Not Having the Right PM

Not Having the Right Project Manager: The System Fix That Makes the Other Problems Disappear

A project can start with a good budget, a decent schedule, strong trade partners, and a team that genuinely wants to win and still fall apart fast if the project manager seat is wrong.

Not “bad person” wrong. System wrong.

In this transcript, Jason Schroeder and Adam “Beanie” Bean go straight at a truth the industry dances around: we often choose PMs using the wrong criteria, then we “prompt” them into the wrong behaviors, then we act surprised when projects stall. It’s not a mystery. It’s a system design issue.

If we fix the PM selection and support system, we remove a major cause of project failure before it shows up in the field. That’s why Beanie says this one can make the other causes disappear. When the team rows in one direction, the work flows.

Why This Cause Hurts: The PM Seat Is a System Decision

This topic hurts because there’s no polite way to say it: putting the wrong person in the PM seat costs time, money, trust, and momentum. It also damages relationships between the office and field, because the field feels unsupported while the office feels attacked.

But the key distinction matters. Jason and Beanie aren’t here to tear down people. They’re tearing down the process that selects, trains, and incentivizes PMs.

If the system trains PMs to be spreadsheet administrators instead of flow leaders, then the system failed them. The job of leadership is to redesign the role, the expectations, and the feedback loops so the PM can succeed.

How We Accidentally Choose the Wrong PM (Excel + Technical = “Promoted”)

Beanie describes the common pattern: a young engineer is technically competent, sharp in Excel, looks professional, and seems “bright and shiny.” So, the company says, “That bloke’s going to make a project manager.”

But those two skills technical depth and spreadsheet ability are not the job.

They can be helpful. They are not sufficient.

Communication, alignment, decision flow, and the ability to see constraints in the system are what keep a project stable. And if the selection process ignores those traits, the project is set up wrong from the beginning.

The Office Trap: How the System “Prompts” PMs to Fail

Jason’s “prompt” analogy lands because it’s true. If your prompt someone all day with emails, reports, and admin demands, you’ll get more emails, more reports, and more admin.

That becomes their identity. That becomes their “success.”

Then the field wonders why no one is walking, looking, listening, clearing constraints, and supporting production. Meanwhile the PM is drowning in “deliverables” that don’t move the job forward. The system taught them to win the wrong game.

This is why the “office-only PM” isn’t a personality flaw. It’s a structure flaw. We incentivized it, measured it, promoted it, and normalized it.

The Workplace Is the Teacher: Why Answers Live at the Gemba

This episode reinforces a foundational Lean principle: you can’t manage what you refuse to see.

Beanie describes how site leaders used to be builders visible, present, walking the work, seeing the real constraints. Then computers arrived, and the people who could drive computers got promoted into leadership. The industry gradually replaced field presence with reporting.

Jason shares a simple truth from Lean thinking: “The workplace is a teacher. You can only find answers on the shop floor.”

The PM role has to reconnect to that. The most important project information is not in a report. It is in the flow of work, the delays, the waiting, the handoffs, the constraints, and the strain you can see with your own eyes.

The Real Mission of a PM: Get Everyone Rowing the Same Direction

Beanie answers Jason’s question about the PM’s true mission with a quote from Patrick Lencioni: if you can get everyone in an organization rowing in the same direction, you can dominate any market under any conditions.

That’s the job.

The PM is not the “report person.” The PM is the alignment leader. They clarify the destination, ensure the team understands it, and keep everyone moving toward it through communication, coordination, and removal of roadblocks.

And it’s not a one-time speech. The direction drifts. The conditions change. The PM continually brings the team back to center.

Local Optima vs Global Optima: One Ball, One Direction

Jason’s high-rise story shows what happens when the team loses alignment. Everyone might be skilled. Everyone might be productive in their own silo. But if each group is optimizing their own outcomes, the project can still stall.

Beanie uses a strong analogy: if every team is running around with their own football, you’ll never get one ball from one end of the field to the other. That’s local optimization.

The PM must keep the project focused on the global optima: the project destination. If that destination is unclear or if KPIs incentivize teams to win their own game the flow breaks even with good crews.

What the “Right PM” Looks Like: The 3 Non-Negotiables

Beanie gives three traits that matter more than “good at Excel”:

1. Exceptional communication up and down the system
2. Tracking and measuring discipline without living inside spreadsheets
3. Understanding flow so they interpret data correctly and prioritize the right actions

This matters because data without flow understanding is dangerous. You can “improve” the wrong thing at the wrong time and create a bigger constraint. If you don’t understand flow, you may believe you’re helping while you’re actually adding friction.

Signs Your PM System Is Off Track

These are the symptoms that show the PM role has been mis-designed or mis-supported:

• The PM is almost never at the work front and primarily lives in the office
• Communication is mostly email and reports, not real-time coordination
• Teams hit their own KPIs but the overall project doesn’t move smoothly
• Field leaders feel unsupported and office leaders feel constantly “behind”
• Data exists everywhere but decisions are slow and priorities are unclear
• The PM reacts to noise instead of protecting flow and clearing constraints

Those signs don’t mean “PMs are bad.” They mean the system is not producing the PM behavior the project actually needs.

How ORCA Creates a Daily Improvement Loop (Nameless, Rankless, Blameless)

This is one of the most practical solutions in the conversation: ORCA.

Beanie explains it as a debrief loop used in aviation. The key conditions matter: it is nameless, rankless, and blameless. That means the meeting is not about status, ego, or punishment. It’s about learning and improving.

ORCA stands for:

• Objective: What were we trying to do?
• Results: What actually happened?
• Causes: What created those results?
• Actions: What will we change next time?

This is a virtual Andon. It forces the team to stop, see reality, identify causes, and improve the system immediately not at the end of the project when it’s too late to matter.

If a PM adopts ORCA daily, they stop being a report generator and become a learning leader. The project improves by iteration. The team gets stronger by repetition.

Track and Measure Without Living in Spreadsheets

Tracking and measuring matters. But the point is not to type forever. The point is to see the system.

Beanie’s emphasis is simple: a PM should be able to see key signals quickly through dashboards and observation, then spend time where the information is real at the work front, with the people doing the work, where constraints show up.

Data should drive better decisions, not more “admin.” The PM’s job is to interpret the data through the lens of flow and translate it into support: materials, answers, access, sequencing, and coordination.

How to Coach a PM Back On Track Before Replacing Them

Jason shared a hard but important reality: sometimes the system gets fixed, the expectations get clarified, coaching is provided, and the person still won’t align to the team direction.

That’s when leadership has to make a decision.

The goal is not to “punish” someone. The goal is to put people where they can thrive. Jason’s story ends with a key detail: the PM left, got a role that fit better, and was happier. The project got a PM who engaged the team, and the project moved.

That’s not cruelty. That’s respect for people through role fit.

A Gut Check for PMs: 14.4 Minutes to Reconnect With Reality

Beanie gives a gut check that is simple and powerful: 1% of your day is 14.4 minutes.

Take that time and go ask people what’s happening. Don’t assume. Don’t accuse. Go to the Gemba, listen, and learn.

If you’re a PM and you feel off track, don’t try to fix it by writing a better report. Fix it by reconnecting to the system and the people doing the work.

3 Traits to Hire and Train For

If you want to select and develop the right PMs, prioritize these traits and build them intentionally:

• Communication skill that aligns teams up and down the system
• Measurement discipline that makes performance visible without drowning in admin
• Flow understanding so priorities protect the constraint and keep work moving

That’s the job description that actually matches the mission.

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

Conclusion

Not having the right project manager is rarely a surprise. It’s usually the outcome of a selection system that rewards the wrong behaviors and a project environment that “prompts” PMs into isolation.

The fix is not to shame PMs. The fix is to redesign the role around alignment and flow, train the right skills, and build daily feedback loops that keep the team rowing in the same direction.

The workplace is a teacher. You can only find answers on the shop floor.

Take one thing. Action it.

FAQ

What is the most important job of a construction project manager?
The PM’s primary mission is to align the team toward one destination and keep them moving in the same direction. That means clear communication, coordinated priorities, and consistent removal of roadblocks so the work can flow.

Why do companies choose the wrong project manager?
Many organizations promote people based on technical ability and spreadsheet performance rather than communication skill, flow understanding, and leadership presence. That selection process sets the project up wrong before it starts.

What is ORCA and how does it help a project?
ORCA is a debrief loop: Objective, Results, Causes, Actions. When run in a nameless, rankless, blameless way, it creates daily learning that improves planning and execution in real time, similar to a virtual Andon.

How can a PM know if they’re getting disconnected from the field?
If most of your day is spent in email and reports and you’re rarely at the work front, you’re likely disconnected. A practical gut check is to take 14.4 minutes (1% of your day) to ask field teams what’s working and what’s blocking flow.

What skills should a PM develop to become “the right PM”?
Focus on communication, measuring what matters, and understanding flow. Those skills help you interpret data correctly, support the team effectively, and keep the project aligned to the destination.