Author: Danny Jiménez⁩

Primary Control Level Loop For Field Engineers (Construction Elevation Control Basics)

Posted on by Danny Jiménez⁩
Read 20 min

Primary Control Level Loop for Field Engineers (Construction Elevation Control Basics)

In this blog, I’m going to talk to you about level loops or level circuits is what a surveyor might call it as it relates to primary control.

So let me start out by saying that primary control is permanent and it surrounds the job site and it lays out everything within. Secondary control is something like a baseline that controls the building and it’s semi-permanent. And then working control would be like after grid lines laying out a wall or a column and laying out the actual column or wall lines or the offsets for the wall or the column meaning it’s component specific and it’s temporary.

So primary, secondary, and then working control. We always have those different types.

Establishing the Complete Network (Northing and Easting Only)

In the last blog, we talked about if you have your basis of bearings that might be out on the roadway here and you want to build a building, let’s say that we’re just looking at the foundations and the slab on grade that you will create points in your site and these points will surround the job site like we talked about and they will be permanent. And what you’ll do is you’ll take distances and angles and connect these. So, we’re on the same page and then you will have a complete network.

From there, if you’re going to go ahead and lay out a baseline, you would, for instance, set up here, backsight a longer backsight, and you’ll radial stake from that point. Then you’ll do it from another side of the traverse. Set up here, backsight. And then what you’ll do is you’ll radial stake that one and radial stake that one. And then you might set up here and backsight a longer backsight than your foresight. And you will lay out that one. And you will lay out that one.

And what happens is the points at the end are now laid out and it’s a beautiful thing. And then you can do a forward and back for your baseline and do direct and reverse shots to establish your distances. And so, you have a really nice tight control network.

Now all you have is basically your northing and easting for each of these. Your northing is your y and your easting is your x. And I’m using civil coordinate geometry basics. You might run from the x-axis, but in survey and in civil, you go from the y-axis 360 degrees around the circle in four different quadrants. So, you have a northing and easting, but you don’t have an elevation.

The Design Benchmark (Where Elevations Come From)

But one of these bases of bearings, these monuments inside the roadways will likely have what I call the design benchmark. That means the benchmark from which the surveyors working for the design team took as-built elevations of the adjacent roadways and the sidewalks and the topography of the site for the purpose of designing the building. That means the building is based on that benchmark.

Let’s say it’s right here. What you want to do is level loop. And a level loop has a couple of key things. Number one is you are going to do what’s called three-wire leveling. Number two, you’re going to estimate to the nearest thousandth. Number three, you are going to close your level loop.

How to Do a Level Loop (Backsight, Foresight, Close)

And here’s how you do it. You take a calibrated, well-functioning automatic level with the proper specs. And what you’ll do is set up and you’ll pace forward to this point and then back and then get the exact middle. You don’t have to go all the way back on the second. And you will set up your automatic level and you will come sight your level rod and you’ll take your benchmark plus your backsight which becomes your instrument height and you will come over here and you will shoot to your foresight and that instrument height will be minus your rod height will establish the new elevation of this point but not yet.

And so let me make this point that you will backsight, foresight, backsight, foresight all the way to your original point. And what will happen is that you will in a nice format in your field book log each of your elevation shots.

Three-Wire Leveling (Top, Middle, Bottom Readings)

Now, here’s the deal. When you’re doing these shots inside in your scope, you will read your top number, your middle number, and your bottom number. Those other horizontal crosshairs are called stadia hairs. They’re used for two different purposes.

One is you can take the top reading minus the bottom multiplied by 100 and that’s how far away from your rod you are which is really cool how they did that. The other thing it’s for is if you take your top, middle, and bottom, add them up, divide by three, the average should match your middle rod reading, or else you read the rod improperly.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to go traverse a massive 200-acre site only to find out I made a mistake here. I’m going to three-wire level as I go. The other thing is you’re not going to get good enough numbers to be accurate by the time you close if you don’t do that.

Estimate to the Nearest Thousandth (Not Hundredth)

The other thing is you’re not going to read these as the nearest hundredth. You’re not going to be like, “Okay, 252.02.” No, you’re going to be like “252.023 feet.” And somebody would be like, “Well, Jason, you’re guessing on that third number.” But if you round up to the nearest hundredth, you’re intentionally guessing to the wrong number. So, if you guess to the right number, that’s much more accurate than rounding.

So, you’re going to estimate to the nearest thousandth and you’re going to close back.

Closing the Level Loop (Within Tolerance)

Now, what happens when you put this into an Excel sheet and you actually look at your linear error of closure and it’s within the tolerance, you can then adjust the elevations ever so slightly around this thing to match and to close that linear error of closure or that vertical error of closure, what you could also call it, as long as you’re within the tolerance.

Now, in the third version of the book, the Construction Surveying and Layout on page 716, I just had that memorized over the years, there’s first, second, and third order accuracy depending on your acreage that will give you a little mathematical calculation to tell you how far you can be off when you close. If you’re within that tolerance, now you have elevation on all of these points. In addition to your northing and easting, you have your elevation.

Why You Need Elevation on Primary Control

And the reason you need your elevation is because you want to reference it for any additional control. And if you ever want to bring in another benchmark inside the site, like let’s say I want a temporary benchmark in here, you will go backsight, foresight. Then you’ll do backsight, foresight, backsight, foresight. Include two benchmarks in that level loop from known elevations and close. And only then can you know the elevation of your new point. You cannot just do a side shot and spray over there to it.

So, this level looping is how you get elevations on your primary control and then how you would later bring it in through this process to your secondary and working control.

Here’s the level loop process:

  • Start from design benchmark: One of the bases of bearings monuments will have the design benchmark (elevation used by design team to as-built topography and design building). Start from this benchmark.
  • Backsight, foresight around the network: Set up automatic level at exact middle between points. Benchmark plus backsight equals instrument height. Instrument height minus foresight equals new elevation. Backsight, foresight, backsight, foresight all the way back to original point.
  • Three-wire leveling (top, middle, bottom): Read top, middle, bottom on stadia hairs. Add them up, divide by three. Average should match middle reading or you read rod improperly. Top minus bottom times 100 equals distance to rod.
  • Estimate to nearest thousandth (not hundredth): Don’t round to nearest hundredth (252.02). Estimate to nearest thousandth (252.023 feet). Rounding to hundredth is intentionally guessing wrong. Estimating to thousandth is guessing right.
  • Close within tolerance and adjust: Put into Excel, check linear error of closure. Page 716 of Construction Surveying and Layout has first, second, third order accuracy formulas based on acreage. If within tolerance, adjust elevations slightly to close. Now you have northing, easting, and elevation.

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

A Challenge for Field Engineers

Here’s what I want you to do this week. Run a level loop on your primary control. Start from the design benchmark (one of the basis of bearings monuments). Set up automatic level at exact middle between points. Backsight, foresight, backsight, foresight all the way around and close back to the original point. Use three-wire leveling (read top, middle, bottom). Estimate to the nearest thousandth. Log each elevation shot in your field book. Put into Excel, check linear error of closure against page 716 formulas. If within tolerance, adjust elevations. Now you have northing, easting, and elevation on all primary control points.

And remember: you cannot just do a side shot to set a new benchmark. You must go through two known benchmarks and close. That’s how you know the elevation of your new point. As we say at Elevate, level loop for primary control: backsight/foresight from benchmark, three-wire leveling, estimate to nearest thousandth, close within tolerance, adjust elevations. That’s construction elevation control basics.

On we go.

Frequently Asked Questions

What’s the difference between primary, secondary, and working control?

Primary control is permanent, surrounds the job site, lays out everything within. Secondary control is semi-permanent (like a baseline) that controls the building. Working control is temporary and component-specific (like laying out walls or columns).

What is the design benchmark?

The benchmark from which the design team’s surveyors took as-built elevations of roadways, sidewalks, and topography to design the building. The building is based on that benchmark. You must use it for your level loop.

What is three-wire leveling?

Reading top, middle, and bottom stadia hairs. Add them up, divide by three. Average should match middle reading or you read rod improperly. This ensures accuracy over large sites and provides distance check.

Why estimate to the nearest thousandth instead of hundredth?

Because rounding to nearest hundredth (252.02) is intentionally guessing wrong. Estimating to nearest thousandth (252.023) is guessing right. You won’t get accurate enough numbers to close within tolerance if you round to hundredths.

How do you set a new benchmark inside the site?

Go through two known benchmarks and close. Backsight, foresight, backsight, foresight. Include two benchmarks in that level loop from known elevations and close. You cannot just do a side shot and spray to it.

If you want to learn more we have:

-Takt Virtual Training: (Click here)
-Check out our Youtube channel for more info: (Click here) 
-Listen to the Elevate Construction podcast: (Click here) 
-Check out our training programs and certifications: (Click here)
-The Takt Book: (Click here)

Discover Jason’s Expertise:

Meet Jason Schroeder, the driving force behind Elevate Construction IST. As the company’s owner and principal consultant, 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.

On we go

Primary Control Traverse For Field Engineers (Construction Survey Control Basics)

Posted on by Danny Jiménez⁩
Read 22 min

Primary Control Traverse for Field Engineers (Construction Survey Control Basics)

In this blog, I’m going to talk to you about how traversing really ties into how we should be setting up a project as a field engineer. And I’m going to draw it the way I understand it. And I’m going to encourage you to check out the book Construction Surveying and Layout by Wesley Crawford if you want to know more.

Let me talk about this.

What Is Control in Construction?

When you have a building in construction and you want to properly control it, the term control and I’m not talking about toxic, like abuse of spouse control, but like control we’re trying to control the location of every component on the project site. So, control is like we’re keeping control of that building. If we want to lay out the foundations and the slab on grade and then start going up for this building, we need to get there from the basis of bearings.

So typically, we’ll have like, let’s say out here on the road there’s a city monument, and then over here on the road there’s another city monument, and they’re like, “Hey, go build this building.” Okay, great. Well, you’re going to have to go research with a surveyor or with a civil engineer the northing, easting, and elevation for these monuments and make sure that these are the ones that were used in the design.

See, now let me make sure I’m doing a good job here. Whatever basis of bearings and design benchmark is what I call it. It’s basically a city monument with an elevation that was used to as-built the elevations and the topography on the site to design the building, is what you now need to use to lay out the building. At least to double-check it.

Setting Up Primary Control (Surrounding the Building)

So, if I want to build this building and I’m like, “Hey, I want some primary control around the site in concrete monuments that are permanent that will control the building,” I will make sure that it is surrounding the building and the entire project site, and I will make sure that it ties to the basis of bearings. So, what I would do is I would connect a traverse from here to here to here to here to here. Let’s go that direction and then back.

How Traversing Works (Distance and Direct/Reverse Angles)

And what a traverse basically is and let me just do it with three points. When you do traversing, you set up your total station and you shoot a distance, then you turn an angle: direct, reverse, direct, reverse at a minimum, and then you shoot a distance. Then, depending on which direction you’re going, you’ll set up again and you will shoot a distance. And you’ll do direct, reverse, direct, reverse, and then shoot another distance so you have two.

Then you’ll set up over here and you’ll shoot a forward distance so you have two. Direct, reverse, direct, reverse, shoot another distance. So now every leg has two distances, and it has direct and reverse shots for the angle.

And what happens is those numbers should create a perfect geometrical object. But they won’t because of human and instrumental error. So, this is what I like to do when I’m teaching field engineers. That triangle should hit flat. But because of human and instrumental error, once you move the measurements into AutoCAD, it will have a gap. And that is called your linear error of closure. So, what it does is if you’re within the right accuracy, it will close and adjust the data. So you have accurate coordinates at all of the different points.

So traversing is essentially networking these points together in a precise way. Accuracy is, am I in the right location per the world? Precision is, do I have a good relationship from point to point within a network? So, precision and accuracy are two different things.

The Biggest Mistake: Not Comparing Traverse to Survey Coordinates

So, when I do this, I will network these points together. And here’s a really important point. If these points already have survey coordinates, you can plug those into AutoCAD. But let’s say that that’s your points. And in AutoCAD, you plugged them in from the survey data. And then you go do this traverse and you’re like, “Oh my gosh, we closed with greater than 1 in 50,000, which is what I typically recommend.” Which means that you did such good work on this traverse that it would take you 50,000 linear feet of traversing to be off a foot. That is the ratio that they use to make sure that you have an accurate traverse.

So, let’s say that you’re above 1 in 50,000. You’re like, “Oh, my points are good.” That’s the biggest mistake people make. Just because you did a good traverse doesn’t mean you know these points are right. What you have to do I hope you like and subscribe but what you have to do then is take your traverse coordinates and overlay them using your basis of bearings as your basis and then overlay it over the points. And I’m just doing a little demonstration here.

Let’s say the black marks on this sheet were the coordinates that you got from the surveyor, and the blue is what your traverse came up with. Well, obviously you can see you’re pretty close on these, but this one’s way out of whack. And we find this all the time. And so, the traverse has to be overlaid with the survey coordinates. And that’s why we go back to that other blog that it’s important to do that in AutoCAD or Civil 3D to make sure they’re correct.

Now, if you see this problem, you call the surveyor back out and you reconcile it and then you align and make sure that everything’s pretty close. The other thing you can see is if you’re within acceptable tolerances. Like if this is 0.01 off, 0.01, 0.01, 0.015, 0.02, 0.02, 0.025, and this one’s 0.05, and this one’s off like by 0.80, you’re probably going to want to adjust that one too and talk to the surveyor about that one.

Why Accurate Traverse Points Matter (Laying Out Baselines)

The traverse points are very crucial to get the network tied in the way it needs to be. And let me tell you why. If you just take these random I am going to call them random because typically surveyors will just go spray points with a 4-foot prism pole and it’s garbage they will not be accurate.

If you go take these points and you like set up over here and you’re like, “Hey, I want to lay out the baseline for this building.” And you set up backsight farther back than foresight, and you lay out these two points. And then you set up over here and you backsight a backsight that’s longer than this building longer backsights than foresights. And you lay out these two points. And let’s say you do it from a third point, which is typically a good practice. And you actually look in here at this monument and I’m just going to draw this real size. This is what we see.

You’ll see a point here. You’ll see something like that. You’re like, “What in the world is that? What’s the real point?” You’re introducing a lot of error, and you are also not maintaining consistency.

Once you get the surveyor and you align and you use the coordinates from your traverse and you lay out this end point of the baseline from one side having a longer backsight than foresight and then from this side and then from this side, and you actually go zoom in to one of these and I’m telling you this happens every time you’ll see exactly what I just drew right there: three perfect little dots, and the real point is right in the middle, taking the average of that, and that’s getting rid of that instrumental error.

And so that 3/16 of a problem inside the total station that’s going to get rid of it. So you can literally position any building within this network whenever you want as long as you’ve done this right.

Key Rules When Doing a Traverse

Now a couple of rules. When you do the traverse:

  • Use tribrachs with prisms for backsights: Not 4-foot prism poles which are garbage and inaccurate. Use tribrachs with omni prisms for precise work.
  • Use greater than 3-second gun: You need really good equipment for construction control. 3-second total station or better.
  • Shoot forward and back, direct and reverse: Every leg has two distances and direct/reverse shots for the angle. This gets rid of instrumental error.
  • Close the traverse: Do the traverse computations to get rid of error. Must close better than 1 in 50,000 (meaning it would take 50,000 linear feet to be off a foot).
  • Compare traverse with actual survey points: Take traverse coordinates, overlay using basis of bearings, compare to surveyor’s coordinates. Call surveyor to reconcile if points are out of whack.

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

What Happens When You Do This Right

And if you do that, this is what you’re going to do. You are going to end up with beautiful tied-in, aligned to the basis of bearings beautifully accurate, beautifully precise points from which you can go lay out your secondary baselines and anything else where, if you hit them from three any layout that you’re doing from three sides of a traverse you’ll get a perfect little triangular pattern and you’ll be able to take the average and have the exact right point.

And this matters because if you’re like on big airports, if you don’t have that, if you don’t do it from different sides of a traverse, you’ll have this building over in this direction, that one over in that direction, and then when you connect them with bridges or other connections, it won’t be accurate.

So, you’ve got to be able to do this. Traversing is great. The next step is level loop. We’ll cover that in a different video, but if you follow these practices with Wesley Crawford’s book, you’ll be spot on.

A Challenge for Field Engineers

Here’s what I want you to do this week. Set up primary control surrounding your building. Tie to basis of bearings (city monuments with northing, easting, elevation used in design). Run a traverse: shoot distance, direct/reverse angles, close the traverse better than 1 in 50,000. Then overlay your traverse coordinates with the surveyor’s coordinates using AutoCAD or Civil 3D. Compare. Call the surveyor to reconcile any points that are out of whack.

When you lay out baselines, do it from three sides of the traverse with longer backsights than foresights. You’ll get three perfect little dots, take the average, and have the exact right point. That’s how you position buildings accurately within the network. As we say at Elevate, primary control traverse: tie to basis of bearings, shoot distance and direct/reverse angles, close traverse, overlay coordinates, compare to survey points. That’s construction survey control basics.

On we go.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the basis of bearings?

City monuments with northing, easting, and elevation that were used to as-built the topography and design the building. You must use the same basis of bearings to lay out the building to maintain accuracy.

What’s the difference between accuracy and precision?

Accuracy is: am I in the right location per the world (tied to basis of bearings). Precision is: do I have a good relationship from point to point within a network (traverse closure).

Why overlay traverse coordinates with survey coordinates?

Because just because you closed the traverse well doesn’t mean the surveyor’s points are right. We find points out of whack all the time. Overlay, compare, call surveyor to reconcile discrepancies.

Why shoot from three sides of the traverse when laying out?

Because you’ll get three perfect little dots instead of scattered points. Take the average and you have the exact right point. This gets rid of the 3/16 instrumental error in the total station.

What accuracy should a traverse close to?

Better than 1 in 50,000. Meaning it would take 50,000 linear feet of traversing to be off a foot. That’s the ratio for accurate construction control traverses.

If you want to learn more we have:

-Takt Virtual Training: (Click here)
-Check out our Youtube channel for more info: (Click here) 
-Listen to the Elevate Construction podcast: (Click here) 
-Check out our training programs and certifications: (Click here)
-The Takt Book: (Click here)

Discover Jason’s Expertise:

Meet Jason Schroeder, the driving force behind Elevate Construction IST. As the company’s owner and principal consultant, 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.

On we go

Equipment And Testing For Field Engineers In Construction

Posted on by Danny Jiménez⁩
Read 28 min

Equipment and Testing for Field Engineers in Construction

In this blog, I’m going to talk to you about how you can enable your field engineering team and your field engineering program by making sure that you have calibrated and functioning equipment. And if you don’t, you’re going to be out there, oh my gosh, I’ve seen this so many times, waste so much time running level loops, shooting elevations, running a traverse, and you’re like, “What is going on?” And you’re so frustrated, only to find out that something went wrong.

So, I’m going to talk to you about best practices right now.

The Pain of Uncalibrated Equipment

Here’s what happens when you don’t have calibrated equipment. You run level loops and they don’t close. You shoot elevations and they’re wrong. You run a traverse and the numbers don’t make sense. You waste hours, maybe days trying to figure out what’s going wrong. And then you discover: your tribrach is out of calibration. Or your automatic level is off. Or your prism pole is wrong. And now you have to redo everything.

And here’s the deeper problem: if you don’t catch it, you lay out the building wrong. Columns are out of tolerance. Walls are out of plumb. Elevations are inches off. And now you have rework. Delays. Frustration. And the schedule collapses.

So you’ve got to make sure that you’re using your equipment in a tested and calibrated manner.

The Ideal Setup: FE Bullpen with Testing Area

So when you begin your field engineering program, I’ve said this multiple times, but I want you to have an open office space FE bullpen. And remember, that’s not a dig. It’s not like, “Oh, why do us grunts have to be out in this open office space?” Open office spaces, in my opinion, obviously, are the most intelligent form of collaborating in an office of all. I loathe separate offices and closed doors. All it does is tear down trust.

So if you have an open office space in an FE bullpen and you’re the only one, then you’re the only cool group in the office. But typically what you’ll do is you’ll have a little area in the FE bullpen and then outside, let’s say your overall trailer, let’s say that’s the outside of your trailer and maybe there’s a sidewalk or there’s like an area over here where you can go set up some stuff. You’re going to have some testing and inspection requirements for your equipment, your field engineer equipment specifically.

And I’m going to go through these one by one. First of all, this is in Wesley Crawford’s book, Construction Surveying and Layout. It will also be in his fourth version, which should be out in the next couple of months. But the bottom line is you need to make sure your equipment is in good working order. Now, I’m not going to cover this in detail, but I’ll give you the high points and then point you to the reference material.

Total Stations: Cleaning and Calibration

Let’s first talk about a total station. There is, inside the book, ways to check your angle measurement for your vertical and horizontal angles. There’s two specific tests that I like in there where you can make sure that it’s in good working order. And typically that’s in chapter 10 in the book in version three.

Typically, you don’t have to do these angle checks because most of the time your total station will be in good working order. Let’s say you have a total station on a project. Before you go to the next project, I would have it sent into the survey shop to get cleaned and to get calibrated. And if you do that and basically take really good care of it, make sure you’re using the lens-appropriate cloths and cleaning wipes, not Windex and not your fingers, and that you’re not putting the total station inside of a case when it’s wet to where it gets into the optics and affects the inside next to those lenses inside the actual machinery. As long as you’re taking good care of it and you’re not dropping it and you’re not holding it over your shoulder, you never hold these things over your shoulder like this, you should be good to go.

Now, if you feel like it got bumped or it fell over, obviously take it in to get cleaned and calibrated again. But typically you don’t have trouble with total stations. Now, I always want you to have a 3-second gun or better. You can’t ask surveyors or survey shop owners anything about this. They’ll be like, “You don’t need that, blah blah blah.” Yes, you do. If you’re going to close the traverses and do the kind of layout that I expect and that Wesley Crawford expects for construction control, you’ve got to have really good equipment. You’ve got to maintain them.

Automatic Levels: How They Work and How to Test Them

Now, your automatic level, which some people call a builder’s level. I don’t know that that’s incorrect, but it’s an automatic level because it’s got an automatic internal compensator. And so, what that means is that you will have a prism that’s literally dangling with little wires. That’s why Wesley Crawford in his book says, some of the older instruments had a little lever or button, but you tap the instrument and it should jiggle. It means that this is freely moving. And what it does, it aligns, based off of gravity, any small misalignments in your line of sight.

So, you need to make sure that your automatic internal compensator is working. And you’ll also do a number of other things to make sure that you get rid of parallax and that you have this in focus. But the bottom line is that your level bubble here on the actual housing, the tribrach, has to be calibrated to make sure that this is level.

One of the main things that you’ll do is you will do what’s called pegging a level. So, you will set up your level here in the middle between like two poles that are 200 feet apart. You’ll mark a line, mark a line, and then you’ll come set up over here. And you will mark a line, mark a line, and the distance between these two should be within about an eighth of an inch. They should be equal on both sides.

See, if your automatic level is off, it won’t go like this. It will go like this. Right? So, if you have an automatic level that’s wrong and you’re perfectly between those poles and you make marks and then you get closer to one, you’ll see how those differences start to increase from pole to pole. So you can do pegging a level. And back at the shop, what they’ll do is they’ll just automatically have a little metal plate that’s perfectly level and they’ll make sure that that little level bubble is perfectly level and that it’s sighting properly.

I’m exaggerating a little bit, but I’d say about 15% of the time you’ll get an automatic level right out of the shop that’s not in good calibration, and you need to check it. And if you drop it or there’s a problem or somebody adjusts this level bubble or you’re just not shooting properly, you need to go peg that level. And I actually would recommend that you peg that level every two to four weeks anyway as a standard form of practice.

The Problem with 4-Foot Prism Poles (Avoid Them)

A couple of things that really go wrong quite a bit. Your 4-foot prism poles you shouldn’t be using too much because even if a surveyor argues with me. In fact, let me just say something funny. There was a surveyor that actually worked on a Hensel Phelps job that read our book, Elevating Construction Surveyors, and gave us a bad review because he didn’t like following all of the rules and best practices and made fun of us and gave us a one-star rating. And so that book had a bad rating for a while. And now, naturally, over the years, it’s a 4.7. So, there you go, in your face. It’s an awesome book and people are really doing well with it.

But the problem is surveyors are some of my favorite people in the world, but they’re also some of the most arrogant and cocky and know-it-all people in the world. And they think because they can run a total station that they know everything. And that’s just not the case. And it’s very hard to find a surveyor that understands proper construction tolerances.

From a 4-foot prism pole from the top to the bottom, it’s not uncommon to be 3/16 to 3/8 off. That level bubble is not that accurate. But even if you’re using it like let’s say for general staking, rough staking, you’re locating your trailer, something like that, you need to make sure that it is in good calibration. I’m not going to list any brand names here, but they have a True Plumb. You’ll get it fixed inside the office to where it’s perfectly plumb. You put the 4-foot prism pole in there, and then if the bubble isn’t reading properly, you know you have a problem. There’s other ways to handle it, but these quite often need to be checked.

Tribrachs: 50% Wrong from the Shop

Let me give you one other one, which is a big one because it’s used for precise work. When you’re on a tripod, you’ll have over the head, you’ll have a tribrach that literally links you to a prism. Typically, I like to use the omni prism. What it does is it has an optical plummet and it will sight down to a point and it will level you and it will bring your target up higher and it’s better than a 4-foot prism pole.

But, and this is real, about half the time, 50% of the time that I order a tribrach from a survey shop, it’s out of calibration. And I’m not going to go into too much detail, but I think you’ll find this interesting that if you want to calibrate and actually bring into calibration your tribrach, you set it up perfectly like it’s a total station, and then you literally trace the outline on the head of the tripod and put it on the point. Then you turn it, and I believe it’s 120°. Yep. And you put it back in the trace line, level it up, and it should hit the point.

If it doesn’t, it’ll give you a different dot mark. Then you move it 120°, level it, and you’ll get a different dot mark. And then you’ll end up with three dots down there. And the middle of those three is actually where the level tribrach should be sighting. So, you move it to the middle, make it level there, and it will start to perform with the optical plummet right over the point accurately. And then you can test it, test it, test it until it’s perfect. Or you can take it into the shop.

But the bottom line is total station, typically good. Levels you have to test. The prism poles you have to test. The tribrachs you really have to test.

Steel Chains and Nylon Tapes: The Testing Area

The last thing that I’m going to say is that your steel chains, which means your 100–200-foot chains, you will need a point. That’s why I mentioned on the sidewalk a point here at zero and then at 100. Actually, this is a challenge for you. I want you to shoot 100 feet with a total station. Measure 100 feet with your chain with the right tension, no sag, and with the right temperature corrections. And then I want you to use one of those silly nylons 100-foot tapes. And you’ll see that the silly nylon ones can be up to 3/4 of an inch wrong.

And so, if you’re going to do any kind of measurement up to 100 feet, I want you to have this testing area on the sidewalk. And then these you can do over here in this other area and be very successful. So, I want this whole thing set up to where you can go test your equipment at any time. If your project needs superintendent coaching, project support, or leadership development, Elevate Construction can help your field teams stabilize, schedule, and flow.

Equipment Testing Checklist for Field Engineers

Here’s the testing schedule:

  • Total stations: Clean and calibrate between projects – Send to survey shop for cleaning and calibration before moving to next project. Take good care with lens-appropriate cloths (not Windex or fingers), don’t store wet in case, never hold over shoulder. If bumped or dropped, recalibrate. Always use 3-second gun or better.
  • Automatic levels: Peg every 2-4 weeks – About 15% come from shop out of calibration. Set up between two poles 200 feet apart, mark lines, compare distances (should be within 1/8 inch). If dropped or level bubble adjusted, peg immediately. Standard practice: peg every 2-4 weeks.
  • Tribrachs: Test immediately (50% wrong from shop) – Half the time tribrachs come from survey shop out of calibration. Set up, trace outline on tripod head, turn 120°, level up, check point. Repeat 120° twice more. Three dots show where tribrach should sight. Move to middle, level there, test until perfect.
  • Steel chains and nylon tapes: Test on sidewalk – Create testing area on sidewalk: point at zero, point at 100 feet (shoot with total station). Measure with chain (right tension, no sag, temperature corrections). Compare to nylon tape (can be 3/4 inch wrong). Use testing area regularly.

A Challenge for Field Engineers

Here’s what I want you to do this week. Set up your testing area. Create points on the sidewalk at zero and 100 feet. Peg your automatic levels. Test your tribrachs (50% are wrong from the shop). Test your chains and nylon tapes. And establish a testing schedule: total stations between projects, automatic levels every 2-4 weeks, tribrachs immediately when received, chains regularly.

And if you want more details, it’s in the Field Engineering Methods Manual. You got to make sure that you’re using your equipment in a tested and calibrated manner. As we say at Elevate, field engineer equipment testing: peg levels every 2-4 weeks, check tribrachs (50% wrong from shop), test chains on sidewalk, calibrate total stations yearly.

On we go.

Frequently Asked Questions

How often should you peg an automatic level?

Every 2-4 weeks as standard practice. Also peg immediately if dropped, level bubble adjusted, or not shooting properly. About 15% of automatic levels come from the shop out of calibration.

Why are tribrachs often out of calibration?

Because 50% of the time they come from the survey shop out of calibration. Always test tribrachs immediately when received by setting up, tracing outline, turning 120° three times, and checking if optical plummet hits the point.

Why avoid 4-foot prism poles?

Because from top to bottom, they’re commonly 3/16 to 3/8 inch off. The level bubble is not that accurate. Use omni prisms with tribrachs instead for precise work. Only use 4-foot prism poles for general staking.

How do you test steel chains?

Create testing area on sidewalk with points at zero and 100 feet (shot with total station). Measure with chain using right tension, no sag, temperature corrections. Compare to nylon tape (can be 3/4 inch wrong).

When should total stations be calibrated?

Between projects. Send to survey shop for cleaning and calibration before moving to next project. Also recalibrate if bumped or dropped. Always use 3-second gun or better for construction control.

If you want to learn more we have:

-Takt Virtual Training: (Click here)
-Check out our Youtube channel for more info: (Click here) 
-Listen to the Elevate Construction podcast: (Click here) 
-Check out our training programs and certifications: (Click here)
-The Takt Book: (Click here)

Discover Jason’s Expertise:

Meet Jason Schroeder, the driving force behind Elevate Construction IST. As the company’s owner and principal consultant, 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.

On we go

How Takt Planning Works with CPM Scheduling in Construction

Posted on by Danny Jiménez⁩
Read 18 min

How Takt Planning Works with CPM Scheduling in Construction

For decades, construction projects have relied on the Critical Path Method (CPM) to plan and control schedules. Nearly every contract requires a CPM schedule, and many project teams assume CPM is the only legitimate way to plan a project. But anyone who has actually tried to build a project from a CPM schedule knows something important: CPM is not a production planning system. It is a contractual scheduling framework. That distinction is critical.

CPM is useful for documentation, contractual reporting, and delay claims. But when teams try to run a jobsite directly from CPM, they often experience chaos: stacked trades, unstable sequences, constant rework, and schedules that don’t reflect how work actually happens in the field. That’s where Takt Planning changes everything. Takt Planning creates the production system construction has been missing one that establishes rhythm, stability, and continuous flow across trades. When implemented correctly, Takt and CPM are not competing systems. They serve different purposes and can work together extremely well. The key is understanding how they integrate.

Quick Answer: Build in Takt, Report in CPM

Takt Planning integrates with CPM scheduling by serving as the production planning system, while CPM functions as the contractual reporting schedule. Projects are built and managed using Takt plans to create flow and stability. Progress is then exported into CPM to maintain contractual compliance, schedule documentation, and legal coverage. In simple terms: Build in Takt. Report in CPM.

The Pain of CPM Alone (Why CPM Cannot Run a Construction Project)

The Critical Path Method was originally designed as a mathematical scheduling model, not a production system. Because of this, CPM schedules often struggle with real-world construction challenges. Trades stacking on top of each other. Constant resequencing. Unstable work flow. Poor reliability from week to week. Difficult communication with field crews.

CPM schedules also tend to be too complex for daily field use. Hundreds or thousands of activities exist in the schedule, but crews need something much simpler: clear direction on what to do next. Takt Planning solves this problem by creating flow-based production planning. Instead of managing thousands of disconnected activities, Takt organizes work into zones, trade sequences, and repeating production rhythms. This makes the plan understandable, visual, and executable in the field.

Understanding the Relationship Between Takt and CPM

The easiest way to understand how these systems work together is through role clarity. Takt Planning is the driver. CPM is the record. Takt Planning controls the way the project is actually built. It establishes the flow of work through the building, the sequencing of trades, the movement of crews, the rhythm of production, and the stability of handoffs. This creates a predictable production environment where trades move from zone to zone in a consistent pattern.

CPM, on the other hand, becomes the formal record of the project schedule. It documents the sequence of work for contractual purposes and provides the schedule artifact required by most contracts. The proper relationship looks like this: Run the project using Takt Planning. Export progress into CPM for contractual reporting. When teams understand this distinction, they gain the best of both worlds: Lean production flow and contractual protection.

What Comes First: Takt Planning or CPM

One of the biggest mistakes teams make is starting with CPM. The typical approach looks like this: Build a CPM schedule. Try to pull plan from CPM. Create lookaheads from CPM. Build weekly work plans. Update CPM again. This creates multiple disconnected planning systems and often leads to confusion. The correct order is the opposite. The project should begin with Takt Planning. First, teams develop a Macro-Level Takt Plan, which establishes the overall flow and sequencing of the project. This plan defines work zones, trade sequence, phase flow, and production rhythm. Once the Takt structure is established, the CPM Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) can be aligned to match it. The guiding principle is simple: The Takt plan leads. CPM follows as an export. When projects begin with Takt, the schedule reflects how the job will actually be built, not just how it appears in scheduling software.

How Takt Planning Integrates with the Last Planner System

Takt Planning works naturally with the Last Planner System, forming a cascade of planning levels that move from strategy to daily execution. A typical Lean planning cycle includes the Macro-Level Takt Plan that defines the overall project strategy and establishes the flow of work. Then Pull Plan Milestones where trades collaborate to identify milestones and handoffs within each phase. Then the Norm-Level Takt Plan which becomes the detailed production plan for each phase of the project. Then Six-Week Lookahead where teams remove constraints and prepare upcoming work. Then Weekly Work Plans where trades commit to specific work sequences for the week. Then Daily Planning where field crews execute work using visual plans and zone-based sequencing. Throughout this cycle, progress and learning feed back into the Takt plan. That updated information is then exported into the CPM schedule for reporting.

The Right Way to Update Schedules on a Takt Project

On a Lean construction project, updates begin in the field, not in scheduling software. The most effective teams capture production information through daily zone control walks. During these walks, superintendents and foremen walk each zone, completed work is verified, upcoming work is prepared, and constraints are identified early. This process creates real-time production feedback. Each week, the updated production plan is reflected in the Takt schedule. That information is then exported into the CPM schedule to maintain contractual alignment. This keeps CPM synchronized with the project without allowing it to control field operations.

How Takt Planning Handles Delays and Impacts

Traditional CPM-based recovery often involves aggressive reactions like adding more labor, crashing schedules, overlapping trades, and accelerating work without coordination. These approaches frequently make problems worse by disrupting production flow. Takt Planning approaches delays differently. Instead of panic-driven responses, teams focus on flow recovery. Typical recovery strategies include adjusting crew flow between zones, optimizing batch sizes, re-leveling the Takt plan, and protecting trade sequence stability. This keeps the project moving forward without destroying the rhythm of production. Impacts are tracked based on the Path of Critical Flow, which reflects the real movement of work through the building. If your project needs superintendent coaching, project support, or leadership development, Elevate Construction can help your field teams stabilize, schedule, and flow.

Maintaining Legal Protection with CPM

One concern many organizations have when adopting Lean scheduling is contractual protection. Fortunately, CPM still provides this layer of protection. By exporting the Takt plan into CPM each week, teams maintain a contract-compliant schedule, a defensible as-built record, documentation for potential time extensions, and alignment with owner requirements. This allows projects to enjoy the benefits of Lean production while still meeting contractual obligations.

The Key Principle: Takt Drives Production, CPM Reports Contractually

When teams try to run construction projects from CPM alone, they often encounter instability, confusion, and unreliable schedules. Takt Planning fixes this by introducing flow, rhythm, stability, and clear trade coordination. But CPM still serves an important role.

The most effective projects use both systems with clear responsibilities:

  • Takt Planning drives production: Creates flow, guides field execution, establishes rhythm, sequences trades, moves crews zone to zone, creates stability of handoffs, and makes the plan understandable, visual, and executable in the field
  • CPM Scheduling reports contractually: Documents schedule status, satisfies contract requirements, provides legal protection, maintains as-built record, and aligns with owner requirements for contractual compliance
  • Takt leads, CPM follows as export: Begin with Macro-Level Takt Plan, define zones/sequence/flow/rhythm, align CPM WBS to match Takt structure, export Takt progress into CPM weekly for contractual reporting, keep CPM synchronized without letting it control field operations

When these systems are used together correctly, something powerful happens on the project. Work flows smoothly. Trades trust the plan. Teams operate with stability instead of chaos. And the project moves forward with clarity, reliability, and momentum.

A Challenge for Construction Teams

Here’s what I want you to do this week. If you’re running a project with CPM, ask yourself: Is CPM driving production or reporting contractually? If CPM is driving production, you have chaos. Stop. Start with Takt Planning instead. Develop a Macro-Level Takt Plan. Define zones, sequence, flow, rhythm. Align CPM WBS to match Takt. Run the project using Takt. Export progress into CPM weekly for contractual reporting.

Build in Takt. Report in CPM. That’s the principle. When you use both systems with clear responsibilities, you get Lean production flow and contractual protection. That’s how Takt and CPM work together. As we say at Elevate, Takt drives production, CPM reports contractually. Build in Takt, report in CPM. Takt leads, CPM follows as export. Flow-based planning with legal protection.

On we go.

Frequently Asked Questions

How does Takt Planning integrate with CPM scheduling?

Takt serves as the production planning system while CPM functions as the contractual reporting schedule. Build and manage using Takt plans to create flow. Export progress into CPM to maintain contractual compliance and legal coverage.

Which comes first: Takt Planning or CPM?

Takt Planning comes first. Develop Macro-Level Takt Plan, define zones/sequence/flow/rhythm, then align CPM WBS to match it. The Takt plan leads. CPM follows as an export. Never start with CPM.

Can you maintain legal protection with Takt Planning?

Yes. By exporting the Takt plan into CPM each week, you maintain a contract-compliant schedule, defensible as-built record, documentation for time extensions, and alignment with owner requirements. Lean production with contractual protection.

How do you update schedules on a Takt project?

Updates begin in the field through daily zone control walks. Capture production feedback. Each week, reflect updated production plan in Takt schedule. Export that into CPM for contractual alignment. CPM stays synchronized without controlling field operations.

How does Takt Planning handle delays differently than CPM?

CPM recovery adds labor, crashes schedules, overlaps trades. Takt focuses on flow recovery: adjust crew flow between zones, optimize batch sizes, re-level Takt plan, protect sequence stability. Track impacts based on Path of Critical Flow.

If you want to learn more we have:

-Takt Virtual Training: (Click here)
-Check out our Youtube channel for more info: (Click here) 
-Listen to the Elevate Construction podcast: (Click here) 
-Check out our training programs and certifications: (Click here)
-The Takt Book: (Click here)

Discover Jason’s Expertise:

Meet Jason Schroeder, the driving force behind Elevate Construction IST. As the company’s owner and principal consultant, 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.

On we go

Scheduling For Field Engineers (Construction Lookahead Planning That Works)

Posted on by Danny Jiménez⁩
Read 20 min

Scheduling for Field Engineers (Construction Lookahead Planning that Works)

In this blog, I’m going to talk to you about a really difficult subject: How a field engineer or a field engineering team can actually stay on schedule. This is hugely important because there are different buffers and timelines that we must deal with. And we also are in the business of keeping work flowing and going.

So, I’m going to show you a pattern back here that I really hope you fall in love with. Let me explain how field engineers stay on schedule.

The Pain of Field Engineers Without a Scheduling System

Here’s what happens when field engineers don’t have a scheduling system. They work 14 hours a day. They fight fires. They scramble. They never get ahead. Activities come up and they’re not ready. Lift drawings aren’t done. Layout isn’t complete. Surveyors aren’t scheduled. And the placement or inspection gets delayed. The crew waits. The schedule slips. And the field engineer is stressed, overwhelmed, and burning out.

Otherwise, you’re going to be working 14 hours a day, and it’s going to be absolutely crazy. That’s why scheduling is crucial for field engineers.

The Last Planner System for Field Engineers

I’m going to start with the Last Planner System. And you’re probably like, “J Money, what in the world is going on?” But let me explain it like this. If you have a macro-level Takt plan, which at least commercial companies are using, field engineers should be familiar with this. Like, for instance, Hensel Phelps uses SIPS, Short Interval Production Schedule. That’s an ancestor of Takt planning.

You’ll have a macro-level Takt plan, and one of these phases will come down and its milestone will be brought down as well, and you’ll do a pull plan. But when you do this pull plan, you will actually gain buffers at the end before the milestone. And then from this, you’re able to filter out what’s called a six-week make ready lookahead plan. That’s a lot of words. And then a weekly work plan. And that weekly work plan is from now to two Fridays from now. And then you’re actually able to filter out what’s called a day plan.

Now, this six-week make ready lookahead plan and the weekly work plan are going to be my main tools.

The Six-Week Lookahead Plan

The six-week make ready lookahead plan for the field engineer will basically keep the diagonal trade flow according to the Takt time, and it will hopefully show out the next four or six weeks. Some contractors do three. They really mean last week, the next three weeks, and then a lookahead week after that. So it could be five. But I like a six-week lookahead.

So, what it will do is it will show activities, but these activities will still be on a flow. It won’t just be a Gantt chart. And you’ll be able to use that to see what work is coming.

The Weekly Work Plan

And then a weekly work plan will be more narrow, and it will have each activity on its own line. Meaning that like if you see a lookahead plan, you would see multiple activities on the same line because you’re still seeing that Takt plan in a flow. But in the weekly work plan, you’ll see everything on its own line item. And this is the commitment schedule. And this is your lookahead. This is to make work ready.

I think that as a field engineer, if I was doing field engineering today, I would probably look more at the lookahead plan and then just make sure that the weekly work plan is tracking in this direction.

Working Back from Placement Dates (Survey Checks and Lift Drawings)

But here’s the bottom line. The situation is typically, let’s just use placement, but field engineers can be prepping for concrete placements, grouting for masonry walls, in-wall overhead ceiling inspections, whatever it is, whatever you’re closing up or placing with concrete or grouting, right? Let’s say that that’s this day.

In some situations, like for instance in Southern California, when you have labor that’s signatory to the union, like for instance, if Hensel Phelps had a field engineering program in SoCal, but you are union on that particular job or as a company, then you might have to involve the surveyors. So if you have to do a survey check or do survey layout right here before this activity, it might take you a couple of days to get them scheduled. And there’s a range of a couple of days here. The field engineers might do their work ahead and have the surveyors check, or the surveyors might do their work and then the field engineers check. Either way, you’re dealing with a timeline.

It’s not all projects where you can just go do the layout and then go make the placement. So, the bottom line is I’m going to take these activities over here and in whatever schedule format the field engineer desires, I’m going to put those required dates for when we are placing, grouting, or closing that overhead soffit or ceiling or doing drywall on the wall. We are going to mark those dates. Then we’re going to work back for anything that we might need, like survey, like having a professional surveyor come out and double-check. And then we’re going to mark the actual day that we do the layout. And even before that, we’re going to mark the day that we need to have our lift drawings done.

So this would be layout, and this would be lift drawings. If you have this kind of a schedule, then you can work on this rhythm.

The Afternoon Huddle (Planning for the Next Day)

That means that every day in the FE bullpen, and hopefully let’s say there’s a desk here, here, here. Let’s say there’s a whiteboard over here. Every day when you come in, and preferably the afternoon before, and let me actually talk about that real quick. On a really good Lean project, the foreman and the superintendent will do their foreman huddle the afternoon before.

And then what can happen is the field engineers, before they go home, can go ahead and huddle and do their scheduling. They can say, “Alright, here are the activities and let’s say this is tomorrow. Okay, well, tomorrow I’ve got to have this lift drawing done and then I’ve got to prepare for this layout and then I’ve got some requests from the day before and that’s my schedule.”

And so what they do is they will take their long-term scheduling, which would be on the left side of the board, and make their day plan for the next day on the right side of the board. And they would come up with a day plan. So, you would have, you know, like let’s say FE1, FE2, FE3. And they have a list of the things that they’re going to do the next day, and they can charge their batteries, which you should probably do anyway. Get any prep work, any permissions. Probably wouldn’t need dig permits. Let’s say you’re in an area where you need a job hazard analysis or you need to get, in the Southeast, they call it, in addition to their MOT, their traffic control signage. Maybe you need certain traffic control. Maybe you need certain permits.

Whatever you need for the tasks in that daytight compartment, you can get the day before so that when you get into this next day and you’re actually out there executing work, you’re not just fighting fires. You know that you’re getting out ahead of key activities, especially if you have these other requirements that would require a buffer.

Here’s the scheduling system for field engineers:

  • Six-week lookahead and weekly work plan as base tools: Six-week lookahead shows diagonal trade flow according to Takt time with activities on flow (not just Gantt chart). Weekly work plan is commitment schedule from now to two Fridays from now with each activity on its own line.
  • Mark placement dates and work back: Put required dates for placements, grouting, or closing overhead soffits/ceilings on the schedule. Work back for survey checks (couple days buffer in union situations). Mark layout day. Mark lift drawing completion day before layout.
  • Afternoon huddle for next day planning: Field engineers huddle afternoon before (after foreman huddle). Take long-term scheduling from left side of board, make day plan for next day on right side. FE1, FE2, FE3 list tasks for next day. Charge batteries, get prep work, permissions, JHA, traffic control, permits for daytight compartments.

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

A Challenge for Field Engineers

So, I know this is a lot. I am always told to never summarize on a YouTube video, but I’m just going to tell you: six-week lookahead and weekly work plan is your base tool, gets plugged into the schedule which is on your board in your FE bullpen area. You work the activities back to trigger key activities for you, understanding that you might need other interfaces or experts, especially like the Southern California union surveyor example. And then you huddle the afternoon before the next day, and you come up with activities or assignments FE by FE that will enable you to execute within what’s called daytight compartments.

This scheduling is crucial. Otherwise, you’re going to be working 14 hours a day, and it’s going to be absolutely crazy.

Here’s what I want you to do this week. Set up a scheduling board in your FE bullpen. Left side: six-week lookahead and weekly work plan with placement dates marked and activities worked back for survey checks, layout, and lift drawings. Right side: day plan for next day created in afternoon huddle. Huddle every afternoon before. Charge batteries, get permissions, prep work for daytight compartments. That’s how you stay on schedule without working 14 hours a day. As we say at Elevate, field engineer scheduling: six-week lookahead and weekly work plan, work back from placement dates, mark lift drawings and layout, huddle afternoon before. That’s the system.

On we go.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the two main scheduling tools for field engineers?

Six-week make ready lookahead plan (shows diagonal trade flow according to Takt time with activities on flow) and weekly work plan (commitment schedule from now to two Fridays from now with each activity on its own line).

Why work back from placement dates?

Because you need buffers for survey checks (couple days in union situations), time for layout, and time to complete lift drawings before layout. Mark placement date, work back for survey, mark layout day, mark lift drawing completion day.

When should field engineers huddle for scheduling?

Afternoon before the next day, after the foreman and superintendent do their afternoon foreman huddle. Take long-term scheduling from left side of board, make day plan for next day on right side with tasks per FE.

What are daytight compartments?

Tasks you can get done in one day with all prep work, permissions, JHA, traffic control, and permits gathered the afternoon before. So when you start the next day, you’re executing work, not fighting fires.

Why is scheduling crucial for field engineers?

Because without a scheduling system, field engineers work 14 hours a day fighting fires, never getting ahead. With six-week lookahead, weekly work plan, activities worked back, and afternoon huddles, field engineers execute within daytight compartments without burnout.

If you want to learn more we have:

-Takt Virtual Training: (Click here)
-Check out our Youtube channel for more info: (Click here) 
-Listen to the Elevate Construction podcast: (Click here) 
-Check out our training programs and certifications: (Click here)
-The Takt Book: (Click here)

Discover Jason’s Expertise:

Meet Jason Schroeder, the driving force behind Elevate Construction IST. As the company’s owner and principal consultant, 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.

On we go

Full Kit For Field Engineers (How To Prepare Materials, Tools, And Information In Construction)

Posted on by Danny Jiménez⁩
Read 21 min

Full Kit for Field Engineers (How to Prepare Materials, Tools, and Information in Construction)

Let me tell you a little story, like a recent story. Adam Bean, or Beanie, I believe he lives on the Sunshine Coast, halfway around the world, is an amazing influencer for both field and office, and we do live streams probably every other week, something like that. And he saw one of my videos about full kit, which is from Eliyahu Goldratt, which he’s a big fan of as well. And he sent a video on our daily coaching chat.

By the way, we have a daily coaching chat. And what that is, it’s on WhatsApp, and people come in. We get past the spam screening so that we don’t have investors trying to sell you stuff. But once you’re in the chat, you can ask questions, you can share. It’s great. We have 130 people. I want to get it up to 1,500 people by halfway through this year. That’s a big goal, but I really want to get there. If you’re ever like, “I feel alone sometimes and I want more help,” then hop on our coaching chat.

Anyway, he was on there, and he took a video and he’s like, “I’m going to go mow my lawn.” Now, this is all in Australian, so it was much cooler words and in a better accent. But he’s like, “I’ve got my gloves, my earplugs, my safety glasses, my boots. I’ve got the trimmer and the lawnmower, all filled up with fuel.” He’s got a full kit everywhere. And I was like, “Yes, this is the vision.”

Let me explain what full kit means and how field engineers make it happen.

The Pain of Not Having Full Kit

Here’s what happens when you don’t have full kit. The crew shows up. They’re ready to work. But they don’t have the right materials. Or they don’t have the right tools. Or they don’t have the information. Or they don’t have the layout. Or they don’t have the permissions. Or they don’t have the space. So they wait. They improvise. They guess. They work their way through it. And rework happens. Delays happen. Frustration happens. And the schedule collapses.

I keep going back to this analogy: if you want to go build something, like let’s say you want to build a wall, we’ve got to be ready to build that wall. We can’t just go out there willy-nilly and guess and try and work our way through it. It’s absolutely ridiculous. Before we go do the work, we need full kit.

What Is Full Kit? (17 Items Total, 7 for Field Engineers)

And I want you to know that field engineers are a crucial part of this. There’s 17 things. I only have right here 7. So the other 10 are for the rest of the project delivery team and the foreman, but seven of the key items directly relate to a field engineer.

There are other things in a full kit in addition to these, like let’s say primary planning, secondary planning, there’s backup planning, there’s the installation work package. There might be like the lift plan for the crane. There’s lots of other things that would go in an installation work package. But the idea is, how can we have a full kit before we start? That’s the idea. Now, a field engineer will help with the materials, the tools, the information, the layout, the equipment, the permissions, and the space. Let me tell you how.

The Ideal Setup: A Queuing Area for Full Kit

But first, I want to bring you to a new idea that would be a base. Let’s say that I have a site, and let’s say that we have space. I just went to a program in San Francisco with a massive project on it where they didn’t have the space. I get that there are situations where we don’t have the space unless you have an off-site staging or in a different lot or something, but let’s imagine you have space.

And what I want to see in the future, where we can, is where your office is set up and people come in, but there’s also this queuing area. Let’s say hypothetically that you have this open area and the truck comes in and you’ve got a little forklift that comes and grabs the materials off. And I think it would be best done with like a little elevated platform. And I know we can do this on these massive data centers, so we should start doing it.

Where literally the stuff comes off and the trash goes right into the recycling and the waste dumpsters and like scrap metal dumpsters, and we don’t have to haul it into the building and haul it out. It’s unpackaged right there. And then it comes right up here. And it’s not put in bulk, but it’s actually put on colored pallets or in bins or in some kind of package on this deck by zone so that it can come out to the building.

So for instance, this kit would actually just be for that one concrete placement or that station or that zone or something like that. And what I love about this is, yes, field engineers are out in the field, but it’s close enough to where literally, let’s just zoom into one of these. Let’s say that you had something here that needed to be kitted and maybe that’s some bulk material. And then you have your bin with your consumables. And then let’s say that you have actually what we typically use in construction is a crew board. So, all of the information right here ready.

Now, if you’re going to go mass deliver reinforcing or large segments of duct or curtain wall, you’re not going to pull them through the queuing area. This is only the things that need to be kitted, and that would be coordinated in the afternoon foreman huddle the day before. But let’s say that you’re on this platform and the field engineer or the office engineer or the project engineer could go actually inspect this. Go actually inspect the screws and the fasteners and then go make sure that the installation work package is put on the crew board with the lookahead, with the weekly work plan, with the day plan information, and that literally this was all ready.

And then let’s say that there was an inventory of flags on the ground, and on these flags, it had a little sign that said, “This is ready for forklift pickup.” And the forklift, when it comes back, “Oh, this is ready to go. I’ll just go ahead and bring this directly to the zone or the station or that component or whatever you’re working on.”

This is what I think we should be getting to in the future. Like these massive data centers, we have no business just bringing stuff to the location. Everything should be coming in from a queuing area. Everything. And if we have the space, everything should be coming in through a queuing area. Hospitals, everything should be coming in through a queuing area. There’s very few situations where I wouldn’t want this to happen. And if you don’t have space, then I would highly recommend that you do it through the trade partner offices for their work and that a logistics person is designated to coordinate it.

How Field Engineers Ensure Full Kit (The 7 Items)

Here’s how field engineers ensure full kit for the seven items:

  • Materials inspected and kitted: Field engineer participates in material inspection in the queuing area. Check screws, fasteners, reinforcing, everything. One time we were on HCAI (formerly OSHPD) for hospitals and they were using the wrong fastener. I didn’t catch it. Everything had to be ripped out. Material inspections are a thing.
  • Tools quality-checked: Foreman makes sure the right tools are there, but field engineer participates to make sure the right quality tools are there. Pull testing equipment for reinforcing. Test panels for shotcrete. Tools for different assemblies that aren’t just the foreman’s to coordinate.
  • Information provided (lift drawings, work packages, checklists): Do we have the installation work package that we put inside the crew board? Do we have the lift drawing and a single visual checklist from the precon meeting so they have all the information? They don’t have to run around for it.
  • Layout completed (grid lines, benchmarks, elevations): Does the trade partner have the layout grid lines and, if it’s not here on the intersection, a benchmark showing the elevation for that work so they can go ahead and build that structure? Layout is crucial from a field engineering standpoint.
  • Equipment safety-checked (alarms, fire extinguisher, inspections): If you have a yard and an equipment pass-through, check to make sure it had backup alarms, fire extinguisher, current inspections, it was safe, had a current seat belt, and then it gets through the queuing area and goes out on site.
  • Permissions secured (permits, inspector notified, authority enabled): This means that we have current permits. This means that the authority having jurisdiction is enabling the work. This means the inspector knows that the work is coming up.
  • Space organized (work area, laydown, access): It’s not just the work when it comes to space, but it’s also where you’re going to lay down materials, where your workers are going to be working, and the access over to the area. We have to have enough space for the crew to get to where they’re going.

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

A Challenge for Field Engineers and Superintendents

Here’s what I want you to do this week. If you’re a field engineer, participate in full kit. Inspect materials in the queuing area. Quality-check tools. Provide information (lift drawings, work packages, checklists). Complete layout (grid lines, benchmarks). Safety-check equipment. Secure permissions. Organize space (work area, laydown, access). That’s your job. That’s how you enable the craft.

And if you’re a superintendent without field engineers, know this: there’s no way you’re going to get full kit before trades start. You need field engineers. Not just for survey and lift drawings. For enabling the craft with full kit.

My point with this blog is that this is how we make sure that we’re ready, full kit. And it’s definitely a part of the field engineer’s job to do it. As we say at Elevate, full kit means materials, tools, information, layout, equipment, permissions, and space ready before work starts. Field engineers ensure 7 of 17 items. That’s how you enable the craft.

On we go.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is full kit in construction?

Full kit means having everything ready before work starts: materials, tools, information, layout, equipment, permissions, and space. There are 17 items total. Field engineers ensure 7 of them. The other 10 are for the project delivery team and foreman.

Why do field engineers participate in material inspections?

Because using the wrong materials causes massive rework. On an HCAI (OSHPD) hospital project, they used the wrong fastener. Everything had to be ripped out. Material inspections in the queuing area prevent this.

What is a queuing area and why does it matter?

A queuing area is where materials come off the truck, get unpackaged, inspected, kitted by zone, and staged for forklift pickup. Everything should come in through a queuing area. Data centers, hospitals, everything. It enables full kit.

What information does a field engineer provide for full kit?

Installation work package inside the crew board, lift drawing, and single visual checklist from the precon meeting. So the crew has all the information and doesn’t have to run around for it.

Why can’t you get full kit without field engineers?

Because field engineers ensure 7 of 17 full kit items: materials inspected, tools quality-checked, information provided, layout completed, equipment safety-checked, permissions secured, space organized. Without field engineers, trades don’t have full kit.

If you want to learn more we have:

-Takt Virtual Training: (Click here)
-Check out our Youtube channel for more info: (Click here) 
-Listen to the Elevate Construction podcast: (Click here) 
-Check out our training programs and certifications: (Click here)
-The Takt Book: (Click here)

Discover Jason’s Expertise:

Meet Jason Schroeder, the driving force behind Elevate Construction IST. As the company’s owner and principal consultant, 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.

On we go

Declaring Breakdowns – Lean, IPD Series

Posted on by Danny Jiménez⁩
Read 23 min

You’re Not Declaring Breakdowns (And It’s Destroying Your Results)

Here’s the uncomfortable truth about why your projects struggle. You’re not declaring breakdowns. You’re not telling the hard truth when you see waste, defects, or confusion. And that silence is costing you quality, schedule, and team performance. Because teams that fix problems faster win. And you can’t fix problems you won’t acknowledge out loud.

Think about the difference between Pixar and Disney movies during a specific period. Disney was producing garbage. Home on the Range was a B-movie with poor animation, weak story, and mediocre humor. It flopped at the box office. Disney lost money on multiple films during that era because something in their process was broken. Then they brought in Pixar to help figure out what was wrong.

What Pixar revealed changed everything. The first review sessions at Pixar were brutal. Teams would present their characters, plot, animation, and message, and the review team would tear everything apart. Script writers and artists left those meetings dejected, knowing they’d have to go back to the drawing board. But that first critical review was key to getting it right. Because Pixar movies are fantastic. Visually stunning. Emotionally moving. Great plot twists. They draw you in and leave you feeling changed. And that excellence requires declaring breakdowns relentlessly, even when it’s hard.

The Pain of Silence That Destroys Quality

You’ve experienced this pattern. Someone on your team sees a problem. They notice waste, confusion, a defect being passed along. And they say nothing. Maybe they’re afraid of looking difficult. Maybe they think someone else will mention it. Maybe they’ve been trained their whole lives to shut up unless called on. So the problem continues. The defect gets passed to the customer. The waste compounds. And weeks later when it becomes a crisis, everyone wonders why nobody spoke up earlier when it would have been easier to fix.

That’s what was happening at Disney before Pixar’s intervention. Script writers and artists would fall in love with their characters. They’d brainstorm internally and head down a direction. If someone made a comment, they’d either be too attached to change it or nobody would speak up at all. And that silence created mediocre movies because problems weren’t surfaced and addressed when they were small and fixable.

The same dynamic destroys construction projects. We see disconnects with the team. We notice violations of culture or core values. We observe waste that needs fixing. We watch defects being passed along. We feel disrespected or confused. And we say nothing. Because speaking up feels risky or uncomfortable or like making a big deal out of something small. So we let it go. And the problem grows until it becomes a crisis that damages schedule, budget, relationships, or safety.

The System Trains Us Into Silence

Here’s what I want you to understand. Our entire culture trains us not to speak up. In school, you had to raise your hand and be quiet. If you disagreed with a teacher, they’d gripe back at you. You learned that keeping your head down and not making waves was safer than pointing out problems. And that programming follows you into the workplace where speaking up about breakdowns feels dangerous.

The construction industry amplifies this. We value getting along over healthy conflict. We promote people who don’t rock the boat. We punish or sideline those who constantly point out problems. And we create cultures where people hide issues instead of declaring them because they’ve learned that surfacing problems makes them look like complainers or troublemakers.

But here’s the truth that Pixar proved and that Lean construction and Integrated Project Delivery demonstrate repeatedly: teams that declare breakdowns relentlessly produce better results than teams that stay silent to avoid discomfort. Because problems are not a problem. Not recognizing that we have problems is the problem. And teams that see and fix problems faster win consistently.

I was consulting with an organization recently that started using a problem bowl in meetings. They put it in the middle of the room and invited everyone to write breakdowns on sticky notes and throw them in the bowl. Then during the agenda, someone would pull them out and the team would discuss them. The first week, not much happened. The person who wrote the problem maybe spoke up. The second week, people put in more pertinent problems and waited for others to speak up. Conversation started flowing. And they were culturally conditioning everyone to declare breakdowns without fear.

That’s the shift required. From silence to declaration. From hiding problems to surfacing them. From individual ownership to team responsibility. Because the breakthrough insight is this: problems belong to the group, not the person. When you declare a breakdown, you’re not attacking someone. You’re identifying something the team needs to address together.

The Bowl Technique That Removes Emotion

Let me teach you a technique that transforms difficult conversations. A trusted mentor taught me this. When you’re having a conversation about a problem, imagine that the problem is sitting in a bowl on the desk between you. You’re both looking at the problem in the bowl together. You’re not talking at each other with the problem attached to one person. You’re talking at the problem together with the emotion detached.

I’ve literally done this with people during emotional discussions. I’ve said, “Let’s imagine right here in my left hand there’s a bowl and the problem is in here. We’re talking at the problem together. We’re not talking at each other and emotionally connecting these things to each other.” And it works. We get through it without anger, without defensiveness, without making it personal.

This same principle applies to declaring breakdowns in team settings. The breakdown isn’t owned by the person who caused it or the person who noticed it. It’s owned by the team. When someone declares a breakdown, they’re not blaming anyone. They’re pointing the team’s attention to something that needs addressing. That shift from personal to collective makes speaking up safer and problem-solving more effective.

Consider calling problems “opportunities” if that helps your culture embrace them. The language matters less than the behavior. What matters is creating an environment where people feel authorized to speak up, where declaring breakdowns is praised instead of punished, and where the team stops and pays attention when someone identifies an issue.

When and How to Declare Breakdowns

Here’s when you should declare a breakdown, whether big or small. When you see a disconnect with the team. When you notice a violation of culture or core values. When you observe waste that needs fixing. When something passes a defect along to the customer. When something disrespects people. When there’s unhealthy variation and someone is confused. When results aren’t what you want them to be for the project.

Don’t get into the habit of thinking breakdowns have to be grandiose to deserve attention. Small problems become big problems when ignored. Declare them when they’re small and easy to fix. And when somebody declares a breakdown, the team must stop and pay attention. This is critical. How many times does someone say something’s wrong and we blow right past it? We can’t do that anymore.

Here’s an example from a recent organization. We were asking people to wear masks while presenting. Some people agreed immediately. Others argued about logic and science and whether it was necessary. I stopped them and said this isn’t about arguing logic on safety. If somebody doesn’t feel safe, we’re considerate enough to stop and listen and pay attention. If someone asks me to wear a mask while speaking and they can hear me fine through it, why wouldn’t I respect their concern? It’s not about winning a debate. It’s about caring enough to respond when someone declares a breakdown around safety or respect.

Here’s how you create that culture practically:

  • Praise people when they bring up problems instead of making them feel like complainers • Give everyone explicit authority to stand up and speak up when they see breakdowns • De-incentivize hiding problems with consequences for people who know about issues and stay silent • Shorten the timing between when someone notices a breakdown and when they declare it • Stop and pay attention every time someone declares a breakdown, especially around safety or respect

These aren’t suggestions. These are the disciplines that separate teams who improve continuously from teams who stumble through the same problems repeatedly because nobody feels safe speaking up.

Building a Problem-Solving Culture

If your project needs superintendent coaching, project support, or leadership development, Elevate Construction can help your field teams stabilize, schedule, and flow. We work with builders who understand that declaring breakdowns isn’t negative or difficult. It’s the foundation of continuous improvement and the only way teams produce exceptional results consistently.

The current condition is we don’t speak up. We make crap work. Sometimes we push defects onto customers. People don’t feel authorized to speak up. And we reinforce the disconnected culture where problems hide until they become crises. That pattern destroys quality, damages relationships, and wastes resources that could be used to create value.

The challenge is to make speaking up a cultural norm. Make Lean improvements continuously. Become a problem-solving, opportunity-obtaining, continuously improving culture. And if you accumulate enough declared breakdowns that you can’t address them all immediately, put them on a scrum board as a product owner and let the team autonomously fix those opportunities as long as they’re not urgent line items requiring immediate attention.

This is the Lean and IPD mindset that transforms teams. Declaring breakdowns becomes normal instead of threatening. Problems belong to the group instead of individuals. Speaking up gets praised instead of punished. And teams fix issues faster because they surface them immediately instead of hiding them until they explode.

Think about the Pixar example again. Those brutal first reviews where everything gets torn apart create better movies than Disney’s approach where people fell in love with their work and couldn’t receive critical feedback. The discomfort of declaring breakdowns early produces excellence. The comfort of staying silent produces mediocrity.

The Challenge: Declare One Breakdown This Week

So here’s my challenge to you. This week, declare a breakdown. When you see waste, confusion, a defect, disrespect, or results that aren’t what you want, speak up. Say out loud, “I’m declaring a breakdown here.” Explain what you see. Invite the team to address it together. And watch what happens when problems get surfaced and solved instead of hidden and ignored.

Introduce the language of declaring breakdowns to your team. Explain that problems belong to the group, not individuals. Create systems like the problem bowl that make speaking up easier and less personal. Praise people when they surface issues. And commit as a team to stop and pay attention every time someone declares a breakdown.

We really have to have eyes to see. We need to make sure we all have license to speak up. We need to culturally reinforce fixing problems and get that shift started. The teams that fix problems faster win. And you can’t fix what you won’t declare out loud.

As W. Edwards Deming said, “It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory.” Declaring breakdowns is how you change instead of just surviving. It’s how you build Pixar-quality results instead of Disney’s B-movies. Start speaking up.

On we go.

Frequently Asked Questions

Won’t declaring breakdowns constantly make me look like a complainer or troublemaker?

Only in unhealthy cultures that value comfort over improvement. In healthy cultures, people who surface problems early are valued as contributors who help the team win. Frame breakdowns as opportunities and focus on solutions, not just complaints. The key is speaking up constructively, not just criticizing without offering help.

How do I know if a problem is big enough to declare a breakdown or if I should just let it go?

Don’t filter based on size. Small problems become big problems when ignored. If you notice waste, confusion, defects, or disrespect, declare it regardless of scale. The team can decide together if it needs immediate attention or can be added to a list for later. But surfacing it prevents it from hiding and growing.

What if my team culture punishes people for speaking up about problems?

Then you need leadership support to change the culture or you need to find a healthier team. You can model the behavior by declaring breakdowns respectfully and inviting solutions. But if leadership consistently punishes problem-surfacing, the culture won’t change without intervention from above or personnel changes.

How do I declare a breakdown without making it personal or attacking someone?

Use the bowl technique. Frame the problem as something the team is looking at together, not something attached to an individual. Say “I’m noticing a breakdown with [specific issue]” rather than “you caused a problem.” Focus on the system or process, not the person. Invite collaborative problem-solving.

What if people start declaring every tiny thing and we waste time in meetings addressing non-issues?

That’s a facilitation problem, not a problem with declaring breakdowns. Use a scrum board or problem list for non-urgent items. Address urgent breakdowns immediately. Batch-process smaller issues. Teach people to distinguish between breakdowns needing immediate attention and those that can be scheduled for later resolution.

 

If you want to learn more we have:

-Takt Virtual Training: (Click here)
-Check out our Youtube channel for more info: (Click here) 
-Listen to the Elevate Construction podcast: (Click here) 
-Check out our training programs and certifications: (Click here)
-The Takt Book: (Click here)

Discover Jason’s Expertise:

Meet Jason Schroeder, the driving force behind Elevate Construction IST. As the company’s owner and principal consultant, 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 Blood Test for Teams – Personality Profiles – Lean, IPD Series

Posted on by Danny Jiménez⁩
Read 23 min

Stop Guessing Who Your People Are and Get Data

Here’s the problem with how most leaders try to understand their teams. They guess. They observe behavior and make assumptions. They ask people how they’re feeling and hope the answer reveals what’s really going on. And then they’re surprised when communication breaks down, when conflicts escalate, when talented people don’t perform the way they expected. Because guessing isn’t a diagnosis. And without diagnosis, you can’t fix what’s actually wrong.

I’ve profiled hundreds, maybe close to a thousand people at this point with personality assessments. And I see patterns that most leaders miss completely. Not because I’m special, but because I have data they don’t have. I know how people prefer to receive feedback before I give it. I know what energizes them and what drains them before I assign work. I know their natural communication style before I try to reach them. And that data transforms how effectively I can build teams, develop individuals, and solve problems that would otherwise destroy relationships.

But here’s what’s interesting. Despite overwhelming evidence that personality profiles work, people resist them. They say people change, so profiles aren’t accurate. They worry profiles will label people or force them into boxes. They question whether these tools are really that useful. And underneath all those objections is the same fear: what if the data reveals something uncomfortable that we’d rather not face?

The Pain of Leading Without Data

You’ve experienced this frustration. You have someone on your team who’s talented but struggling. You try different approaches to reach them. You give feedback the way you’d want to receive it. You assign work you think they’d enjoy. And nothing works. The relationship deteriorates. Performance suffers. And eventually you’re looking at moving them off the team or into a different role because you can’t figure out how to help them succeed where they are.

That’s what happens when you lead by guessing instead of data. You’re treating symptoms without understanding root causes. You’re prescribing solutions without running diagnostic tests. And just like a doctor who prescribes medication based on how you say you feel without running blood work, you’re masking problems instead of fixing them.

Think about this comparison. I used to go to traditional doctors who’d ask how I was feeling and prescribe medication in under a minute. Literally fifty-three seconds from describing my anxiety to getting a prescription with side effects that included heart problems and infertility. No diagnostic testing. No investigation of root causes. Just mask the symptoms with pills and hope that works.

Then I switched to naturopathic doctors who run comprehensive blood tests every three months. A hundred different data points showing exactly where my cholesterol is, where my blood sugar is, where everything stands. Based on that data, they identify root causes and fix them with non-invasive naturopathic treatments. Within a month, my anxiety was gone, my weight problem was gone, everything was resolved. Not masked. Fixed.

The System Avoids Diagnostic Data

Here’s what I want you to understand. Most construction companies avoid personality profiling because they’re uncomfortable with what data might reveal. They prefer to guess at people’s motivations, communication styles, and needs rather than actually finding out through diagnostic assessment. And that creates a systematic pattern of misunderstanding, miscommunication, and missed opportunities to help people thrive.

The construction industry values action over analysis. We promote people who appear decisive, who jump into solutions, who seem confident even when they’re guessing. And we undervalue the diagnostic work that would actually give us accurate information about how people work best. So we end up making decisions about team composition, role assignments, and communication approaches based on assumptions rather than data.

That’s like running a construction project without surveying the site first. You might get lucky and build something that works. More likely, you’ll discover problems after you’ve committed resources to wrong solutions. Personality profiles are the survey data for team building. They tell you what you’re actually working with instead of what you assume you’re working with.

I’ve profiled people using the Myers-Briggs sixteen personalities assessment along with what I call player cards that include a “This Is Me” form. On the left side, people answer questions about how they like interaction, how they prefer feedback, what they need from their team. On the right side, they take the personality assessment. And they always match. Always. The personality profile validates what people have said about themselves, giving you confirmation that you understand them correctly.

But here’s the key insight that transforms how you use these tools. Personality profiles don’t exist to label people or force them into boxes. They exist to accentuate strengths and neutralize weaknesses. When someone’s profile says they can be too needy or too selfless or slow to make personal decisions, that’s not damning information. That’s diagnostic data that helps them grow and helps you support them better. Nobody gets fired for profile weaknesses. They get coached to compensate for them while leveraging their strengths.

How Diagnostic Data Transforms Teams

Let me walk you through why this matters so much for building high-performing teams. Patrick Lencioni’s model says teams need five things to perform: trust each other, have healthy conflict, set goals together, hold each other accountable, and perform. But I add a sixth step at the foundation: know each other. Because you can’t trust people you don’t actually know.

Think about the team dynamics this creates. You can’t perform unless you hold each other accountable. You can’t hold each other accountable unless you’ve set standard goals together. You won’t set goals together unless you have healthy conflict and people speak up. You won’t have healthy conflict if you don’t trust each other. And here’s the kicker: you won’t trust each other unless you know each other. Personality profiles are how you actually know each other instead of guessing.

At field engineer bootcamp, the winning team won because they held each other accountable. They held each other accountable because they had healthy conflict. They had healthy conflict because they trusted each other. They trusted each other because they communicated effectively. And they communicated effectively because they figured out themselves and how they like to communicate individually first. It started with individual people getting clarity on who they are, then being able to work through the phases of team development, and ultimately performing at a level that let them win.

That’s not accidental. That’s systematic. Know yourself, then know others, then build trust, then have healthy conflict, then set goals, then hold accountable, then perform. Skip the “know” steps and you’re building on sand. Include them and you have data that guides every other step.

Here’s how personality profiles provide that diagnostic data:

  • Reveals how individuals prefer to receive feedback before you damage relationships by giving it wrong • Shows what energizes versus drains each person so you can assign work that plays to strengths • Identifies natural communication styles so teams can bridge gaps instead of talking past each other • Highlights potential blind spots and weaknesses so people can compensate before they cause problems

These aren’t labels or limitations. These are insights that let you meet people where they are instead of expecting everyone to adapt to your preferred style. When you have this data, you stop guessing and start knowing.

Why Data Beats Assumptions Every Time

If your project needs superintendent coaching, project support, or leadership development, Elevate Construction can help your field teams stabilize, schedule, and flow. We work with builders who understand that guessing about people creates dysfunction while diagnostic data creates high-performing teams. We use personality profiles not to label but to understand, not to limit but to leverage strengths.

Let me address the common objections directly because they keep people from using tools that would transform their teams. First objection: people change, so profiles become outdated. Yes, people change. That’s why you use profiles as a snapshot of where someone is now that helps them have a stake in who they want to become. The profile starts conversations about growth, not ending them.

Second objection: what if the profile isn’t correct? That’s why you use validation methods like the “This Is Me” form that confirms the profile matches how people see themselves. And if there’s doubt, you can take the fifty-dollar paid version of the Myers-Briggs through the official website for more accuracy. In over five hundred profiles, I’ve never seen one that wasn’t useful even if it wasn’t perfectly precise.

Third objection: will it force someone into becoming that personality type? Only if you misuse it by making life-altering decisions based on profiles instead of using them to accentuate strengths. You’re not deciding whether someone should get married or change careers based on Myers-Briggs. You’re helping them understand their natural patterns so they can leverage what works and compensate for what doesn’t.

Fourth objection: will people be labeled? Only if you focus on weaknesses instead of strengths. Properly used profiles help people understand themselves better and give teams language to discuss differences constructively. The information isn’t damning. It’s developmental.

Final objection: can this really be that useful? Absolutely. Until we know who we are, we can’t reach higher levels of achievement. And until teams know each other, they can’t build trust that leads to performance. Data doesn’t guarantee success, but guessing guarantees misunderstanding.

The Challenge: Run Diagnostic Tests on Your Team

So here’s my challenge to you. Stop guessing who your people are and get diagnostic data. Have everyone take the sixteen personalities Myers-Briggs assessment. Create player cards with “This Is Me” forms that validate the results. Use the data to understand how people prefer feedback, what energizes them, how they communicate naturally, and where they need support.

Then use that data to build your team systematically. Start with knowing each other. Move to trusting each other. Enable healthy conflict by understanding different perspectives aren’t wrong, they’re different by design. Set goals together with full participation from different personality types. Hold each other accountable because you understand what accountability looks like for each person. And watch your team perform at levels guessing never enabled.

This isn’t about labeling people or putting them in boxes. It’s about getting the same kind of diagnostic clarity for teams that blood tests provide for health. You wouldn’t let a doctor prescribe medication without running tests to see what’s actually wrong. Why would you try to lead people without data about how they actually work?

The current condition is we’re not solving problems with data. We’re assuming things and masking problems with consequences like firing, moving, or shunning people. The challenge is to reach out for help, take these assessments, get player cards done. First know yourself, then know others, and use it to build teams that actually perform instead of just hoping things work out.

As Socrates said, “Know thyself.” That ancient wisdom applies to modern team building. You can’t build high-performing teams with people you don’t actually know. Get the data. Use it wisely. Build something remarkable.

On we go.

Frequently Asked Questions

Don’t people change over time making personality profiles outdated?

Yes, people change, which is why profiles are useful snapshots of where someone is now. They start conversations about growth and development rather than ending them. Use profiles as current diagnostic data that informs how you work with someone today, not as permanent labels that lock them into fixed categories forever.

How do I know if a personality profile is accurate for someone on my team?

Use validation methods like the “This Is Me” form where people self-report their preferences separately from the assessment. When their self-description matches the profile results, you have confirmation. If there’s significant mismatch, that’s valuable data too that tells you to dig deeper and understand what’s happening.

Won’t using personality profiles create labels that limit what people think they can do?

Only if you misuse them by focusing on limitations instead of strengths. Properly used profiles help people understand their natural patterns so they can leverage what works and compensate for what doesn’t. The goal is developmental insight, not fixed categorization.

What if someone resists taking a personality assessment or doesn’t want their results shared?

Make it voluntary and clarify the purpose is development not evaluation. Some people need to see others benefit before they participate. Start with leaders and early adopters who model vulnerability. Never use profiles punitively or force participation. The value becomes obvious when people see how it improves team dynamics.

How often should teams retake personality assessments?

Annually or when significant role changes occur. The core personality traits are relatively stable but how people show up can shift with experience and development. Regular reassessment keeps your data current and shows people how they’ve grown over time.

If you want to learn more we have:

-Takt Virtual Training: (Click here)
-Check out our Youtube channel for more info: (Click here) 
-Listen to the Elevate Construction podcast: (Click here) 
-Check out our training programs and certifications: (Click here)
-The Takt Book: (Click here)

Discover Jason’s Expertise:

Meet Jason Schroeder, the driving force behind Elevate Construction IST. As the company’s owner and principal consultant, 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.

Define The Problem First!

Posted on by Danny Jiménez⁩
Read 23 min

Clarify the Problem Before You Solve It

Here’s the pattern that wastes more time than almost anything else in construction leadership. Someone brings you a problem. And before they finish explaining it, you’re already proposing solutions. You’re an extrovert. You think out loud. You process by talking. And in your mind, jumping straight to solutions shows you’re decisive and action-oriented. But what you’re actually doing is solving the wrong problem because you never took time to understand what the real problem is.

I’ve watched this destroy decisions repeatedly. A superintendent asks about schedule delays. Before the conversation explores why delays are happening, someone proposes adding overtime. A foreman mentions quality issues. Before anyone investigates root causes, someone suggests more inspections. A project manager brings up budget overruns. Before the team examines what’s driving costs, someone recommends value engineering. And every time, the proposed solution misses the actual problem because nobody slowed down long enough to understand what’s really happening.

This isn’t just inefficiency. This is how good teams make terrible decisions. Because when you jump to solutions without clarifying problems, you build consensus around answers that don’t address what’s actually wrong. You implement fixes that don’t fix anything. And six weeks later, you’re back in the same meeting wondering why the problem hasn’t improved.

The Pain of Solutions That Don’t Solve Anything

You’ve experienced this frustration. Your team identified a problem. Everyone agreed on a solution. You implemented it. And the problem is still there. Maybe it got worse. Maybe it morphed into a different problem. But it definitely didn’t go away like you expected.

That’s because you never understood the problem in the first place. You had symptoms. You had complaints. You had frustrations. But you didn’t have clarity on what was actually causing those symptoms. So you solved for what you thought the problem was, not what it actually was. And now you’ve wasted time, energy, and credibility on a solution that doesn’t work.

I see this constantly in construction. Teams rush to implement new software without understanding why current processes aren’t working. Leaders add more meetings without diagnosing why communication is breaking down. Companies hire more people without clarifying why productivity is low. And every one of these solutions misses the mark because the problem was never properly defined.

Think about Samsonite. Not the luggage company, but the movie reference. In the movie “Dumb and Dumber,” the character thinks he’s supposed to be in Aspen when he’s actually supposed to be somewhere completely different. Someone tells him where to go, and he responds, “We were way off.” That’s what happens when you jump to solutions without understanding problems. You end up way off because you were solving for Aspen when the actual destination was somewhere else entirely.

The System Rewards Quick Answers Over Right Answers

Here’s what I want you to understand. The construction industry rewards people who appear decisive. Who jump into action. Who propose solutions immediately. We promote extroverts who think out loud and generate ideas quickly. We value speed over accuracy. And that cultural preference for rapid response creates a systematic bias toward solving problems before we understand them.

But here’s the truth about decision-making that nobody wants to admit. Extroverts process by talking. They generate options out loud. They think through problems verbally. And while that creates energy and momentum, it also creates premature solutions. Because when you’re talking through options before you’ve analyzed the problem, you’re building consensus around ideas that might be completely wrong.

Introverts process differently. They think before they talk. They analyze internally. And while that can feel slower or less engaging in meetings, it often leads to better decisions because they’ve actually thought through the problem before proposing solutions. But we kick introverts off leadership teams because we don’t like how they operate. We say they’re not engaged or not contributing. And we lose the very people who could help us avoid jumping to wrong solutions.

The book “Decisive” by Chip and Dan Heath breaks down why we make bad decisions and how to make better ones. They identify common biases that destroy decision quality: narrow framing where we only see limited options, confirmation bias where we collect information that supports what we already believe, short-term emotion that overrides long-term thinking, and overconfidence that we know how things will unfold. Every one of these biases gets worse when we rush to solutions without clarifying problems.

The WRAP Process That Improves Every Decision

Let me walk you through the framework that transforms how you approach problems. It’s called the WRAP process, and it comes from the book “Decisive.” These four steps systematically overcome the biases that lead to bad decisions and create space for understanding problems before solving them.

First is Widen Your Options. Narrow framing leads us to overlook options. We think in terms of “whether or not” decisions. Should we add overtime or not? Should we hire more people or not? Should we change software or not? But that binary thinking limits our ability to find better solutions. Instead, we need to think in terms of “and.” What are all the possible options? Can we consider multiple approaches simultaneously through multi-tracking?

Where do you find these new options? Look for bright spots where this problem has already been solved. Find someone who’s dealt with similar challenges and ask what worked for them. Look for analogies in other industries or projects. Ask an introvert to think about it and come back with perspectives you haven’t considered. The more options you generate, the less likely you are to get locked into a bad solution just because it was the first one proposed.

Second is Reality Test Your Assumptions. Confirmation bias leads us to collect skewed, self-serving information that supports the solution we already like. To combat this, ask disconfirming questions. What problems does this solution actually have? What data contradicts our assumptions? Zoom out and look objectively at costs, consequences, and outcomes. Run a choosing-by-advantages analysis that compares options on specific criteria instead of just going with gut feelings.

I learned this fixing surveying and control problems on big construction projects. The more data I collected, the better solutions I found. I remember one huge civil project where I discovered the problem by analyzing GPS equipment data and their localization. They were 0.25 feet off in the localization, which told me the control points were skewed and the GPS wasn’t recognizing the skewed coordinate system. Instead of assuming what was wrong, I collected data until I understood what was actually happening. That’s reality testing your assumptions.

Third is Attain Distance Before Deciding. Short-term emotion tempts us to make choices that are bad in the long term. To avoid this, shift perspective before deciding. What would you tell your best friend to do in this situation? What would your successor do? Give it time. Ask introverted team members to process and come back with their analysis. When decisions are agonizing, clarify your core priorities and make choices that align with them instead of reacting emotionally.

Especially if you’re an extrovert, you’ll struggle with this. You want to decide now. You want to talk it through and move forward. But that urgency creates bad decisions when problems aren’t clear yet. Get some distance. Step out of the emotion. Shift your perspective so you can see what’s actually going on before committing to solutions.

Fourth is Prepare To Be Wrong. We’re overconfident about how the future will unfold. We think we know exactly how our solution will work. But we should always ask ourselves from the beginning: could we be wrong about this? Accept that possibility instead of getting married to your decision. Be ready to adapt if you’re wrong or to accept someone else’s opinion as you head in a better direction.

Here’s what this process looks like in practice:

  • When someone brings you a problem, resist the urge to immediately propose solutions • Ask clarifying questions that help everyone understand what’s actually causing the issue • Generate multiple options by asking people with different perspectives and looking for bright spots • Reality test those options with data and disconfirming questions before choosing • Get emotional distance before deciding, especially on high-stakes choices • Acknowledge you might be wrong and stay open to adjusting as you learn more

These aren’t delays. These are disciplines that prevent wasting months implementing solutions that don’t solve anything.

Why Taking Time Saves Time

If your project needs superintendent coaching, project support, or leadership development, Elevate Construction can help your field teams stabilize, schedule, and flow. We work with builders who understand that clarifying problems before solving them isn’t slow leadership. It’s the only way to avoid implementing solutions that waste everyone’s time by missing the actual issue.

The vision for this approach is that you should be able to move forward with your team using the best information together, but by first defining the problem very clearly. Start there. This is our problem. Let’s understand it completely before we start solving it. Then with that problem clearly defined, ask what all our options are for solutions. Ask different types of people. Get some distance. Reality test these options. Make sure you have all the possibilities. Assume you could be wrong. And you’ll get to better solutions that actually work because they address real problems instead of imagined ones.

Think about the alternative. When you jump to solutions without understanding problems, you end up implementing fixes that don’t work, which means you have to revisit the problem again later after wasting time and credibility. Taking time to clarify problems upfront actually saves massive amounts of time downstream by ensuring your solutions address what’s actually wrong.

The Challenge: Define One Problem Clearly This Week

So here’s my challenge to you. This week when someone brings you a problem, stop yourself before proposing solutions. Ask clarifying questions. Take time to understand what’s actually happening. Generate multiple options. Reality test your assumptions. Get distance before deciding. And prepare to be wrong.

Read “Decisive” if you want the full framework. But even without the book, you can start practicing the core principle: clarify the problem before you solve it. Give your introverts time to process. Collect data before making assumptions. Ask disconfirming questions. Look for bright spots where this problem has already been solved. And resist the cultural pressure to appear decisive by jumping to quick answers.

The world doesn’t need more leaders who make fast decisions. It needs more leaders who make right decisions. And right decisions start with understanding problems deeply before proposing solutions.

As Peter Drucker wrote, “The most serious mistakes are not being made as a result of wrong answers. The true dangerous thing is asking the wrong question.” Don’t solve wrong problems quickly. Solve right problems carefully. That’s how you lead teams that actually improve instead of just staying busy implementing solutions that don’t work.

On we go.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I balance taking time to clarify problems with the need to make timely decisions?

Clarifying problems doesn’t mean endless analysis. It means asking the right questions before committing to solutions. Most problem clarification takes hours or days, not weeks. The time you invest upfront saves weeks or months of implementing wrong solutions. Speed without accuracy just means you’re wrong faster.

What if my team culture values quick decisions and sees taking time as weakness?

Then your culture is rewarding activity over results. Show them the cost of implementing solutions that don’t solve actual problems. Track how much time gets wasted revisiting issues because solutions missed the real problem. Culture changes when people see evidence that better processes produce better outcomes.

How do I get introverts to contribute if they need time to process?

Give them time. Don’t expect everyone to think out loud in meetings. Send problems ahead so introverts can analyze before discussing. Create space for written input. Ask them directly for their perspective after they’ve had time to think. The best insights often come from people who need time to process before speaking.

What if we genuinely don’t have time for the full WRAP process?

Start with just one element. Before deciding, ask “what are we missing?” or “could we be wrong about this?” Even minimal process improvement prevents some bad decisions. But recognize that “not having time” often means you’ll waste more time later fixing problems that wrong solutions created.

How do I know when we’ve clarified the problem enough to start solving it?

When everyone can state the problem clearly and agrees that’s actually what’s happening. When you have data supporting your understanding. When you’ve looked for disconfirming evidence and found your understanding holds up. When the solution space becomes obvious because the problem is so clear. Clarity feels different than confusion dressed up as confidence.

If you want to learn more we have:

-Takt Virtual Training: (Click here)
-Check out our Youtube channel for more info: (Click here) 
-Listen to the Elevate Construction podcast: (Click here) 
-Check out our training programs and certifications: (Click here)
-The Takt Book: (Click here)

Discover Jason’s Expertise:

Meet Jason Schroeder, the driving force behind Elevate Construction IST. As the company’s owner and principal consultant, 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 Process of Field Engineering – Field Engineers

Posted on by Danny Jiménez⁩
Read 22 min

The 43-Step System That Creates Builder Superintendents

Here’s the problem with how most companies use field engineers. They treat them as personal assistants for superintendents. Go grab this submittal. Make this copy. Handle this errand. Track down that foreman. And somewhere in all that task-running, the entire purpose of the field engineer position gets lost. Because field engineers aren’t supposed to be errand runners. They’re professional construction managers and engineers learning to be builders before they become leaders.

If you’re a general contractor saying you wish you had better superintendents, if you’re frustrated that your supers don’t know enough about the technical work, if you’re trying to give craft workers opportunities to advance but don’t have a clear path, field engineering is your silver bullet. It’s the builder experience that bridges the gap between doing work with your hands and managing work with your mind. It’s the position that teaches people how buildings actually get built before asking them to lead the people who build them.

But most companies don’t have a systematic process for developing field engineers. They hire someone, give them vague responsibilities, and hope they figure it out. That’s the system failure that wastes the potential of this critical position. What you need is a step-by-step process that transforms someone into a complete builder over the course of a project. And that process exists. It’s been refined over decades. And it works.

The Pain of Field Engineers Without Clear Development

You’ve seen this frustration. You hire a field engineer with potential. They’re smart, motivated, eager to learn. And then you watch them spend six months doing busy work that doesn’t develop them. They’re running errands. Updating schedules. Making copies. Sitting in meetings taking notes. And at the end of six months, they know how to be a good assistant, but they haven’t learned anything about surveying, layout, coordination, or the technical skills that actually make someone a builder.

Then when you need them to do a pour check or lay out building grid or create lift drawings, they’re unprepared. Not because they’re incapable, but because nobody gave them a systematic development process. Nobody taught them the Field Engineering Methods Manual. Nobody walked them through equipment calibration. Nobody showed them how to traverse primary control or transfer benchmarks into a building. They’ve been busy, but they haven’t been developed.

That’s not their failure. That’s your failure as a company. Because the field engineer position has incredible potential to create better superintendents and give craft workers advancement opportunities. But only if you actually develop them systematically instead of using them as errand runners who occasionally help with technical work when there’s time.

The System Doesn’t Develop Field Engineers Properly

Here’s what I want you to understand. Most construction companies don’t have a field engineering program. They have a field engineering position that exists without structure, without systematic development, without clear expectations of what field engineers should be learning and accomplishing. And that’s why field engineers are either not used, underused, or misused as personal assistants.

The companies that do field engineering well, like Hensel Phelps where I apprenticed, treat it as a professional development program. They have systems. They have expectations. They have resources like the Field Engineering Methods Manual that guide every step. And they produce superintendents who understand the technical work deeply because they spent years doing it before they became leaders.

That’s the gap most companies need to bridge. Not just having field engineers, but having a systematic process that develops them from day one through the entire duration of a project. A process that takes them from studying drawings to establishing primary control to doing lift drawings to conducting layout to checking quality to writing RFIs to understanding every technical aspect of how buildings get built.

I worked on a research laboratory where we had zero rework after drywall in complex lab spaces. That doesn’t happen by accident. It happens because field engineers coordinated every detail before installation. They created room-specific drawings. They got approval from end-users. They made sure every trade knew exactly where things went. That’s what properly developed field engineers deliver.

The 43-Step Development Process That Actually Works

Let me walk you through the systematic process that develops complete field engineers. This isn’t theoretical. This is what actually works when you commit to developing builders instead of just hiring assistants. I’m going to give you the condensed version, but understand that each of these steps requires teaching, practice, and verification.

Start with the Field Engineering Methods Manual by Wes Crawford. Get physical copies. Make this their guide. The first eight chapters are essential reading that covers everything from basic concepts to equipment to layout methods. This becomes their foundation for understanding the craft of field engineering.

Then get them familiar with their next project assignment. Have them study the drawings for thirty minutes every day. Create a project startup schedule that guides their first ninety days, covering equipment acquisition, testing area setup, primary and secondary control planning, and lift drawing schedules. This gives them structure instead of chaos.

Set up their field engineer workspace properly. Desks, standup desks, screens, computers, equipment storage. Create a testing area where they can test chains, lasers, automatic levels, and run horizontal and vertical angle checks on total stations. Make sure all equipment is calibrated before they use it on the project.

Work with them to set up total stations and data collectors. Ensure their software is ready: AutoCAD, Revit, SketchUp, Excel, all systems tested and functional. Teach them these programs if they don’t know them. The technical skills matter, but so does the software proficiency to translate field measurements into usable information.

Coordinate the basis of bearings and design benchmarks with property corners and building locations. Involve third-party surveyors or internal company surveyors for verification. This is where precision starts, and small errors here compound into massive problems later.

Here’s where the systematic development accelerates:

  • Establish primary control with proper Job Hazard Analysis documentation • Traverse the primary control and analyze with best fit adjustment • Level loop through design benchmarks and adjust elevations • Design and set up secondary control as semi-permanent monuments around buildings • Establish working control with proper baseline systems inside or outside the building • Transfer benchmarks into the building and begin using working control with chain verification

These aren’t just tasks to complete. They’re skills to master. Walk through each one with them the first time. Show them why each step matters. Let them make mistakes in controlled situations where mistakes don’t destroy schedules. Build their competence through repetition until they can do each task independently with confidence.

Then move into ongoing work. Conduct pour checks together the first time. Teach them how to check bar size, spacing, form setup, kickers, alignment. Fill out the pour check card whether it’s on Procore or a physical checklist. Do this until they can run quality checks independently.

Have them create lift drawings using Revit. Not just copying existing drawings but actually coordinating wall elevations with all systems shown. This teaches them to think three-dimensionally about how everything fits together before it gets installed. This is builder thinking, not assistant thinking.

Assign them layout work with verification. Have them write RFIs when needed. Create trend charts for tracking recurring issues. Design methods for vertical control transfer and horizontal transfer over long distances. Make sure they understand grid leveling on structural decks. Each of these skills builds on the previous ones until they have complete technical competence.

If your project needs superintendent coaching, project support, or leadership development, Elevate Construction can help your field teams stabilize, schedule, and flow. We work with builders who understand that field engineering isn’t about having someone run errands. It’s about systematically developing future superintendents who bring builder experience into leadership roles.

As superintendent, you should be checking that everything’s going per schedule while your field engineer operates with productive paranoia, assuming everything’s wrong until they verify it’s right. That’s the relationship that protects quality and develops competence simultaneously. You’re not babysitting. You’re developing someone who will eventually do your job better than you did because they learned it systematically instead of figuring it out through trial and error.

Why Field Engineering Is the Silver Bullet

The current condition is that field engineers are either not there, not used properly, or treated as personal assistants. But field engineers should be professional construction managers and engineers in the field learning the builder experience before they become leaders, planners, and managers. That’s the position’s purpose. That’s why companies who do this well produce better superintendents consistently.

Think about what this position delivers when done properly. It gives craft workers a clear path to superintendent roles. It teaches technical competence before asking people to lead technical work. It creates superintendents who can troubleshoot problems, catch errors before they happen, and earn respect from trades through demonstrated mastery. It fills the gap between doing work and managing work with systematic builder development.

If you successfully integrate field engineering into your organization with a proper development process, hiring gets better because you have a clear advancement path. Training gets better because you have systematic development instead of hoping people figure it out. Your superintendents get better because they learned to be builders before becoming leaders. Your projects get better because technical work is coordinated and checked properly. It’s absolutely transformational.

The Challenge: Build a Field Engineering Program

So here’s my challenge to you. Don’t just hire field engineers. Build a field engineering program. Get copies of the Field Engineering Methods Manual and make it the foundation of technical training. Create project startup schedules that guide the first ninety days. Establish systematic processes for primary control, secondary control, layout, lift drawings, quality checks, and every technical skill field engineers need.

Walk through each process with them the first time. Let them practice with verification. Build their competence systematically instead of throwing them into deep water and hoping they swim. Treat this position as the professional development program it should be, not as a source of assistants who occasionally help with technical work.

And if you’re a craft worker or foreman wondering how to advance, understand that field engineering is the path. Not because you need a degree, but because you need systematic builder development before becoming a leader. This position teaches you how buildings actually get built at a level that doing one trade’s work never could. It’s the bridge between craft and management. Use it.

As Benjamin Franklin wrote, “An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.” Field engineering is that investment. It’s knowledge gained systematically over time that compounds into competence no shortcuts can create. Build the program. Develop your people. Watch what happens when superintendents actually know how to be builders.

On we go.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long should someone spend as a field engineer before becoming a superintendent?

One to three years depending on project complexity and how systematically they’re being developed. The goal isn’t a time requirement but demonstrated competence across all technical areas. When they can independently run layout, coordinate lift drawings, conduct quality checks, and solve technical problems, they’re ready for assistant superintendent roles.

What if we can’t afford dedicated field engineers on every project?

Start with your most complex projects where technical coordination matters most. Build the program there and prove the value. Or rotate one field engineer across multiple smaller projects to provide technical support and lift drawing coordination. The program doesn’t require one FE per project, but it does require systematic development wherever you deploy them.

Can we develop superintendents without the field engineer position?

You can, but they’ll have gaps in technical knowledge that create problems when they need to troubleshoot issues or earn respect from trades. The field engineer position exists specifically to fill those gaps by teaching builder competence before leadership responsibility. Skipping this step creates incomplete superintendents.

What’s the biggest mistake companies make with field engineers?

Treating them as personal assistants instead of developing them systematically. Running errands doesn’t build competence. Systematic development through the Field Engineering Methods Manual, controlled practice, and increasing responsibility creates builders who become great superintendents.

How do we measure whether our field engineering program is working?

Track how many field engineers advance to superintendent roles and how well they perform compared to supers without FE experience. Measure rework rates, quality issues, and coordination problems on projects with properly developed FEs versus projects without them. The differences become obvious quickly.

 

If you want to learn more we have:

-Takt Virtual Training: (Click here)
-Check out our Youtube channel for more info: (Click here) 
-Listen to the Elevate Construction podcast: (Click here) 
-Check out our training programs and certifications: (Click here)
-The Takt Book: (Click here)

Discover Jason’s Expertise:

Meet Jason Schroeder, the driving force behind Elevate Construction IST. As the company’s owner and principal consultant, 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.

    faq

    General Training Overview

    What construction leadership training programs does LeanTakt offer?
    LeanTakt offers Superintendent/PM Boot Camps, Virtual Takt Production System® Training, Onsite Takt Simulations, and Foreman & Field Engineer Training. Each program is tailored to different leadership levels in construction.
    Who should attend LeanTakt’s training programs?
    Superintendents, Project Managers, Foremen, Field Engineers, and trade partners who want to improve planning, communication, and execution on projects.
    How do these training programs improve project performance?
    They provide proven Lean and Takt systems that reduce chaos, improve reliability, strengthen collaboration, and accelerate project delivery.
    What makes LeanTakt’s training different from other construction courses?
    Our programs are hands-on, field-tested, and focused on practical application—not just classroom theory.
    Do I need prior Lean or takt planning experience to attend?
    No. Our programs cover foundational principles before moving into advanced applications.
    How quickly can I apply what I learn on real projects?
    Most participants begin applying new skills immediately, often the same week they complete the program.
    Are these trainings designed for both office and field leaders?
    Yes. We equip both project managers and superintendents with tools that connect field and office operations.
    What industries benefit most from LeanTakt training?
    Commercial, multifamily, residential, industrial, and infrastructure projects all benefit from flow-based planning.
    Do participants receive certificates after completing training?
    Yes. Every participant receives a LeanTakt Certificate of Completion.
    Is LeanTakt training recognized in the construction industry?
    Yes. Our programs are widely respected among leading GCs, subcontractors, and construction professionals.

    Superintendent / PM Boot Camp

    What is the Superintendent & Project Manager Boot Camp?
    It’s a 5-day immersive training for superintendents and PMs to master Lean leadership, takt planning, and project flow.
    How long does the Superintendent/PM Boot Camp last?
    Five full days of hands-on training.
    What topics are covered in the Boot Camp curriculum?
    Lean leadership, Takt Planning, logistics, daily planning, field-office communication, and team health.
    How does the Boot Camp improve leadership and scheduling skills?
    Yes. You’ll learn how to run day huddles, team meetings, worker huddles, and Lean coordination processes.
    Who is the Boot Camp best suited for?
    Construction leaders responsible for delivering projects, including Superintendents, PMs, and Field Leaders.
    What real-world challenges are simulated during the Boot Camp?
    Schedule breakdowns, trade conflicts, logistics issues, and communication gaps.
    Will I learn Takt Planning at the Boot Camp?
    Yes. Takt Planning is a core focus of the Boot Camp.
    How does this Boot Camp compare to traditional PM certification?
    It’s practical and execution-based rather than exam-based. You learn by doing, not just studying theory.
    Can my entire project team attend the Boot Camp together?
    Yes. Teams attending together often see the greatest results.
    What kind of real-world challenges do we simulate?
    Improved project flow, fewer delays, better team communication, and stronger leadership confidence.

    Takt Production System® Virtual Training

    What is the Virtual Takt Production System® Training?
    It’s an expert-led online program that teaches Lean construction teams how to implement takt planning.
    How does virtual takt training work?
    Delivered online via live sessions, interactive discussions, and digital tools.
    What are the benefits of online takt planning training?
    Convenience, global accessibility, real-time learning, and immediate application.
    Can I access the virtual training from anywhere?
    Yes. It’s fully web-based and accessible worldwide.
    Can I access the virtual training from anywhere?
    Yes. It’s fully web-based and accessible worldwide.
    What skills will I gain from the Virtual TPS® Training?
    Macro and micro Takt planning, weekly updates, flow management, and CPM integration.
    How long does the virtual training program take?
    The program is typically completed in multiple live sessions across several days.
    Can I watch recordings if I miss a session?
    Yes. Recordings are available to all participants.
    Do you offer group access or company licenses for the virtual training?
    Yes. Teams and companies can enroll together at discounted rates.
    How does the Virtual TPS® Training integrate with CPM tools?
    We show how to align Takt with CPM schedules like Primavera P6 or MS Project.

    Onsite Takt Simulation

    What is a Takt Simulation in construction training?
    It’s a live, interactive workshop that demonstrates takt planning on-site.
    How does the Takt Simulation workshop work?
    Teams participate in hands-on exercises to learn the flow and rhythm of a Takt-based project.
    Can I choose between a 1-day or 2-day Takt Simulation?
    Yes. We offer flexible formats to fit your team’s schedule and needs.
    Who should participate in the Takt Simulation workshop?
    Superintendents, PMs, site supervisors, contractors, and engineers.
    How does a Takt Simulation improve project planning?
    It shows teams how to structure zones, manage flow, and coordinate trades in real time.
    What will my team learn from the onsite simulation?
    How to build and maintain takt plans, manage buffers, and align trade partners.
    Is the simulation tailored to my specific project type?
    Yes. Scenarios can be customized to match your project.
    How do Takt Simulations improve trade partner coordination?
    They strengthen collaboration by making handoffs visible and predictable.
    What results can I expect from an onsite Takt Simulation?
    Improved schedule reliability, better trade collaboration, and reduced rework.
    How many people can join a Takt Simulation session?
    Group sizes are flexible, but typically 15–30 participants per session.

    Foreman & Field Engineer Training

    What is Foreman & Field Engineer Training?
    It’s an on-demand, practical program that equips foremen and engineers with leadership and planning skills.
    How does this training prepare emerging leaders?
    By teaching communication, crew management, and execution strategies.
    Is the training on-demand or scheduled?
    On-demand, tailored to your team’s timing and needs.
    What skills do foremen and engineers gain from this training?
    Planning, safety leadership, coordination, and communication.
    How does the training improve communication between field and office?
    It builds shared systems that align superintendents, engineers, and managers.
    Can the training be customized for my team’s needs?
    Yes. Programs are tailored for your project or company.
    What makes this program different from generic leadership courses?
    It’s construction-specific, field-tested, and focused on real project application.
    How do foremen and field engineers apply this training immediately?
    They can use new systems for planning, coordination, and daily crew management right away.
    Is the training suitable for small construction companies?
    Yes. Small and large teams alike benefit from building flow-based leadership skills.

    Testimonials

    Testimonials

    "The bootcamp I was apart of was amazing. Its was great while it was happening but also had a very profound long-term motivation that is still pushing me to do more, be more. It sounds a little strange to say that a construction bootcamp changed my life, but it has. It has opened my eyes to many possibilities on how a project can be successfully run. It’s also provided some very positive ideas on how people can and should be treated in construction.

    I am a hungry person by nature, so it doesn’t take a lot to get to participate. I loved the way it was not just about participating, it was also about doing it with conviction, passion, humility and if it wasn’t portrayed that way you had to do it again."

    "It's great to be a part of a company that has similar values to my own, especially regarding how we treat our trade partners. The idea of "you gotta make them feel worse to make them do better" has been preached at me for years. I struggled with this as you will not find a single psychology textbook stating these beliefs. In fact it is quite the opposite, and causing conflict is a recipe for disaster. I'm still honestly in shock I have found a company that has based its values on scientific facts based on human nature. That along with the Takt scheduling system makes everything even better. I am happy to be a part of a change that has been long overdue in our industry!"

    "Wicked team building, so valuable for the forehumans of the sub trades to know the how and why. Great tools and resources. Even though I am involved and use the tools every day, I feel like everything is fresh and at the forefront to use"

    "Jason and his team did an incredible job passing on the overall theory of what they do. After 3 days of running through the course I cannot see any holes in their concept. It works. it's proven to work and I am on board!"

    "Loved the pull planning, Takt planning, and logistic model planning. Well thought out and professional"

    "The Super/PM Boot Camp was an excellent experience that furthered my understanding of Lean Practices. The collaboration, group involvement, passion about real project site experiences, and POSITIVE ENERGY. There are no dull moments when you head into this training. Jason and Mr. Montero were always on point and available to help in the break outs sessions. Easily approachable to talk too during breaks and YES, it was fun. I recommend this training for any PM or Superintendent that wants to further their career."

    agenda

    Day 1

    Foundations & Macro Planning

    • Introduction to Takt Production System® principles
    • CPM vs TAKT comparison
    • Macro planning, zoning, and density analysis
    • Quantities and production rates
    • Hands-on application to participants’ projects with LeanTakt PM experts

    day2

    Norm Planning & Flow Optimization

    • Review and refinement of Day 1 work
    • Pull planning and sequence optimization
    • Work packaging for balanced flow
    • Project integration session with LeanTakt PM coaching

    day3

    Advanced Tools & Comparisons

    • Macro work packaging and example walkthrough
    • Calculator Norm for production optimization
    • Stacking comparison to avoid trade conflicts
    • Hands-on application to participants’ own schedules

    day4

    Buffers, Controls & Finalization

    • Review of Day 3 implementation
    • Buffer management strategies and placement
    • Takt control principles and steering methods
    • Project plan finalization with expert guidance

    day5

    Control Systems & Presentations

    • Takt steering, control systems, and real project examples
    • Participant project presentations with LeanTakt PM feedback
    • Wrap-up, feedback, and action planning for post-training implementation

    faq

    UNDERSTANDING THE TRAINING

    What is the Virtual Takt Production System® Training by LeanTakt?
    It’s an expert-led online program designed to teach construction professionals how to implement Takt Planning to create flow, eliminate chaos, and align teams across the project lifecycle.
    Who should take the LeanTakt virtual training?
    This training is ideal for Superintendents, Project Managers, Engineers, Schedulers, Trade Partners, and Lean Champions looking to improve planning and execution.
    What topics are covered in the online Takt Production System® course?
    The course covers macro and micro Takt planning, zone creation, buffers, weekly updates, flow management, trade coordination, and integration with CPM tools.
    What makes LeanTakt’s virtual training different from other Lean construction courses?
    Unlike theory-based courses, this training is hands-on, practical, field-tested, and includes live coaching tailored to your actual projects.
    Do I get a certificate after completing the online training?
    Yes. Upon successful completion, participants receive a LeanTakt Certificate of Completion, which validates your knowledge and readiness to implement Takt.

    VALUE AND RESULTS

    What are the benefits of Takt Production System® training for my team?
    It helps teams eliminate bottlenecks, improve planning reliability, align trades, and reduce the chaos typically seen in traditional construction schedules.
    How much time and money can I save with Takt Planning?
    Many projects using Takt see 15–30% reductions in time and cost due to better coordination, fewer delays, and increased team accountability.
    What’s the ROI of virtual Takt training for construction teams?
    The ROI comes from faster project delivery, reduced rework, improved communication, and better resource utilization — often 10x the investment.
    Will this training reduce project delays or rework?
    Yes. By visualizing flow and aligning trades, Takt Planning reduces miscommunication and late handoffs — major causes of delay and rework.
    How soon can I expect to see results on my projects?
    Most teams report seeing improvement in coordination and productivity within the first 2–4 weeks of implementation.

    PLANNING AND SCHEDULING TOPICS

    What is Takt Planning and how is it used in construction?
    Takt Planning is a Lean scheduling method that creates flow by aligning work with time and space, using rhythm-based planning to coordinate teams and reduce waste.
    What’s the difference between macro and micro Takt plans?
    Macro Takt plans focus on the overall project flow and phase durations, while micro Takt plans break down detailed weekly tasks by zone and crew.
    Will I learn how to build a complete Takt plan from scratch?
    Yes. The training teaches you how to build both macro and micro Takt plans tailored to your project, including workflows, buffers, and sequencing.
    How do I update and maintain a Takt schedule each week?
    You’ll learn how to conduct weekly updates using lookaheads, trade feedback, zone progress, and digital tools to maintain schedule reliability.
    Can I integrate Takt Planning with CPM or Primavera P6?
    Yes. The training includes guidance on aligning Takt plans with CPM logic, showing how both systems can work together effectively.
    Will I have access to the instructors during the training?
    Yes. You’ll have opportunities to ask questions, share challenges, and get real-time feedback from LeanTakt coaches.
    Can I ask questions specific to my current project?
    Absolutely. In fact, we encourage it — the training is designed to help you apply Takt to your active jobs.
    Is support available after the training ends?
    Yes. You can access follow-up support, coaching, and community forums to help reinforce implementation.
    Can your tools be customized to my project or team?
    Yes. We offer customizable templates and implementation options to fit different project types, teams, and tech stacks.
    When is the best time in a project lifecycle to take this training?
    Ideally before or during preconstruction, but teams have seen success implementing it mid-project as well.

    APPLICATION & TEAM ADOPTION

    What changes does my team need to adopt Takt Planning?
    Teams must shift from reactive scheduling to proactive, flow-based planning with clear commitments, reliable handoffs, and a visual management mindset.
    Do I need any prior Lean or scheduling experience?
    No prior Lean experience is required. The course is structured to take you from foundational principles to advanced application.
    How long does it take for teams to adapt to Takt Planning?
    Most teams adapt within 2–6 weeks, depending on project size and how fully the system is adopted across roles.
    Can this training work for smaller companies or projects?
    Absolutely. Takt is scalable and especially powerful for small teams seeking better structure and predictability.
    What role do trade partners play in using Takt successfully?
    Trade partners are key collaborators. They help shape realistic flow, manage buffers, and provide feedback during weekly updates.

    VIRTUAL FORMAT & ACCESSIBILITY

    Can I access the virtual training from anywhere?
    Yes. The training is fully accessible online, making it ideal for distributed teams across regions or countries.
    Is this training available internationally?
    Yes. LeanTakt trains teams around the world and supports global implementations.
    Can I watch recordings if I miss a session?
    Yes. All sessions are recorded and made available for later viewing through your training portal.
    Do you offer group access or company licenses?
    Yes. Teams can enroll together at discounted rates, and we offer licenses for enterprise rollouts.
    What technology or setup do I need to join the virtual training?
    A reliable internet connection, webcam, Miro, Spreadsheets, and access to Zoom.

    faq

    GENERAL FAQS

    What is the Superintendent / PM Boot Camp?
    It’s a hands-on leadership training for Superintendents and Project Managers in the construction industry focused on Lean systems, planning, and communication.
    Who is this Boot Camp for?
    Construction professionals including Superintendents, Project Managers, Field Engineers, and Foremen looking to improve planning, leadership, and project flow.
    What makes this construction boot camp different?
    Real-world project simulations, expert coaching, Lean principles, team-based learning, and post-camp support — all built for field leaders.
    Is this just a seminar or classroom training?
    No. It’s a hands-on, immersive experience. You’ll plan, simulate, collaborate, and get feedback — not sit through lectures.
    What is the focus of the training?
    Leadership, project planning, communication, Lean systems, and integrating office-field coordination.

    CURRICULUM & OUTCOMES

    What topics are covered in the Boot Camp?
    Takt planning, day planning, logistics, pre-construction, team health, communication systems, and more.
    What is Takt Planning and why is it taught?
    Takt is a Lean planning method that creates flow and removes chaos. It helps teams deliver projects on time with less stress.
    Will I learn how to lead field teams more effectively?
    Yes. This boot camp focuses on real leadership challenges and gives you systems and strategies to lead high-performing teams.
    Do you cover daily huddles and meeting systems?
    Yes. You’ll learn how to run day huddles, team meetings, worker huddles, and Lean coordination processes.
    What kind of real-world challenges do we simulate?
    You’ll work through real project schedules, logistical constraints, leadership decisions, and field-office communication breakdowns.

    LOGISTICS & FORMAT

    Is the training in-person or virtual?
    It’s 100% in-person to maximize learning, feedback, and team-based interaction.
    How long is the Boot Camp?
    It runs for 5 full days.
    Where is the Boot Camp held?
    Locations vary — typically hosted in a professional training center or project setting. Contact us for the next available city/date.
    Do you offer follow-up coaching after the Boot Camp?
    Yes. Post-camp support is included so you can apply what you’ve learned on your projects.
    Can I ask questions about my actual project?
    Absolutely. That’s encouraged — bring your current challenges.

    PRICING & VALUE

    How much does the Boot Camp cost?
    $5,000 per person.
    Are there any group discounts?
    Yes — get 10% off when 4 or more people from the same company attend.
    What’s the ROI for sending my team?
    Better planning = fewer delays, smoother coordination, and higher team morale — all of which boost productivity and reduce costs.
    Will I see results immediately?
    Most participants apply what they’ve learned as soon as they return to the jobsite — especially with follow-up support.
    Can this replace other leadership training?
    In many cases, yes. This Boot Camp is tailored to construction professionals, unlike generic leadership seminars.

    SEO-BASED / HIGH-INTENT SEARCH QUESTIONS

    What is the best leadership training for construction Superintendents?
    Our Boot Camp offers real-world, field-focused leadership training tailored for construction leaders.
    What’s included in a Superintendent Boot Camp?
    Takt planning, day planning, logistics, pre-construction systems, huddles, simulations, and more.
    Where can I find Lean construction training near me?
    Check our upcoming in-person sessions or request a private boot camp in your city.
    How can I improve field and office communication on a project?
    This Boot Camp teaches you tools and systems to connect field and office workflows seamlessly.
    Is there a training to help reduce chaos on construction sites?
    Yes — this program is built specifically to turn project chaos into flow through structured leadership.

    agenda

    Day 1

    Agenda

    • Intro to Camp
    • Set Expectations
    • Morning Routine
    • Plan Day
    • Explain "Why"
    • Teams Intros + Yells + Expectation
    • Focus, Physiology, Words + Yells
    • Blocks to Leadership
    • 50 Million
    • Biggest Thing
    • Choose Your Word
    • Marketing Exercise
    • Interview for the Project
    • PO Homework and Close the Day

    Outcomes

    • Understand how to get into a proper state to lead
    • Understand how to dig deep to find the confidence to lead
    • Team work and collaboration
    • Understand marketing
    • Understand how to interview for and win a project

    Day 2

    Agenda

    • Morning Routine
    • Day Planner
    • Plus & Delta
    • Macro Takt planning
    • Setup jobs + Signs + Logistics
    • Explain the IPCS™
    • Detailed logistics training
    • Team balance & health training

    Outcomes

    • Learn the IPCS™ understand how to integrate the entire project from start to finish with First Planners™ and Last Planners® through the Takt Production System®
    • Learn how to review a project
    • Learn advanced logistics
    • Learn team balance and health

    Day 3

    Agenda

    • Morning Routine
    • Day Planner
    • Plus & Delta
    • Review How Big Things Get Done
    • Review IPCSTM
    • Fix (Schedule, zone, logistics, trailer, org & procurement)
    • Fresh Eyes Meeting
    • Pre-Con Overview
    • TAKT SIMULATION
    • Recap and Review

    Outcomes

    • Understand why and how to plan
    • Understand the benefits of using a Takt production plan
    • Learn the steps to proper pre-con that sets the project up for success
    • Learn how to review a project in a Fresh Eyes Meeting
    • Learn flow from Takt planning

    Day 4

    Agenda

    • Morning Routine
    • Day Planner
    • Plus & Delta
    • Opposing Squares
    • Pull Plan
    • Takt Remaining
    • Norm Update
    • Re Zoning
    • Risks & Pre-Con Align
    • Meeting System
    • Problems
    • Recap

    Outcomes

    • Understand the Norm level Takt plan for weekly/daily planning
    • Benefits and outcomes of rezoning strategies
    • Using meetings to feed information through the system and to the Foremen

    Day 5

    Agenda

    • Morning Routine
    • Day Planner
    • Plus & Delta
    • Huddle I.D.S
    • Day Plan
    • Worker Huddle
    • Norm Update
    • Team Huddle
    • Lean Systems Recap
    • Feedback Exercise
    • Final & Close

    Outcomes

    • Know what information is needed and how to get it to the Workers
    • Better understand how to give feedback and why it’s crucial for everyone
    • How to problem solve as a team
    • Understand how all systems tie together
    • Know how the information gets all the way to the worker
    • Have perfect clarity on the individual’s personal organization planner