean environment again and simply decide not to do it.

What are consequences, according to Jason?

Never punishment, negativity, or anger. They mean stopping the crew, stopping the work, having the conversation, and calling the person’s supervisor.

Do consequences come first?

No. You do not go to consequences right away. There is a scale of informing, training, coaching, mentoring, and correcting before consequences.

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