Elevating Construction Foremen – Part 15

No one would pay for an estimate, an RFI, or a schedule just to have it. Those things are only needed to enable a worker to eventually install a piece of work. That is the whole point of this section: everything on the project exists to give crew leaders and workers what they need.

This is Part 15 of my walk-through of my book Elevating Construction Foremen. If you are just joining, start with Part 1. This part starts the section on what crew leaders need to succeed, beginning with respect, stability, and a good plan.

Short answer: Every department, team, and system on a project only exists to serve the crew leaders and workers who install the work. Crew leaders deserve respect, meaning real bathrooms, a lunch area, and good conditions. They deserve stability, meaning a controlled, clean, safe project. And they deserve a good plan they helped build, one that flows from area to area. If you don’t get these, speak up.

Why Does Everything on a Project Exist for the Crew?

Everything on the project should create value for the crew leader and workers so they can install a quality product that creates value for the customer. Departments, teams, project leaders, and systems do not have value in and of themselves. Every other position in construction is designed to enable crew leaders and workers. Knowing this, our industry must focus more on getting crew leaders what they need: respect, stability, a good plan, the right information, quality expectations, materials, layout, equipment, tools, and labor. This part covers the first three.

What Does Respect for Crew Leaders and Workers Look Like?

When workers and crew leaders arrive on the project, they should have respectable bathrooms, a decent place to eat lunch, good wayfinding signage, an in-depth orientation, and quality working conditions. Period. There are no exceptions just because this is construction. Construction is a professional environment with professional leaders and skilled craft. If you are invited onto a project where any of these are lacking, ask for what you need, and if you don’t get it, walk off the project.

Take a hard look at a site favorite to skimp on: bathrooms. Some contractors use the project budget to justify the lack of bathrooms and handwash stations. If there is no bathroom provided, you are opening up your company and potentially yourself to legal consequences, losing more time than the bathroom would cost when people leave the site, and increasing the likelihood of a sick crew. Handwashing reduces the number of people who get sick with diarrhea by 31%, diarrheal illness in people with weakened immune systems by 58%, and respiratory illnesses like colds by 21%. Fewer sick employees, or sick children of employees, means a more consistent and stable workforce. Respect is fiscally responsible.

Always lobby, fight for, and demand these for your people:

• Clean, functional bathrooms
• A good lunch area
• Respectful conditions
• Parking for your people
• A place to smoke

What Does Stability Mean for a Crew Leader?

The general contractor must control the project. That means controlling the circumstances, the environment, and the conditions that support the crew leaders and workers on site. They do not control people. They enable people. All trade partners and self-perform crews are counting on the GC to provide stable conditions: a project that is nearly perfectly clean and organized, always safe, with great wayfinding signage and logistics systems that work. The measure of success is that your crew works successfully with the tools, equipment, materials, information, layout, people, and space on site. As a leader of your crew, you deserve this kind of environment.

What Is the Story of the A-Player Electrician?

In my book Elevating Construction Superintendents, I tell this story. Take an outstanding electrician doing in-wall rough-in for the interiors of a building. She plans her work, coordinates the rough-in locations, prefabricates what she can, and has her manpower ready to go. What if the design then changes? What if other trades fail to coordinate with her rough-in locations, fall behind, or leave open holes in the areas released to her? Even with all her preparation, she will lose production time, fall behind, perform rework, and lose faith in the process.

In that case, the general contractor failed to provide suitable command and control. The coordination should have included all trades and been enforced. The design changes should have been isolated so the main workforce was not derailed. The GC should have taught pulling work and finishing on time, and built a system to see problems coming and prevent them. When you see chaos, schedules slipping, bad quality, and safety issues, no one is in command and no one is in control.

The bottom line is this. You cannot move any faster, produce any more, be more effective, or make money in spite of chaotic conditions. You can either speak up and set your expectations, or you can suffer in chaos. Yes, the GC should have provided those conditions, but you are the one who must speak up if they do not.

What Makes a Good Plan for a Crew Leader?

A good plan is created by the super with the crew leaders, is aligned with the master schedule, and has realistic commitments and flow. Trade partners help confirm the project sequences, crew leaders help prepare work six weeks out, and every crew leader helps create and commits to the weekly work plan. Plans are not given to crew leaders by the GC and shoved down your throat. Every crew leader deserves to be included as the last planner, the expert for that work. A good plan is also a bit flexible, with a plan B, C, and D, and it lets you work with other trades in flow as allies. That is categorically impossible unless the master schedule is a Takt plan and you were part of the pull plan and weekly work planning. See Takt Production System.

One of the worst things that can happen in construction is trades being made to stack to recover a project. Once that happens, all other productivity losses begin. Expect a plan that flows your crew from area to area.

Planning a week for a crew is a hard skill to learn, but don’t let the general crew leader or superintendent do your weekly plan because they can do it faster and “better.” Half the crew leaders in the industry rely on weekly work plans created by others, and we wonder why there are handover issues from crew to crew. A new crew leader who prepares and gets feedback on 26 weekly plans and 130 daily plans over a six-month project will improve. That is plan-do-check-act in action. There are no shortcuts from new crew leader to expert crew leader.

So here is the challenge. Walk your project tomorrow and check the bathrooms, lunch area, and signage against the list above, and ask for what is missing. Then build your own weekly work plan this week, even if someone else could do it faster, and ask for feedback on it.

Bottom line: Everything on the project exists to serve the crew, so expect respect, stability, and a good plan you helped build, and speak up when you don’t get them.

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

On we go.

Elevating Construction Foremen series:
Previous: Part 14: Instructions to Workers, the Three Habits, and Continual Training
Next: Part 16: The Right Information, Materials, Layout, Tools, and Labor

FAQ

What do crew leaders need to succeed?

Every crew leader and crew needs respect, stability, a good plan, the right information, quality expectations, materials, layout, equipment, tools, and labor to be effective.

What does respect look like on a jobsite?

Respectable bathrooms, a decent place to eat lunch, good wayfinding signage, an in-depth orientation, parking, a place to smoke, and quality working conditions. There are no exceptions just because this is construction.

Who should make the crew’s weekly work plan?

The crew leader. Don’t let the general crew leader or superintendent do it because they can do it faster. A new crew leader who prepares and gets feedback on 26 weekly plans over six months will improve.

People Also Read:
Clean, Safe, and Organized: The Foundation of a High-Performing Job Site
Foreman Series: Participating In A Pull Plan
Foreman Series: Making A Weekly Work Plan
Never Go on Site Without Caring for Foremen