Elevate & LeanTakt Principles

27 Elevate and LeanTakt Principles: How We Lead, Learn, and Build People

Most companies talk about culture like it’s a poster on the wall.

But culture is not a poster. Culture is a system.

It’s the repeated behaviors that show up under pressure. It’s what people do when no one is watching. It’s what leaders tolerate, reinforce, and protect. And if you don’t define it on purpose, you’ll get whatever shows up by default.

In this episode, Jason Schroeder shares the Elevate Construction and LeanTakt principles exactly as he recorded them for the internal team. These principles were inspired by what Paul Akers does at Fast Cap and by lessons learned through Lean thinking, including a visit to Japan. They are designed to be lived, practiced, improved, and protected.

Why Principles Matter: Culture Is a System, Not a Slogan

Principles aren’t here to make us feel good. They’re here to make us consistent.

When teams don’t have shared principles, they rely on personalities. That’s when projects become unpredictable, decisions become emotional, and performance depends on who is in the room. Principles are the operating system that keeps the team stable even when conditions change.

Jason describes these principles as something that can be modified over time, but they are meant to encapsulate how Elevate thinks and how Elevate behaves. They are not theoretical. They are practical guardrails that shape leadership, teamwork, improvement, and flow.

And if you want to understand what Elevate Construction and LeanTakt stand for, these 27 principles are the simplest window into the system.

Elevate and LeanTakt Principles at a Glance

These are some of the core themes you’ll see repeated across the principles:

• We build people first, and that drives everything else.
• Leadership is clarity, training, and support shoulder to shoulder.
• We don’t blame people; we blame systems and fix environments.
• We move fast in short cycles with frequent check ins.
• One piece flow and transparency are non-negotiable.
• We protect culture through respect, standards, and teamwork.

These are not “nice ideas.” They are production strategies.

The First Principle: Encouragement Is Oxygen for an Organization

Jason starts with a powerful concept: “The breath of an organization is positive encouragement.”

He explains it like this: an organization needs breadth to have life, and it needs to breathe to stay alive. If people don’t feel encouraged, morale dies. Culture dies. Joy dies. And when the culture dies, performance is not far behind.

This principle is also deeply practical. Encouragement is not fluff. It’s what gives people the resilience to try again, learn, grow, and improve. If leadership is not actively encouraging people, the system is starving the organization of oxygen.

Leadership Defined: Clarity, Training, and Support Shoulder to Shoulder

This is one of the cleanest leadership definitions you’ll ever hear in construction.

Jason says leadership is clarity, training, and support shoulder to shoulder. Leaders provide clarity. Leaders train people toward that clarity. Leaders help people reach the target.

That matters because most leadership confusion comes from people thinking leadership is “authority,” “charisma,” “pressure,” or “control.” Elevate’s definition is simpler and more useful: if you provide clarity, if you train, and if you help people, you are a leader.

This principle also aligns with Lean: hard on the process, easy on the people. If leaders do their job, people are not forced to guess. They aren’t left alone. They aren’t punished for system failures. They are coached and supported toward a clear destination.

Team Over Hierarchy: Learn From Everyone, Act as One

Elevate does not want a hierarchical feel.

Jason emphasizes learning from everyone and acting as a team. That’s what makes the company different. When people are listened to and leadership gets better at using the genius of the group, performance rises and trust grows.

The practical takeaway is simple: if you want results, you have to create a system where truth can travel upward. The people closest to the work see the problems first. If they can’t speak, the system becomes blind. That’s why learning from everyone is not “kindness.” It’s operational intelligence.

It’s About People: We Build People Who Build Things

This principle sits at the center of the entire list.

Jason says, “We are not here to build projects… We are here to build people…”

That’s not marketing language. That’s a decision filter.

Elevate is not here because of a goal. Elevate is not here just to provide a product. The work is consulting, but the mission is building people. Jason even uses a simple analogy: if the company sold ice cream, the mission would still be building people and the ice cream sales would fund it.

This is the principle that protects dignity. It’s the principle that prevents burnout. It’s the principle that keeps respect for people at the core.

Giving and Sharing: Why We Refuse to Hide Knowledge

“We are givers. Give, give, give, give, and share.”

This is a core operating philosophy at Elevate and LeanTakt. Jason says there is no value in hiding or holding. The world changes when we share. Anything that doesn’t need to be charged for should be given away, even if people think it’s ridiculous.

This principle is also aligned with how Elevate shows up publicly. Tools, templates, teaching, and guidance are shared widely because the goal is not scarcity. The goal is impact. And when the industry gets better, workers and families benefit.

Inventors by Default: Innovation as a Daily Expectation

Elevate sees itself as inventors of products and processes.

Jason says the company is research and development first. Innovation is not a quarterly initiative. It’s a daily expectation. The team used to call themselves process improvement engineers and shifted to “lean engineers” because it better encapsulated what they do and how the work translates professionally.

This matters because invention is how systems improve. And systems improving is how people’s lives improve. If you don’t invent, you repeat.

Training and Practice: Why Skill Beats Experience

Jason emphasizes a principle that separates high performing systems from average ones: training, education, practice, and implementation are key.

“You will not rise to your ambitions. You will fall to the level of your training.”

Training isn’t a perk. It’s the foundation. It’s how you build consistency. It’s how you reduce stress. It’s how you prevent “tribal knowledge” from being the only way people succeed.

This is also why Elevate believes it can train anyone. Experience can be useful, but it can also come with bad habits. Training creates the common language and the common standard.

Move Fast Together: Change Isn’t the Problem, Confusion Is

“We move fast. We learn fast. We change fast.”

Jason makes a key point: change itself usually isn’t the problem. The problem is failing to go together and failing to be clear. When people know where they’re going and they are supported, change becomes manageable.

He even gives a simple tactic: set a timer, grab a video, and learn the new thing. Most resistance is a failure to start, not a true inability.

Professionalism Everywhere: Show Up Ready, Then 5S the World

This is where the principles become visibly practical.

Jason shares a story: the team bought plungers, scrub brushes, and cleaning kits at Target for the USF Manhattan Project because the bathrooms lacked basic supplies. Then they planned to go in and 5S the conference room, kitchen, and bathroom.

Why does that matter?

Because it demonstrates professionalism. It demonstrates competence. It demonstrates that the team doesn’t just talk Lean they apply it in real spaces. Elevate shows up in clean, professional PPE, communicates well, and improves the environment wherever they go. That’s how trust is built: not through claims, but through visible action.

System First Diagnosis: Blame Process, Never the Person’s True Self

This principle is foundational for how Elevate thinks about performance and mistakes.

Jason says Elevate blames the system, process, environment, culture, behavior, prompting, or genetic wiring but never the person’s true self. If someone is struggling, the first move is not “that person is bad.” The first move is to examine what’s influencing behavior and performance.

This is a dignity principle and a production principle. When you blame people, you hide problems. When you blame systems, you expose causes and you can actually improve.

Jason also notes that if someone is not a fit and wants to leave, the company will help them find work elsewhere. That is aligned with respect for people. The goal is not to “throw people away.” The goal is to find fit and build success.

Culture Behaviors We Protect

These principles show up as real behavioral expectations inside the system:

• Stop, call, wait when something is wrong and ask for help
• Bring all problems to the surface instead of hiding them
• Use short cycles with early check ins instead of waiting until the end
• No punishment or discipline clarity, training, and support instead
• Feedback as improvement and compliments, not criticism
• Transparency as the only environment where the system works

These behaviors are how the culture protects itself under pressure.

Protecting Culture: Alignment Without Tearing Things Down

Jason is clear: it is okay to make mistakes and the company will train people. But the company will not allow dissent that tears down the culture.

This is not about control. It’s about respect. Coming into a culture and trying to destroy it is disrespectful and beneath human dignity. If someone does not align, they should say so and find a better fit rather than tearing down what others are building.

That’s how you protect the system. That’s how you protect people.

Stop, Call, Wait: Asking for Help Is a Requirement

This principle is one of the sharpest lines in the list.

If something is wrong, you stop, call, and wait. You ask for help. You don’t hide. You don’t pretend. You don’t “prove yourself” by suffering silently. That behavior is not aligned with the culture.

This is how you prevent small problems from becoming big problems. It’s also how you build trust: people know they won’t be punished for surfacing issues. They’ll be supported.

Short Cycles and Iterations: Early Check ins as Respect

Waiting until the end is disrespectful.

Jason emphasizes that work should be delivered in short cycles with frequent iterations and fast check ins early and often. If someone wait a month to deliver a final, the risk is that it misses expectations and wastes time. Frequent iterations allow alignment while the work is still in motion.

This is Lean thinking applied to knowledge work. It’s also respect for the customer and respect for the team.

Mistakes: Sloppy Isn’t OK, Learning Mistakes Are

Not all mistakes are equal.

Jason draws a clear line: sloppy mistakes from ignoring the process are not okay. Mistakes made while sincerely following the process and doing your best are okay even a million times. Those are learning mistakes.

This principle protects standards without punishing people. It reinforces that the system is the pathway. If you disregard the system intentionally, you create waste and disrespect the team and the brand. If you follow the system and learn, you are exactly what the culture is designed to support.

Bring Problems to the Surface: Visibility Before Fixing

One of the most compelling parts of the principles is how direct Jason is about problem visibility.

He says everyone has problems. Families have problems. Businesses have problems. The world has problems. The only difference is whether we can see them and fix them.

He gives a strong analogy: if you had stage one cancer, would you want to know right away or wait until it’s terminal? The answer is obvious. Bring problems to the surface so they can be addressed early.

No Punishment: Respect Through Clarity and Support

Elevate does not believe in discipline or punishment.

The belief is clarity, training, helping, and respect. This is a major distinction from traditional construction culture where “accountability” gets used as a weapon.

At Elevate, accountability looks like clear expectations, training, feedback, and support. It’s growth based. It’s human. And it is more effective because it aligns with how people actually improve.

Cut the Waste: Emails and Non-Value Add Admin

Jason states it plainly: the industry does a lot of “absolute garbage” non value add administration.

Elevate does not believe in emails as a default operating system. It does not believe in useless paperwork and wasteful admin. This aligns directly with Lean: if it does not add value, stop doing it.

The point isn’t to be rebellious. The point is to protect time and attention for work that actually helps people and improves outcomes.

Don’t Waste Time: Mewaku and Respect for Others

Jason references a Japanese concept: mewaku, don’t be a burden to others.

This principle pushes the team to respect time, reduce friction, and avoid unnecessary work that steals attention from real priorities. Wasting time isn’t a small issue. It’s a dignity issue. It’s a respect issue. It’s a production issue.

Clean, Safe, Organized: The Visible Signature of Lean

Wherever Elevate goes, the team organizes, tidies, and improves safety. This is a visible signature.

People see it and think, “These people have it together.” That matters. It builds credibility. It also builds stability. Clean, safe, organized environments reduce stress and errors, which protects people and improves performance.

Team Success Only: No Lone Geniuses

Jason is emphatic: individuals do not exist here in the way construction culture often imagines.

The idea of a lone genius is a myth. Even if someone is visible publicly, what you see is a team. Decisions improve with the team. Outcomes improve with the team. The company succeeds as a team or not at all.

That is a leadership principle and a humility principle, but it’s also operational truth.

One Piece Flow: Plan, Do, Finish

Jason says one piece flow is at the center of everything.

Plan something, do it, finish it. Plan, do, finish. If the team works outside of that rhythm, it will batch, waste time, and bring the company down.

This is a daily discipline. It applies to projects, tasks, communication, and deliverables. One piece flow keeps work moving and reduces the hidden cost of half-finished efforts.

Transparency: The Environment Where Everything Works

“Everything we do only succeeds in transparency.”

Transparency is not just reporting. It is the ability for the team to see reality, share information, and solve problems together. Transparency removes politics. It removes guessing. It removes hiding.

When everything is visible, improvement becomes possible. When things are hidden, the system fails.

How to Use These Principles Tomorrow

If you want to apply these principles immediately, start small and be consistent:

• Pick one principle and practice it intentionally for one week
• Run work in short cycles and ask for early feedback instead of waiting
• Reduce admin and email and replace it with real time clarity and support
• Practice one piece flow: plan, do, finish then start the next
• Bring problems to the surface the moment you see them
• Add a quick 5S improvement wherever you work to reinforce standards

That’s how principles turn into culture. That’s how culture turns into results.

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

Conclusion

Principles aren’t meant to be admired. They’re meant to be lived.

Elevate Construction and LeanTakt use these principles to build clarity, protect culture, eliminate waste, and create a system where people can grow and succeed. When the system is right, the work becomes more stable, the stress drops, and the team gets better together.

FAQ

What are the Elevate Construction and LeanTakt principles?
They are 27 internal operating principles shared by Jason Schroeder that define how Elevate leads, learns, supports people, protects culture, and runs work with Lean behaviors like transparency, short cycles, and one-piece flow.

Why do company principles matter in construction?
Because principles create consistent behaviors under pressure. They reduce personality driven decision making, help teams align quickly, and create a stable culture that improves safety, quality, and flow.

What does “stop, call, wait” mean?
It means when something is wrong, you stop the work, ask for help, and wait long enough to get clarity. It is a cultural requirement to prevent hiding problems and to protect people through support and teamwork.

How does one piece flow apply to knowledge work?
One piece flow means plan, do, finish before starting the next thing. In office work, it prevents batching, half-finished tasks, and context switching that creates delays and confusion.

How should leaders handle mistakes according to these principles?
Sloppy mistakes made by ignoring the process are not acceptable. Mistakes made while sincerely following the process and learning are acceptable and expected. The response is clarity, training, support, and improvement not punishment.Top of FormBottom of Form