Leading the Orchestra, Feat. Jared Davis

Today I have Jared Davis, aka Jerbert, with me. We riffed on weekly work plans, takt planning, pull planning, meeting cadence, and a bunch of practical stuff that will help anyone trying to get production flow on site.

Jared is rolling out takt and weekly work plans with his Colorado Springs team and he had great questions. The big one was this: should weekly work plans be split by trade lanes or shown together? My default answer is to show them together in a time by location format. When all trades are visible you can see the lines of balance, spot conflicts, and manage flow. The goal is to have trades moving together at the right distance and speed. If a trade is too fast it can create an inefficiency gap. If one is too slow it drags the whole chain. Seeing them together helps you tune the orchestra.

Pull planning is still the most important touchpoint. Do one on one work with trades first to surface sequences, then pull those pieces together in a collaborative session. The weekly work plan and look ahead are not meant to be a command and control tool. They are a simulated production flow to help everyone visualize handoffs and make work ready. Think of the weekly work plan as your pre-kit checklist. If tack wagon 21 needs specific labor, materials, tools, permits, layout, and preceding activities, the weekly plan is where you confirm those items are ready.

I love the sheet music analogy. The takt plan is your score and you are the conductor. You do not micromanage every craftsman. You set the tempo, identify the handoffs, and help remove roadblocks. In daily huddles the team checks to see if the notes were hit. If not, root cause it, fix it, and move on.

One quick myth to bust. Many people worry that sharing the schedule with trades gives them the power to stall or use buffers willy nilly. That is not what trade partners do. They want to be productive and move on. Hiding the schedule breeds fear and mistrust. Transparency creates buy in. Share the plan, invite feedback, and use the plan to clear the path for the trades.

Practical tips Jared and I discussed that you can use immediately. First, set a five minute timer in the trade meeting and ask participants to name the top roadblock preventing them from doing the work. Make that the focus. Second, mark daily completions on the visual plan so it becomes a real time production tool. Third, treat the look ahead as the place where work is made ready and the weekly plan as the place where commitments are validated.

Tools like Canva, Miro, and simple QR codes can make the plan accessible to everyone on site. You can print boards, post QR links on the fence, and let the trades pull the plan up on their phones. It does not have to be high tech, but it must be visible, accurate, and actionable.

Finally, remember that the hardest part is the meeting cadence and the flow of information from strategic planning to look aheads to weekly work plans to the day plan and down to the workers. It takes practice to tune the cadence and the visuals. Expect to iterate. Expect to try several different huddle formats before you land on the one that actually works for your crew.

Jared closed with one of the best reminders. Be the change you want to see. If you want trades to collaborate, create the conditions for them to do it. Make yourself available, be present, and learn something. Do better. Do far better. On we go.

Key Takeaway

I lead like a conductor. When I show all trades together in a takt plan, I can spot inefficiencies, make work ready, and help the team flow as one.