Author: Danny Jiménez⁩

Wasting vs. Investing Time – Workers & Foremen

Posted on by Danny Jiménez⁩
Read 24 min

Stop Wasting Your Potential on Comfort and Distraction

Here’s the uncomfortable truth nobody wants to say directly to workers and foremen in construction. You’re wasting your time. Not because you’re lazy or incapable, but because you’re spending your most valuable asset, your mind, on things that will never develop you into who you could become. You’re watching too much TV. Playing too many video games. Spending too much time being negative or hanging around people who drag you down. And somewhere underneath all that distraction, there’s a voice telling you that you’re stuck where you are because you didn’t go to college or get technical training, so advancement isn’t possible anyway.

That voice is lying to you. And the system that keeps you comfortable enough to stay distracted is designed to keep you exactly where you are. Because if you ever realized that you could progress in construction just as easily as someone with a degree, if you put in the work to develop your mind, the entire game would change. You’d stop accepting limitations. You’d start investing in yourself. And you’d discover that the gap between where you are and where you want to be isn’t about credentials. It’s about what you’re willing to put into your mind.

I want to share a poem with you that’s been on my heart. It’s called “The Bridge Builder” by Will Allen Dromgoole, and it captures why I do these podcasts and why I’m challenging you today. An old man crossed a dangerous chasm and then stopped to build a bridge. A fellow traveler asked why he was wasting his strength building when he’d never cross that way again. The old man replied that a youth was following behind him, and the chasm that posed no danger to him might be a pitfall for that young person. He was building the bridge for those coming after him.

The Pain of Wasting Years on Distraction

You know this feeling. You get home from work exhausted. You’ve been on your feet all day. Your body hurts. And the easiest thing in the world is to collapse on the couch, turn on the TV, and zone out until bedtime. Maybe you play some video games. Maybe you scroll social media. Maybe you have a few drinks to take the edge off. And you tell yourself you’ve earned it. You worked hard. You deserve to relax.

But then months pass. Then years. And you look around and realize you’re in the exact same place you were three years ago. Same position. Same pay grade. Same frustrations. And somewhere in the back of your mind, you wonder if this is all there is. If you’re just supposed to keep doing this until your body gives out and you can’t do it anymore.

That’s not laziness. That’s the system working exactly as designed. Keep you comfortable enough that you don’t leave. Keep you distracted enough that you don’t develop. Keep you just busy enough surviving that you never have time to think about thriving. And convince you along the way that advancement isn’t for people like you anyway because you didn’t go to college.

I’ve seen this pattern destroy potential in talented people who could have been superintendents, project managers, business owners. They had the intelligence. They had the work ethic. They had the people skills. But they spent their evenings and weekends on things that entertained them instead of things that developed them. And twenty years later, they’re still in the same spot, wondering what happened to their potential.

The System Wants You Comfortable, Not Growing

Here’s what I want you to understand. Society has told you a story about your limitations. You didn’t go to college, so you can’t be a vice president. You don’t have technical training, so you can’t be a director. You’re in a trade, so you can’t be a business owner or general superintendent. And the way they make this story stick is by giving you just enough money to stay comfortable and then selling you distractions that consume whatever time and energy you have left.

Spend all your money so you don’t have savings to invest in training or starting a business. Watch TV for hours every night so you never read books that could teach you new skills. Play video games so you never develop the interpersonal skills that leadership requires. Drink and smoke and create habits that drain your energy and health. Make your family relationships so chaotic that you’re too stressed to think about growth. These patterns keep you exactly where the system wants you: productive enough to generate value, but distracted enough to never demand more.

But here’s the truth that nobody tells you directly. You can progress in construction just as easily as someone who went to school if you put in the work. If you develop interpersonal skills. If you learn to be responsible and honest. If you read good books and listen to good podcasts and take good training. If you invest in your mind the way college graduates invest in theirs, you can go anywhere you want to go.

I’ve worked with people who started as laborers and became superintendents. I’ve watched foremen become project executives. I’ve seen craft workers start their own companies. Not because they magically got degrees, but because they stopped wasting time on distractions and started investing in development. They read books instead of watching endless TV. They took training instead of playing video games all weekend. They developed themselves while everyone around them stayed comfortable.

Someone asked me recently how you convince workers who didn’t go to college that they can want more and achieve more. My answer was that you create dissonance. You create a gap between where they are and where they could be. You show them that the life they’re living, sitting on the couch watching TV and playing video games, is not a happy lifestyle even if they think it is. And you show them that a different life is possible if they’re willing to invest in themselves.

The Investment That Changes Everything

Let me be direct about what wastes your time and what develops you. News media that makes you angry and anxious wastes your time. Books that develop your skills and perspective invest in you. Bad friends who drag you down waste your time. Mentors who challenge you to grow invest in you. Too much TV and video games waste your time. Date nights with your spouse and time serving others invest in you.

I’m not saying you can never relax. I’m not saying every minute has to be productive. But if your evenings and weekends are dominated by entertainment and distraction, and development is the exception rather than the rule, you’re wasting your potential. A life well-lived has a mix. Recreation, entertainment, rest. But it’s heavy on development. Heavy on serving others. Heavy on building something meaningful.

Here are the investments that actually move you forward:

  • Develop a morning routine that includes reading religious texts or other material that grounds your perspective and purpose • Read books that improve your mind and teach you skills you don’t currently have • Stop consuming negative media including excessive TV and video games that numb you instead of developing you • Go on date nights with your spouse to invest in the relationship that matters most • Set clear goals for where you want to be in the future and work toward them consistently

These aren’t complicated. They’re just disciplines. Wake up earlier. Read for thirty minutes instead of scrolling social media. Turn off the TV after one show instead of binge-watching all night. Take your spouse somewhere once a week. Write down where you want to be in five years and identify what training or skills would get you there.

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 developing people isn’t optional. It’s how you create teams where workers become foremen, foremen become superintendents, and everyone reaches their potential instead of staying comfortable.

The world will pay you what it thinks you’re worth. And what you’re worth isn’t determined by where you started or whether you have a degree. It’s determined by what you’ve trained your mind to do and the investment you’ve made in developing yourself. If you invest in entertainment and distraction, you’ll be worth what an entertained, distracted person is worth. If you invest in development and growth, you’ll be worth what a developed, growing person is worth.

Building Bridges for Those Coming Behind

There’s a song I heard during the Christmas holidays called “Glorious” that captures what I want you to understand. The lyrics say there are times when you might feel aimless and can’t see the places where you belong, but you will find that there is a purpose. It’s been there within you all along. Everyone plays a piece and there are melodies in each one of us. It’s glorious.

Each one of us has a part to play. Each one of us has a bridge to build for those coming behind us. And even if you don’t feel motivated to develop yourself for your own sake, you have an opportunity to do it for others. To become the person who shows younger workers that advancement is possible. To be the foreman who proves that craft workers can become leaders. To build the bridge that helps someone else cross a chasm that might have been a pitfall without your example.

Right now, you’re at a decision point. You can keep spending your evenings and weekends on comfort and distraction, and five years from now you’ll be exactly where you are today. Or you can start investing in development, and five years from now you’ll be somewhere you can barely imagine right now. The gap between those two futures is what you do with your time starting tonight.

The Challenge: Start Investing Tonight

So here’s my challenge to you. Make a change. Do it for the right reasons. Get an accountability champion who will check on whether you’re actually doing what you said you’d do. And especially now at the beginning of the year, make resolutions you’ll actually keep that will stop wasting your time and start investing in your most valuable asset, which is your mind.

Start reading scriptures or other religious texts every day. Start reading books that improve your skills and perspective. Stop the negative media including excessive TV and video games. Start going on date nights with your spouse. Set goals for where you want to be in the future and grind toward them consistently.

The current condition is that we are distracted with comforts and wasting our lives with things that feel good but don’t develop us. The challenge is to make a change that transforms not just your career but your entire life. Because at your funeral, do you want people saying you were a taker who didn’t give much to the world? Or do you want them saying you elevated everyone around you and left a remarkable legacy?

As Henry David Thoreau wrote, “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.” Don’t be one of them. Don’t waste your potential on comfort when you could invest it in becoming someone remarkable. Build the bridge. Play your part in the symphony. Become who you were meant to be.

On we go.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I find time for development when I’m exhausted after work every day?

Start with thirty minutes in the morning before work. Wake up earlier. Read for fifteen minutes and listen to a podcast during your commute. You don’t need hours of extra time. You need consistent small investments that compound over years. The exhaustion after work is real, but the morning is yours to control if you’re willing to wake up earlier.

What if I don’t know what books to read or training to take?

Start with the Elevate Construction book and podcast. Read anything by Patrick Lencioni on leadership and teams. Take free online courses on construction management or estimating. Ask your superintendent what skills would help you advance and find resources that teach those skills. The specific content matters less than building the habit of learning.

Isn’t it too late to change if I’ve already wasted years on distractions?

The best time to start was ten years ago. The second best time is today. Every successful person you admire started from wherever they were and began investing in themselves. Your past doesn’t determine your future unless you let it. The question isn’t whether you’ve wasted time. The question is what you’ll do with the time you have left.

How do I know if I’m actually capable of advancing or if I’m just fooling myself?

You won’t know until you invest in development and find out. But I can tell you that intelligence and capability aren’t fixed. They’re developed through learning and practice. If you can do your current job well, you can learn the skills required for the next level. The only way to know is to start developing yourself and see what happens.

What if my family or friends think I’m crazy for trying to change or advance?

Then you need new friends who support your growth instead of keeping you comfortable. Family relationships are more complex, but you can still pursue development even if they don’t understand. Find mentors and accountability partners who believe in your potential. Surround yourself with people who challenge you to grow instead of people who keep you where you are.

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.

Room Kitting

Posted on by Danny Jiménez⁩
Read 23 min

Install It Once: The Room Kitting Process That Eliminates Interior Rework

Here’s the problem that’s destroying interior schedules and frustrating end-users on every hospital and laboratory project. Your electrician walks onto the floor with four different sets of drawings. Your plumber has their own drawings with different notes. Your mechanical contractor is working off a third set. And your lab gas installer is guessing at rough-in heights because nobody coordinated what the actual end-user needs in that specific room. Then drywall goes up, the owner walks through with their facility manager, and discovers that outlets are in wrong locations, gas drops aren’t where equipment will be placed, and the entire room needs to be opened back up for rework.

That’s not a trade partner failure. That’s a system failure. We ask people to install complex systems in complex spaces without giving them coordinated, room-specific information that captures what the end-users actually need. And then we act surprised when we have to punch through finished walls to fix things that should have been right the first time.

Room kitting solves this. Not by inventing new technology, but by applying prefabrication principles to interior spaces. Instead of prefabricating entire room pods that get craned into place from outside, which often doesn’t pencil out economically, you prefabricate the coordination and the parts. You create room-specific drawings that every trade uses for their work. You get end-user approval before anything gets installed. You pre-cut and kit the parts so workers show up to bins with everything they need and drawings that show exactly where it goes. And you install it once, correctly, with zero rework after drywall.

The Pain of Uncoordinated Interior Work

You’ve seen this disaster. The project is tracking well structurally. The exterior is moving. Interiors are framed and ready for rough-in. And then the chaos starts. Electricians are marking outlet locations based on their interpretation of equipment plans that might be months old. Plumbers are installing med gas or lab gas rough-ins where they think they should go. Nobody’s coordinating with casework locations or millwork details. And the drawings everyone’s using don’t match each other because they were issued at different times with different assumptions.

Then the nightmare moment arrives. The owner brings in their facilities team or their lab consultant or their clinical staff to walk the spaces. They look at where things are roughed in and immediately see problems. This outlet is supposed to be twelve inches to the left because that’s where the equipment actually sits. This gas drop can’t be there because casework blocks it. This data connection isn’t accessible from where staff will be working. And now you’re looking at opening walls, rerouting systems, and pushing the schedule back weeks while everyone argues about who’s responsible.

I worked on a research laboratory where we had zero rework with rough-in in complex laboratory spaces after drywall, except for one room in the basement that was a design change. Zero. Not because we had perfect drawings from the start. Not because trades were more skilled than usual. But because we implemented room kitting and didn’t allow anything to be installed until it was coordinated room-by-room and approved by end-users.

The System Doesn’t Coordinate Room-Specific Information

Here’s what I want you to understand. The construction industry doesn’t systematically coordinate interior work at the room level before installation. We give trades design intent drawings that show general layouts. We provide equipment plans that might not be updated with latest changes. We expect foremen to figure out exact locations based on incomplete information. And we hope that somehow everyone’s interpretation will align with what end-users actually need.

That’s the system failure. Designers can’t capture every detail from user meetings in design intent drawings. They can’t coordinate exact rough-in heights for every outlet and data point across hundreds of rooms. And even if they could, that information wouldn’t make it to the field in a format trades can actually use for installation. So we end up with electricians doing their best guess, plumbers working off different assumptions, and end-users discovering problems only after walls are closed.

The gap between design intent and actual installation requirements gets filled by individual trades making independent decisions. And those decisions, made in good faith with incomplete information, create rework that was entirely preventable if we’d coordinated everything at the room level before rough-in started.

At that research lab, we used room kitting to bridge this gap. We created room-specific coordination drawings that showed every wall elevation with all systems turned on. Electrical, plumbing, lab gas, med gas, casework, millwork, everything. Then we had all trades mark up those same drawings with their rough-in locations and notes. Then we got approval from designers, consultants, and end-users before allowing anything to be installed. The result was zero surprises, zero rework, zero frustration.

The Room Kitting Process That Works

Let me walk you through the process that eliminates interior rework. This isn’t theoretical. This is what actually works on complex hospital and laboratory projects when you commit to doing it right.

First, write this into contracts or work authorizations. State clearly that you will coordinate every wall, that crews must finish their work as they go, that all parts for rooms need to be pre-cut and brought into place, and that coordination drawings for each wall will be done by all foremen and approved by designers before work begins. Make this contractual, not optional. Because if it’s optional, schedule pressure will tempt people to skip it.

Second, get your BIM technicians or offshore modeling support to create cut sections in Revit of every complex room. Not just floor plans. Cut sections showing wall elevations with all layers turned on: casework, millwork, electrical, plumbing, lab gas, med gas, everything. Crop those views down to room-specific sheets that show exactly what gets installed on each wall. These become your coordination drawings.

Third, organize these drawings by production area according to your Takt plan. Put them into a Bluebeam project that all trade partners can access. Tell them that instead of marking up their own personal drawings, they should use these room-specific sheets to document rough-in heights, dimensions from doors, circuit notes, everything they’d normally track. This captures their coordination work in one place where everyone can see it.

Fourth, conduct a page flip review by area. Get all trades together. Go through every room wall by wall. Make sure electrical and plumbing aren’t conflicting. Verify that rough-in locations work with casework and millwork from shop drawings. Identify backing requirements. Answer questions. Resolve conflicts. Get everything coordinated before anyone starts installing.

Fifth, send the coordinated drawings to designers, consultants, and end-users for approval. This is critical. You’ll find about eighty questions per area that would typically show up as RFIs or not get answered at all. The designer can review these room-kitting drawings, answer all eighty questions at once, and post the approved drawings as the official coordination. This prevents the nightmare of scattered RFIs that don’t coordinate with each other.

Sixth, pre-cut and kit the parts once you have approved drawings. Best practice is to bundle everything for a room into bins with a bill of materials, barcode, and the room-kitting drawings included. Workers show up, grab their bin, open it up, and have everything they need including the drawings showing exactly where it goes.

Seventh, laminate the room-kitting drawings at eleven by seventeen and use them throughout construction. Give them to framing crews who use them for framing and backing, then screw the laminated drawing to the wall when framing is done. Now every trade uses that same drawing for their rough-in. Inspectors use it for their reviews and can write notes directly on the laminated sheet. Then it becomes part of your as-built documentation.

Here’s what this process delivers in practice:

  • Zero rework after drywall because everything was coordinated and approved before installation • Trades working from identical information instead of conflicting drawings • End-users confident that rooms will support their actual workflow and equipment • Inspections that go smoothly because drawings are right there on the wall showing what was coordinated

This isn’t just about reducing rework. It’s about actually delivering what we promise in our proposals when we talk about caring for end-users and taking their needs seriously.

Why Room Kitting Matters Beyond Just Interiors

We go into interviews talking about providing good products and taking care of end-users in hospitals. We talk about how much we care because our own family members use these facilities. All of that is garbage unless we actually find a way to get rough-in locations where nurses and doctors and lab technicians need them. Room kitting is how you make good on those promises.

But the principle extends beyond just hospitals and labs. Think about how you could apply similar prefabrication thinking to other scopes, phases, or parts of your projects. At that same research lab, DPR’s self-perform drywall team prefabricated all the headers and pre-cut all their studs. The waste reduction compared to a normal project was fantastic. Where else can you apply this thinking? Where else can you pre-coordinate and pre-cut instead of bringing in bulk materials, cutting them in place, and hauling out waste?

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 eliminating rework isn’t about working harder. It’s about coordinating smarter before installation begins, and room kitting is one of the most powerful tools for protecting both schedule and people.

The current condition is that electricians go out there with four different sets of drawings and at best they’re guessing. Even when they guess correctly according to their drawings, it’s still not where the user wants it because nobody coordinated with actual end-user needs. It’s all wasted effort that creates frustration for everyone involved.

The Challenge: Implement Room Kitting on Your Next Complex Interior

So here’s my challenge to you. Discuss the possibility of room kitting on your next project with complex interiors. Don’t wait for a perfect situation. Start with the most critical areas: operating rooms, lab spaces, intensive care units, wherever coordination matters most. Create room-specific drawings. Get all trades coordinating on the same sheets. Get end-user approval before installation. Pre-cut and kit the parts. Use laminated drawings on walls throughout construction.

And keep asking where else you can apply prefabrication thinking. Where else can you pre-coordinate? Where else can you pre-cut? Where else can you eliminate the waste of bulk materials being cut in place with scrap hauled away? Because room kitting is just one application of a broader principle: doing the coordination and preparation work early, before installation, saves massive amounts of rework and frustration later.

As Benjamin Franklin said, “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” Room kitting is preparation taken seriously. It’s coordination done completely before installation begins. It’s respect for end-users translated into process. And it’s the difference between projects that flow through interiors smoothly and projects that grind through rework and frustration.

On we go.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does room kitting only work on hospitals and labs or can it be used elsewhere?

Room kitting works anywhere you have complex interiors with multiple systems and specific end-user requirements. Data centers, research facilities, high-end residential, specialty retail spaces. Any environment where rough-in coordination matters and rework is expensive can benefit from room-specific coordination drawings and pre-kitting of parts.

How much does room kitting add to project costs and schedule?

The coordination work happens early but eliminates rework later. Most projects find it’s cost-neutral or saves money by preventing punch-list nightmares and schedule delays from opening walls. The schedule impact depends on whether you’re adding coordination or replacing uncoordinated chaos. Usually you’re faster overall because you install once correctly instead of twice poorly.

What if my trades resist coordinating on shared drawings instead of their own?

Make it contractual from the start. Write the requirement into work orders that coordination drawings will be provided and must be used for all rough-in documentation. Most trades actually prefer this once they understand it prevents conflicts and rework that make their work harder. The resistance usually comes from unfamiliarity, not actual problems with the process.

How do I convince designers and owners to review room-specific coordination drawings?

Frame it as preventing the nightmare of post-drywall rework and upset end-users. Show them that reviewing eighty questions at once through coordinated drawings is faster than answering eighty separate RFIs that don’t coordinate with each other. Most designers and owners embrace this once they understand it protects them from frustrated facility staff and expensive changes.

What’s the minimum technology requirement to implement room kitting?

You need BIM software to create the room-specific cut sections and Bluebeam or similar PDF markup software for trade coordination. If you don’t have in-house BIM capacity, you can use offshore modeling support affordably. The technology investment is minimal compared to the rework you prevent by coordinating properly before installation.

 

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 Go Giver

Posted on by Danny Jiménez⁩
Read 24 min

The Go-Giver Mindset That Changes Everything

Here’s the question that separates people who build lasting success from those who constantly chase it: Are you a go-getter or a go-giver? Most of us have been trained to be go-getters. Go after what you want. Hustle harder. Take opportunities. Get yours before someone else does. And somewhere along the way, we start wondering why success feels empty even when we achieve it, why relationships feel transactional, and why we’re constantly worried about not having enough.

I can tell you the exact moment this shifted for me. Someone at bootcamp asked if there was a moment that really changed my life. I told them there were four major moments. One was when I got suspended and learned hard lessons about respect. Another was when I helped put my wife’s father out of business with a large construction company and it changed how I felt about trade partners. The third was when I discovered systematic field engineering methods. And the fourth was when I learned about the concept of giving from a book called “The Go-Giver.”

That last moment transformed everything. Not just my business, but my entire approach to relationships, work, and life. Because when you shift from getting to giving, you stop living in scarcity and fear. You stop keeping score. You stop worrying about drama and competition. And you start living after the manner of happiness.

The Pain of Living in Scarcity

You know this feeling. You walk into a proposal thinking about what you need to get from this client. You network at an event calculating what people can do for you. You help someone and immediately wonder what they’ll do for you in return. You measure every interaction by what you’re gaining versus what you’re giving. And underneath all of it is the nagging fear that there’s not enough. Not enough opportunities. Not enough success. Not enough recognition to go around.

This scarcity mindset creates exhausting relationships. You’re constantly keeping score. Constantly worried that someone else is getting more than you. Constantly feeling like you have to protect what’s yours because if you give too much, you’ll lose. And the tragic irony is that this mindset guarantees you’ll never have enough because you’re focused entirely on taking instead of creating value.

I’ve lived this way. Early in my career, I approached every interaction thinking about what I could get. What this relationship could do for my advancement. What this client could do for my reputation. What this connection could provide. And I was miserable. Successful by some measures, but miserable. Because getting doesn’t create fulfillment. It creates temporary satisfaction followed immediately by hunger for the next thing.

The System Teaches Us to Get, Not Give

Here’s what I want you to understand. Our entire culture trains us to be go-getters. From childhood, we’re taught to compete, to win, to get ahead, to take opportunities before someone else does. The construction industry amplifies this. We bid against each other. We compete for projects. We fight for resources. We protect our market share. Everything reinforces the message that business is about getting what you can before someone else gets it first.

But that’s the system failure that’s costing us relationships, fulfillment, and ironically, the very success we’re chasing. Because the truth is that giving creates more value than taking ever could. When you focus on adding value to others without keeping score, people are naturally attracted to you. They like you. They want you to succeed. You build an army of personal ambassadors who champion you not because you paid them or manipulated them but because you genuinely helped them first.

The book “The Go-Giver” by Bob Burg and John David Mann breaks this down into five laws that govern how giving creates success. These aren’t feel-good platitudes. These are practical principles that work in business, relationships, and life. And I’ve found them to be one hundred percent true in my own experience. Since implementing this mentality, I’ve hardly had any fear, hardly any worries, hardly any drama. I live after the manner of happiness. Not because everything’s perfect but because I’m focused on giving value instead of protecting what I have.

The Five Laws That Transform Everything

Let me walk you through the framework that changed my life. These five laws sound simple. But when you actually live them, they transform how you show up in every interaction and how people respond to you.

First is the law of value. Your real worth is defined by how much more value you give than how much you get paid. Before thinking about profits, first ask yourself whether what you’re doing serves others. A great business delivers unbelievable value. When you focus on giving value as a way of life, the money will naturally follow. There has never been a truer statement in the history of mankind.

Think about this podcast. I focus on value first. I’m not getting paid to create this content. But the value comes first, and everything else follows. In business, value first and the money comes. In life, value first and everything else comes. Family, value first. Church, value first. Everywhere, value first. And then people will reward you, even if it’s not financially, for ten times the value you’re giving because you focused on them first.

When you’re in a proposal or doing pre-construction or dealing with a client, don’t worry about what you’re going to get. Worry about adding value first. Have great content. Focus on your mission of blessing people’s lives. The financial reward follows naturally when you create genuine value.

Second is the law of compensation. Your income is decided by the number of people you serve and how well you serve them. The bigger your impact, the more money you’ll actually earn. This is one hundred percent true. When you serve people and have wider influence, that’s not just practically a filter for money. It’s serving more people and accomplishing your mission in life. The universe conspires to support you with what you need and take care of your basic needs. At work, everyone wants to support and promote somebody who influences them for the good.

Third is the law of influence. Your influence is defined by how often and how much you focus on others’ interests first. The best way to build strong relationships is to focus one hundred percent on helping the other person without keeping track of how much others owe you or how much they gain. When you add value to others freely, people are naturally attracted to you, like you, and want you to succeed. You essentially build an army of personal ambassadors.

I have personally found this to be one hundred percent true. Morning routines where we focus on giving are so important. When you get your mind straight in the morning and commit to going out there to give and have influence, those relationships buoy you up and put you in a stronger position to affect even more people. Promotions and money follow. Not because that’s the focus but because resources come to support you as you influence more people.

Fourth is the law of authenticity. The biggest and most valuable gift you can offer is yourself. Every human being craves genuine connections and relationships. The best gift you can offer someone is your authenticity, simply by being yourself rather than pretending to be someone else. No amount of manipulation skills or techniques can be as effective or valuable as your authenticity and sincerity.

Don’t hide who you are because you’re trying to be something else. If you’re deeply religious, be the best version of that you can be. If you’re a woman in construction, be the best woman in construction you can be. If you hold strong convictions about anything, own them authentically while accepting others who think differently. Recently someone told me I’m the most nonjudgmental person they’ve ever met despite having strong religious beliefs. That got to my heart because that’s exactly who I want to be. Someone who holds convictions and simultaneously accepts everyone without judgment.

Fifth is the law of receptivity. To give effectively, you must be open to receive. Giving and receiving are two sides of the same coin. There can be no act of giving without a concurrent act of receiving, just like how you cannot exhale without inhaling. Practice receiving the next time someone pays you a compliment. Simply accept it graciously by saying thank you with a smile.

Here’s what these laws look like in practice:

  • Starting every morning focused on who you’ll serve and how you’ll add value rather than what you’ll get • Approaching proposals by asking what serves the client first, then presenting your value • Building relationships by focusing entirely on others’ interests without keeping score • Being authentically yourself in all situations instead of performing what you think people want • Receiving graciously when people offer help, compliments, or opportunities

These aren’t techniques to manipulate people. They’re disciplines that align your behavior with how value actually gets created in the world.

Why This Mindset Transforms Your Life

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 giving value first creates lasting relationships and sustainable success, not just temporary wins that leave everyone exhausted.

The current condition is that people are selfish by nature. People take by nature. People worry about drama and fight with others by nature. But when you read “The Go-Giver” and gear yourself intentionally toward giving first, when you challenge that old mindset and tell yourself that you have all you need and you’re living your life’s purpose, you can get rid of burdens and chains that have been bogging you down for years.

If there’s anything I want someone to learn from me, it’s to find out what you’re supposed to be doing on this earth and go do it. Find out what that is. If you’re miserable at work, you need to find another job. There’s going to be plenty of money. If you’re miserable in any long-term situation that you’re not obligated to stick out, change it and live a remarkable life. There’s no reason not to live a remarkable life. And you live a remarkable life when you help others live a remarkable life first.

The Challenge: Give First Tomorrow Morning

So here’s my challenge to you. Read “The Go-Giver” this week. It’s a short, easy-to-read fable that brings these five laws to life through story. Then tomorrow morning, before you start your day, commit to one specific act of giving value without expecting anything in return. Help someone solve a problem. Share knowledge that could benefit a competitor. Connect two people who could help each other. Give your full attention to someone who needs it.

Don’t keep score. Don’t calculate return on investment. Don’t wonder what you’ll get back. Just give because you have value to offer and someone needs it. Do this every day for a week and watch what happens to your relationships, your mindset, and your results. The shift from getting to giving transforms everything about how you show up and how people respond to you.

As Zig Ziglar said, “You can have everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want.” That’s not manipulation. That’s the fundamental truth about how value gets created and success gets built. Stop worrying about getting yours. Start focusing on giving value. The rest follows naturally.

On we go.

Frequently Asked Questions

Isn’t focusing on giving just naive in a competitive industry like construction?

The most competitive people I know are go-givers, not go-getters. They win more work because clients trust them. They attract better talent because people want to work with them. They build lasting success because their focus on value creates genuine relationships. Competition rewards value creation more than value extraction.

How do I give without being taken advantage of by people who just take?

Giving doesn’t mean being stupid or letting people exploit you. It means leading with value and focusing on serving others first. If someone consistently takes without reciprocating, that’s data about the relationship, not proof that giving doesn’t work. Give to people who appreciate it and limit exposure to those who don’t.

What if I genuinely can’t afford to give more time or resources right now?

Giving isn’t about sacrifice or depletion. It’s about focusing on creating value in every interaction you’re already having. You don’t need extra time or money to shift from “what can I get” to “how can I help” in your existing relationships and work. The mindset shift costs nothing but changes everything.

How do I measure success if I’m not keeping score of what I’m getting?

Measure impact instead of extraction. How many people are you serving? How well are you serving them? How much value are you creating? Are your relationships deepening? Are people seeking you out? Those are indicators that the go-giver mindset is working, even before financial results show up.

What’s the first step to shifting from go-getter to go-giver?

Start your day by identifying one person you’ll serve today without expectation of return. Focus entirely on adding value to their situation. Do this daily for thirty days and watch how it transforms your mindset, relationships, and results. The shift happens through consistent practice, not overnight conversion.

 

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 Story Brand

Posted on by Danny Jiménez⁩
Read 24 min

Your Customer Is the Hero (Not You)

Here’s the mistake that’s costing you clients and clarity. You’re telling stories where you’re the hero. Your proposals talk about your company, your capabilities, your track record, your systems. Your presentations showcase your accomplishments. Your marketing highlights what makes you great. And while you’re busy being impressive, your customer is wondering what any of this has to do with them and the problems they’re trying to solve.

The truth is that every customer sees themselves as the hero of their own story. They have a mountain to climb, obstacles to overcome, and goals they’re trying to reach. And when you position yourself as the hero, you’re competing with them for the main character role in a story that was never yours to begin with. You’ve confused your role. You’re not the hero. You’re the guide. And until you understand that distinction, your message will continue to get lost.

I learned this from a book called “Building a StoryBrand” by Donald Miller. It completely changed how I think about communication, proposals, training, and every interaction where I’m trying to help someone understand what I offer and why it matters. The framework is simple. The application is profound. And the mistake of ignoring it costs more than most people realize.

The Pain of Confused Messaging

You’ve experienced this from the customer side. Someone pitches you their services, and you sit through thirty minutes of them talking about themselves. How long they’ve been in business. How many projects they’ve completed. How sophisticated their systems are. How impressive their team is. And somewhere around minute twenty, you start wondering when they’re going to talk about you and your actual problems.

That’s what happens when we make ourselves the hero. We talk about our journey, our challenges, our victories. We showcase our credentials and capabilities. And we completely miss the fact that the customer doesn’t care about our story unless it connects directly to theirs. They’re not looking for a hero. They already are the hero. They’re looking for a guide who can help them succeed in their story.

I’ve done this badly countless times. Early in my career, I’d walk into proposals talking about Elevate Construction and what we do and how great our systems are. I’d present our credentials and case studies and methodologies. And I’d watch eyes glaze over because I was making it about me instead of about them. The shift happened when I started positioning the customer as the hero and myself as the guide who helps heroes succeed.

The System Doesn’t Teach Story Structure

Here’s what I want you to understand. Most of us never learned how to communicate using story structure. We learned how to present facts and features and capabilities. We learned how to showcase our qualifications. We learned how to describe what we do. But we never learned how human brains actually process information and make decisions.

Humans are wired for story. Every movie you’ve ever watched, every book you’ve ever read, every compelling message you’ve ever heard follows the same basic structure. There’s a hero who wants something. There’s a problem preventing them from getting it. There’s a guide who shows them the path. There’s a plan that gives them confidence. There’s a call to action that moves them forward. And there’s either success or failure at the end depending on whether they take action.

That structure isn’t arbitrary. It’s how our brains organize information and make sense of the world. And when you communicate using that structure, with the customer positioned correctly as the hero, your message becomes instantly clearer and more compelling. But when you violate that structure by making yourself the hero, you create confusion and your message gets lost.

The construction industry doesn’t teach this. We teach technical skills and project management and safety. But we don’t teach people how to clarify their message so customers understand exactly what you’re offering and why it matters to their specific situation. And that’s the system failure that’s costing opportunities every single day.

The StoryBrand Framework That Clarifies Everything

Let me walk you through the framework that changed how I communicate. It comes from Donald Miller’s book “Building a StoryBrand,” and it’s built on seven core principles that align with how stories actually work and how human brains process information.

First, a character wants something. Your customer is the character. They want to solve a problem, achieve a goal, reach a destination. Maybe they want to deliver a project on time without burning out their team. Maybe they want to develop field leaders who can run jobs independently. Maybe they want to eliminate rework and create predictable flow. The point is to get crystal clear on what your specific customer wants, not what you think customers in general might want.

Second, encounters a problem. Every hero has a villain. The villain doesn’t have to be a person, but it should have personified characteristics. It should be a root source, relatable, singular, and real. For Elevate Construction, the villain is waste and variation and ignorance. Anything that disrespects people and hurts families. Anything that creates chaos instead of flow. I’m not fighting against superintendents or companies. I’m fighting against the systems and patterns that destroy projects and people. That’s the villain in my customers’ stories.

Third, meets a guide. This is where you come in. You’re not the hero. You’re the guide who helps the hero succeed. Think about every story you know. Luke Skywalker had Yoda. Frodo had Gandalf. Every hero needs a guide who’s been where they’re going and knows the path. That’s your role. Position yourself as the experienced guide who understands the hero’s problem and has a plan to solve it.

Fourth, who gives them a plan. Customers trust a guide who has a plan. Not vague promises. Not generic capabilities. A specific, simple, implementable plan that shows them exactly how you’ll help them succeed. This might be a process plan that describes the steps they need to take to work with you. Or a post-purchase plan that shows them how they’ll use what you provide after they buy it. The key is making it tangible and tailored to their specific situation, their culture, their capacity.

Fifth, calls them to action. People will not take action unless they’re challenged to do so. This is critical. You can’t just present your services and hope people figure out the next step. You have to clearly call them to action. Schedule a discovery call. Attend a bootcamp. Implement this system. The call needs to be specific and direct. Think about every movie where the mentor pushes the hero to take the next step. That’s your job.

Sixth, that helps them avoid failure. People are more motivated to avoid loss than to pursue gain. You need to clearly show what failure looks like if they don’t take action. What happens to their project if they continue with current patterns? What happens to their people if they don’t develop better systems? What cost do they pay by staying stuck? This isn’t fear-mongering. This is honest clarity about stakes that matter.

Seventh, and results in success. Every story needs a clear, measurable win at the end. Your customer needs to see what success looks like when they work with you. Not vague improvement. Specific, tangible outcomes they can measure and celebrate. Projects delivered on time without burnout. Field leaders who can run jobs independently. Teams that flow instead of firefight. Make the win crystal clear.

Here’s what this looks like when applied to your work:

  • Proposals that position the customer as the hero solving their specific problem with you as the experienced guide • Presentations that focus on the customer’s journey and challenges rather than your credentials and capabilities
     • Training that treats participants as heroes developing skills to overcome real villains in their work • Marketing that clarifies exactly what problem you solve and what success looks like for people who work with you

This isn’t manipulative storytelling. This is clarifying communication that aligns with how human brains actually process information and make decisions.

Why This Framework Transforms Everything

The day we stop losing sleep over the success of our business and start losing sleep over the success of our customers is the day our business will start growing again. That’s the mindset shift this framework creates. It forces you to get intimately involved in your customer’s success instead of just promoting your own capabilities.

Think about Field Engineer Bootcamp as an example. The field engineer is the hero. Their families and careers are what’s at stake. Wasted time and ignorance and ineffective systems are the villains. We position ourselves as guides who’ve been where they’re going. We give them a clear plan: three sets of survey points and drawings to build two footings in four days. We call them to action repeatedly throughout the experience. We help them avoid the failure of remaining technically unprepared for leadership. And we create a clear, measurable success: they complete the challenge and become different people.

Every day is themed. They know they’re the hero. They have guides helping them succeed. Everything fits into a story structure that makes sense to their brains and creates transformation. That’s not accidental. That’s intentional application of story principles to create clarity and motivation.

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 you’re the hero of your story, and we’re here as experienced guides to help you succeed in ways that protect your people and deliver exceptional results.

I use this framework in proposals, presentations, podcasts, trainings, and every situation where I need people to understand what I offer and why it matters to them specifically. Not because I’m trying to manipulate them but because I genuinely care about their success as the heroes of their own stories. And when you actually, emotionally and intellectually and physically care about what the hero is trying to accomplish, this framework helps you communicate that care with clarity.

The Challenge: Make Your Customer the Hero

So here’s my challenge to you. Read “Building a StoryBrand” by Donald Miller. Download the free resources and worksheets. Apply the framework to one proposal or presentation this week. Position your customer as the hero. Identify their specific villain. Offer yourself as the guide. Give them a clear plan. Call them to action. Show them what failure and success look like.

And most importantly, actually care about their story. Don’t just use this framework as a technique. Use it as a tool to clarify how much you genuinely want them to succeed. Because the best guides aren’t the ones with the cleverest messaging. They’re the ones who lose sleep over whether their heroes are going to make it.

We are all designed for and deserve to live remarkable lives. Putting our services and processes into story structure shows customers how they can be the heroes who ultimately win. And when you help enough heroes succeed, you build something that matters far more than impressive credentials or sophisticated systems. You build trust, loyalty, and transformation.

As Antoine de Saint-Exupéry wrote, “If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.” Don’t just tell customers what you do. Help them see themselves as heroes accomplishing something meaningful, and position yourself as the guide who helps them get there.

On we go.

Frequently Asked Questions

How is making customers the hero different from just good customer service?

Customer service responds to needs. Making customers the hero means understanding their entire story: what they want, what’s blocking them, what success looks like, what failure costs. It’s about positioning everything you offer as tools and guidance that help them succeed in their journey, not just responding when they ask for something.

What if my services or products are genuinely better than competitors?

That’s great, but customers don’t care about your superiority until they understand how it helps them specifically. Lead with their problem and their desired outcome. Then show how your superior capabilities make you the best guide to help them achieve that outcome. Features matter only when connected to their story.

How do I identify the villain in my customer’s story?

Look for the root source of their frustration. It’s not just schedule delays. It’s the waste and chaos that create delays and destroy families. It’s not just poor quality. It’s the rework and blame that disrespect people and damage reputations. The villain should be relatable, singular, and something they genuinely want to defeat.

Can I use this framework for internal communication and training?

Absolutely. Treat your team members as heroes developing skills to overcome real obstacles. Position yourself as a guide with experience and a plan. Call them to action clearly. Show them what success looks like. Story structure works for any communication where you need people to understand something and take action.

What if I’m uncomfortable positioning myself as a guide because I don’t feel expert enough?

Being a guide doesn’t mean being perfect. It means having experience with the journey your customer is starting. You’ve encountered their obstacles before. You’ve learned from mistakes. You have a plan that works. That’s enough to guide someone who hasn’t been where you’ve been, even if you’re still learning yourself.

 

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.

Unconscious Bias

Posted on by Danny Jiménez⁩
Read 22 min

We’re Not Inclusive Enough Yet (And We Don’t Even Know It)

Here’s an uncomfortable truth about construction. We have unconscious biases that we’re completely unaware of. And the most dangerous thing about unconscious bias is that it’s far more prevalent than conscious prejudice and often incompatible with our conscious values. Meaning we could be doing it right now and we don’t even know it.

I’ve been there. I had a severe unconscious bias against men who didn’t work to support their families. If I saw a stay-at-home dad, my automatic assumption was that he was lazy or not providing properly. That bias was completely unconscious until someone pointed it out to me. I would have told you I respected all kinds of family structures. I would have said I wasn’t judgmental. But my automatic thinking revealed a prejudice I didn’t know I had.

That’s the problem with unconscious bias. You think you’re fair. You think you’re respectful. You think you’re creating equal opportunities. And then you realize your automatic assumptions are making decisions before your conscious mind ever gets involved. Those automatic assumptions about age, gender, sexual orientation, religion, weight, tattoos, appearance, they’re shaping who you hire, who you promote, who you trust, and who you dismiss before they ever get a chance.

The Pain of Not Knowing What You Don’t Know

You’ve probably made assumptions this week without realizing it. Someone walked onto your job site, and within three seconds you made a judgment about their competence based on how they looked. Someone spoke in a meeting, and you weighted their opinion differently based on their age or gender or accent. Someone asked for an opportunity, and you had a gut reaction that you couldn’t quite explain but that influenced your decision.

These aren’t moral failures. These are automatic processes that happen in everyone’s brain when we’re multitasking or working under time pressure, which describes most of construction most of the time. Certain scenarios activate unconscious attitudes and beliefs that we’d reject if we were thinking consciously. But in the moment, under pressure, those biases make decisions for us.

I’ve seen people in construction get terminated or suspended for making inappropriate comments. I’ve watched careers damaged because someone revealed biases they didn’t know they had until it was too late. I’ve seen teams torn apart because someone felt excluded or disrespected in ways the offender never intended. And in almost every case, the person who caused the problem would have told you they weren’t biased. They genuinely believed they treated everyone fairly.

That’s the gap. The gap between what we think we believe and what our automatic thinking reveals. And that gap is costing construction more than we realize.

The System Doesn’t Teach Us to See Our Biases

Here’s what I want you to understand. The construction industry doesn’t systematically teach people to recognize unconscious bias. It teaches us technical skills and safety procedures and project management. But it doesn’t teach us to examine our automatic assumptions about people who look different from us, believe different things, or live different lives.

Think about the automatic assumptions that run through construction daily. If someone is older and in a lower position, the assumption is they’re not capable or smart enough or they should have been promoted by now. If someone is overweight, the automatic thought is they must be lazy or sloppy. If someone has extensive tattoos, the gut reaction is they probably got out of jail or they’re rough and unapproachable. If someone is a woman in a leadership position, the unspoken question is whether she’s really qualified or if she’s a diversity hire.

These thoughts happen automatically. And most people would be horrified if you accused them of thinking this way. But unconscious bias isn’t about what we’d say out loud. It’s about the split-second judgments our brains make before we consciously think about them.

I hold my religious beliefs very seriously. My wife and I are what you’d call super churchy. And at the same time, I have complete space for understanding, love, and acceptance of people with different sexual orientations, different beliefs, different life choices. I don’t violate any of my religious beliefs by accepting everybody for who they are. Those things aren’t connected in my mind. I can hold my values and simultaneously celebrate and support people who live differently.

But I’ve seen massive bias and prejudice against sexual orientation in construction. I’ve heard people use offensive terms casually. I’ve watched assumptions that if you’re gay you can’t be the tough guy in construction. I’ve seen people excluded or dismissed based on who they love instead of what they can build. And most of the people doing this would tell you they’re not homophobic. They just have unconscious assumptions they’ve never examined.

What Unconscious Bias Actually Costs Us

Let me be direct about something. Look around at executive leadership in construction. How many women executives do you see? How many executives of different races? How many openly gay executives? You see a bunch of white males. And people are going to stop listening to this podcast right now, but I’m going to say that’s a problem.

If it happened accidentally because we’re in an equal opportunity environment and people just chose not to pursue those roles, then maybe. But I doubt that’s the case. I think the case is that it’s not as easy for people who don’t fit the traditional construction mold to make it to those levels of leadership. And that is a problem. That’s going to hinder our progress in construction. That’s not respecting people. That’s leaving talent and perspective and capability on the table because our unconscious biases filter out people before they get the same chances.

Here’s what this looks like practically. Age bias means assuming older workers in lower positions must not be competent instead of recognizing they might have chosen different priorities or faced different barriers. Weight bias means automatically judging someone’s work ethic based on their body instead of their actual performance. Appearance bias means seeing tattoos or unconventional grooming and making assumptions about professionalism instead of evaluating actual behavior. Gender bias means questioning women’s qualifications or capability more rigorously than men’s.

These biases show up in who gets hired, who gets mentoring, who gets challenging assignments, who gets promoted, who gets listened to in meetings, who gets second chances when they make mistakes. And the cumulative effect is that people who don’t fit the traditional construction profile have to work harder, prove more, and overcome barriers that others never face.

Building Awareness and Creating Change

So what do we do about unconscious bias? First, we get training. We develop sensitivity to the gaps we can’t see without help. We become aware that our automatic thinking might not align with our conscious values. We get open to feedback when someone points out assumptions we’re making.

Second, we look around. If your team looks exactly like you, that’s data. Not necessarily proof of bias, but data worth examining. Are you creating environments where diverse people want to work? Are you giving equal opportunities to people who don’t fit traditional molds? Are you mentoring and developing people who might need extra support because the system hasn’t set them up the way it set you up?

Third, we celebrate when protected classes win. When women get promoted, be ecstatic about it. When minorities advance, support that loudly. When people who don’t fit traditional construction stereotypes succeed, champion that success. Because it doesn’t cost you anything. There’s plenty of room for all of us. Helping everyone up the ladder doesn’t pull you down. It makes the whole industry stronger.

Here’s what this looks like in practice:

  • Examining your automatic reactions when you first meet someone who looks different from you or your team • Questioning whether you’re holding some people to higher standards of proof before trusting their competence • Creating systems that reduce bias in hiring and promotion by focusing on demonstrated skills rather than gut feelings • Seeking out diverse perspectives actively instead of waiting for them to appear naturally in homogeneous environments

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 respecting people means examining our unconscious assumptions and creating equal opportunities for everyone to reach their potential, regardless of how they look or where they come from.

The bottom line is we just don’t recognize when unconscious bias is happening. Certain scenarios activate it, especially when we’re multitasking or working under time pressure, which is most of construction most of the time. The key is developing sensitivity to it. Seeing that there’s a gap between our conscious values and our automatic thinking. Being aware. Being open. Getting training.

The Challenge: Look for Your Blind Spots

So here’s my challenge to you. Maybe you haven’t done anything wrong. Maybe you look around and your team looks exactly like you, and you made all the right decisions and didn’t leave anyone out. That’s fine. But if you did, get some training. Look around and see where you can fill gaps with people who are diverse. Create awareness that diversity is helpful and that unconscious bias might be filtering out talent you never get to see.

It doesn’t cost us anything to help everyone up the ladder, specifically those who haven’t always had the same opportunities. It doesn’t cost us anything. But if we don’t do it, it will cost us everything. It will cost our effectiveness, our productivity, our happiness, our ability to respect people properly, our teams’ satisfaction at home. It’ll cost us everything if we don’t get this fixed.

When we see protected classes winning, we should celebrate. When we see women being promoted, we should be ecstatic. We should be comfortable that we have nothing to fear. There’s plenty of room for all of us. We should celebrate when everybody has the same opportunities that you do. That’s when we know we’ve moved past unconscious bias into genuine respect for people.

As Nelson Mandela wrote in his autobiography, “I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it.” Having unconscious bias doesn’t make you a bad person. Refusing to examine it and change it does. Be courageous enough to look at your blind spots and create opportunities for people who’ve been filtered out by biases you didn’t know you had.

On we go.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I know if I have unconscious bias if it’s unconscious?

You probably do because everyone does. The brain makes automatic judgments based on patterns it’s learned throughout life. The question isn’t whether you have bias but whether you’re willing to examine your automatic reactions. Notice your gut feelings when you meet people who look different from you or your team. Question whether those feelings reflect reality or learned assumptions.

What if I’m worried about being accused of bias when I make legitimate decisions?

Focus on creating systems that reduce opportunities for bias to influence decisions. Use structured interviews with consistent questions. Evaluate performance based on specific measurable outcomes rather than gut feelings. Document your reasoning for decisions. When decisions are based on demonstrated skills and clear criteria, you have evidence that bias didn’t drive them.

How do I celebrate diversity without tokenizing people or making them feel singled out?

The key is celebrating genuine achievement and creating equal opportunity, not just highlighting demographic characteristics. Support people’s advancement because they earned it and because diverse teams perform better. Create environments where everyone can succeed rather than just praising individuals for being different.

What if my team or company culture doesn’t prioritize diversity and inclusion?

Then you have an opportunity to lead by example in your sphere of influence. Examine your own biases. Make inclusive choices in who you hire, mentor, and support. Speak up when you see unfair treatment. Culture changes when enough individuals decide to operate by higher standards regardless of what everyone else is doing.

How do I handle situations where someone else’s bias is creating problems on my team?

Address it directly and respectfully. Point out the specific behavior or comment that’s problematic without attacking the person’s character. Explain the impact on team members and productivity. Provide training or resources to help them recognize and change the pattern. If it continues, escalate appropriately to protect everyone on your team.

 

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.

How to Build a Takt Culture in Construction: A Practical Guide for Leaders

Posted on by Danny Jiménez⁩
Read 14 min

How to Build a Takt Culture in Construction (A Practical Guide for Leaders)

Most companies try to implement Takt planning. That’s the first mistake. You don’t implement Takt. You build a Takt culture inside your construction company. There’s a massive difference.

Takt planning in construction is not a scheduling format. It is not just colored bars in Excel. It is not a trend layered on top of CPM. Takt is a cultural decision about workflow, leadership behavior, and respect for people. If you want to successfully implement Takt planning across projects, you must build a Takt culture intentionally. Here’s how.

What Is a Takt Culture in Construction?

A Takt culture is an environment where workflow is predictable, production is leveled, and trade partners are protected from chaos. In a true Takt construction system, work flows in a reliable rhythm, trades move zone by zone without stacking, leaders remove constraints daily, stability is valued over speed, and respect for people drives production. Takt planning creates the schedule. Takt culture protects the flow. Without culture, your Takt schedule will collapse under pressure.

Step One: Leadership Must Commit to Takt Planning

You cannot build a Takt culture from the scheduling department. It must start with executive leadership, project executives, and field leaders. If leadership still rewards firefighting, schedule compression, and late-night heroics, Takt planning will fail.

A Takt culture requires leaders to decide: We value workflow over busyness. We value stability over pressure. We protect trade flow instead of stacking trades. If leadership does not model this behavior, teams will revert to CPM habits. Takt planning in construction only works when leaders protect the rhythm.

Step Two: Train the Field on Takt Planning Principles

Takt lives in the field not in the office. If superintendents and foremen do not understand construction zones, Takt time, production leveling, trade wagons, throughput time, and workable backlog, then you do not have Takt implementation. You have a spreadsheet.

Walk the jobsite and coach leaders to see flow: Is the zone ready? Is the sequence protected? Is the next trade enabled? Are constraints cleared before the Takt turnover? When field leaders start thinking in workflow language, culture begins to shift.

Step Three: Standardize Your Takt Planning Process Across Projects

You cannot build culture on improvisation. To successfully implement Takt planning in construction, your company needs a repeatable system. Divide the project into balanced zones. Collaboratively sequence trade partners. Level durations to create production balance. Build trade wagons. Establish a consistent Takt time. Create a visible Takt control board. Conduct daily Takt meetings. When every project follows the same workflow system, Takt becomes the company standard not a pilot experiment. Standardization creates cultural stability.

Step Four: Protect Construction Workflow Daily

Most companies build a beautiful Takt schedule. Then they abandon it at the first sign of pressure. A true Takt culture means protecting workflow every day. When a delay occurs, do not stack trades. Do not overload zones. Do not abandon the sequence. Swarm constraints immediately. Adjust intelligently within the system. When trade partners see that you protect workflow, trust increases dramatically. And trust increases production.

Step Five: Measure Workflow Performance (Not Just Schedule Variance)

If your KPIs only track schedule percent complete, cost variance, and activity start/finish dates, you are reinforcing CPM thinking. A Takt culture measures planned versus actual Takt completion, zone readiness, workable backlog, constraint removal timing, and PPC tied to flow stability. What you measure reinforces what you value. If you measure workflow reliability, your teams will protect workflow reliability.

Step Six: Reward Stability Instead of Heroic Recovery

If you want to build a Takt culture in construction, you must change what gets celebrated. Stop praising schedule compression. Stop rewarding chaos recovery. Start celebrating perfect zone handoffs, zero trade stacking, reliable wagon movement, and constraint-free starts. When leaders publicly reinforce stability, behavior changes quickly. People align with what earns recognition.

Step Seven: Involve Trade Partners Early

Takt planning improves trade performance but only if trades are involved early. Bring trade partners into zone creation, duration leveling, manpower discussions, and sequence planning. Show them how Takt reduces overcrowding and manpower spikes. When trades experience stable workflow, they become your strongest advocates. When trade partners request Takt on future projects, you know culture is forming.

Step Eight: Be Patient (Cultural Change Takes Repetition)

Building a Takt culture inside your construction company will not happen in one project. It takes repetition, coaching, leadership modeling, standard systems, and correction without blame. Over time, your company stops asking, “How fast can we go?” And starts asking, “How stable is our workflow?” That is when Takt becomes identity.

Here’s what building a Takt culture requires:

  • Leadership commitment and modeling: Executive leadership, project executives, and field leaders must decide to value workflow over busyness, stability over pressure, and protect trade flow instead of stacking trades. Leaders must model this behavior daily or teams revert to CPM habits.
  • Field training on workflow language: Superintendents and foremen must understand construction zones, Takt time, production leveling, trade wagons, throughput time, and workable backlog. Walk the jobsite and coach leaders to see flow. When field leaders think in workflow language, culture shifts.
  • Standardization across all projects: Every project follows the same workflow system: balanced zones, collaborative sequencing, leveled durations, trade wagons, consistent Takt time, visible control board, daily Takt meetings. Standardization creates cultural stability and makes Takt the company standard.

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 Takt Becomes Culture?

When Takt planning becomes cultural, projects finish with less chaos, trade manpower stabilizes, superintendents become flow managers, firefighting decreases, and stress drops across the jobsite. But most importantly, respect for people becomes operational. Takt is not rectangles on a schedule. It is a system that allows trades to perform at their best without chaos. That is culture.

A Challenge for Construction Leaders

Here’s what I want you to do this week. If you want to build a Takt culture, start with leadership commitment. Decide: We value workflow over busyness. We protect trade flow instead of stacking trades. Then train the field on workflow language. Walk the jobsite. Coach leaders to see flow. Standardize your Takt process across projects. Protect workflow daily. Measure workflow performance. Reward stability instead of heroic recovery. Involve trade partners early. Be patient cultural change takes repetition.

You cannot mandate a Takt culture. You must model it. Protect it. Measure it. Reward it. Repeat it. When rhythm becomes identity, your construction company changes permanently. And when your company changes, your projects change. As we say at Elevate, build a Takt culture, not just Takt schedules. Leadership commits, field trains, workflow protects daily, stability rewards. Rhythm becomes identity.

On we go.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Takt planning in construction?

Takt planning is a scheduling method that creates a consistent rhythm of work by dividing projects into zones and moving trades through those zones at a fixed pace. Takt creates workflow stability and production leveling.

How is Takt different from CPM scheduling?

CPM focuses on activity sequencing and critical path logic. Takt focuses on workflow stability, production leveling, and predictable trade movement. CPM optimizes speed. Takt optimizes rhythm and respect for people.

Why does Takt planning fail in some companies?

Takt fails when companies treat it as a scheduling template instead of a cultural shift. Without leadership commitment and daily workflow protection, Takt plans collapse under pressure. You need culture, not just schedules.

How long does it take to build a Takt culture?

It typically takes multiple projects and consistent leadership reinforcement to fully establish a Takt culture across an organization. Cultural change takes repetition, coaching, and correction without blame.

What should leaders measure to build a Takt culture?

Planned versus actual Takt completion, zone readiness, workable backlog, constraint removal timing, PPC tied to flow stability. What you measure reinforces what you value. Measure workflow reliability to protect workflow reliability.

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

Calumet “K” – Chapter 5, Part 1 – BONUS

Posted on by Danny Jiménez⁩
Read 21 min

When Waiting for Problems Becomes the Problem

Here’s the deal. When Bannon arrived at the job site and asked Peterson what he’d done to prepare for the incoming lumber, Peterson said something that should make every superintendent wince: “We’ll be ready for it as soon as it gets here.” That’s not preparation. That’s hope disguised as a plan. And hope has never built a single project on time.

Most of us have been Peterson at some point in our careers. We tell ourselves the materials will show up when they’re supposed to. The trades will figure it out. The railroad won’t be a problem. And then one day we’re standing in the middle of a disaster we could have prevented if we’d just looked three moves ahead instead of staring at today’s work.

The Pain You Know Too Well

You’ve felt this before. The schedule looked fine two months ago, and then suddenly you’re sixty days out and everything’s collapsing. The owner adds changes nobody scoped properly. Trades are stacking on top of each other because sequencing fell apart. Materials show up with nowhere to stage them. And now your foremen are making reactive decisions because there is no plan anymore.

This is the pattern that destroys projects and people. Small unforced errors compound over time because nobody was watching three weeks ahead. Nobody was building relationships before they needed them. Nobody was staging the work before the materials arrived. Everyone was waiting for problems to show up instead of anticipating them when there was still time to solve them cleanly.

I’ve walked projects where five trades were colliding in the same zone and nobody could explain how it happened. The answer is always the same: the system failed to create visibility, and leadership failed to look ahead. People weren’t lazy or incompetent. They just didn’t know what they didn’t know, and nobody taught them how to be productively paranoid.

The System Didn’t Teach Them to Think Three Moves Ahead

Here’s what I want you to understand about Peterson. He wasn’t a bad superintendent. The problem was that the system never taught Peterson to anticipate. Nobody showed him how to process future problems while everyone else was still focused on today. He was doing exactly what most construction culture rewards: staying busy, reacting to issues, and hoping things work out.

Bannon arrived and immediately started calculating the space available for incoming lumber. He was thinking about how to pile different sizes so each would be ready at the hands of the carpenters when the morning whistle blew. He was asking about the railroad relationship before it became a crisis. He was processing political dynamics and stakeholder management while Peterson was just waiting for lumber to arrive.

That’s not natural talent. That’s learned behavior. Bannon had developed what I call productive paranoia. He was constantly scanning for what could go wrong, not because he was anxious or pessimistic, but because he understood that problems are easier to solve before they become emergencies. And he knew that protecting his people meant making strategic moves early when he still had options, not desperate moves late when all the good choices were gone.

What Bannon Saw That Everyone Else Missed

When Bannon asked Peterson about the railroad, Peterson said they hadn’t had much trouble. That answer should terrify you. It means Peterson saw a potential stakeholder issue and decided it wasn’t worth thinking about because it hadn’t become a crisis yet. Meanwhile, Bannon was already processing how to handle the political situation when two hundred thousand feet of lumber needed to cross those tracks.

Watch what happens when the railroad representative shows up. Bannon doesn’t yell or throw his hard hat. He’s firm, confident, and diplomatic. He tells his foreman to get the men back on the work. Then he turns to the railroad representative with a stern but respectful tone and says he expects the railroad won’t be blocked or delayed in any way. The representative leaves satisfied because Bannon showed he cared about the railroad’s concerns without compromising his project’s needs.

This is the interpersonal skill set that separates good superintendents from great ones. Technical competence isn’t enough. You have to navigate political situations, manage stakeholder relationships, and solve problems without creating new enemies. Bannon could have made that railroad representative his adversary. Instead, he made him someone who felt respected and heard.

Why Early Strategic Moves Save Your People

General Patton had a conversation with Bradley during World War II about casualties. Bradley was frustrated about losses, and Patton asked him to consider how many more casualties they would have had if they were still slugging through the mud instead of moving quickly. The point was brutal but necessary: sometimes taking calculated action early prevents catastrophic damage later.

The same principle governs construction projects. If we can make strategic moves in the first part of the job that don’t require workers to work too fast, too long, or unsafely, we should make those moves. Maybe it costs money to add shifts or bring in additional crews. Maybe it requires creative thinking to solve a permitting issue before it becomes urgent. These moves look like overkill when the schedule still shows green. But there will come a time at the end of the project when you’re in a crash landing and people will be unsafe, the work will be unclean and unorganized, and you won’t have any good options left.

The reason this matters so deeply is because we’re not just managing schedules. We’re protecting people. We’re protecting families. Every time we prevent a crash landing through early strategic action, we’re preventing the burnout and safety compromises and relationship damage that comes when projects spiral. That’s not soft leadership. That’s production strategy. That’s respect for people translated into operational decisions.

Teaching Your Team to Be Productively Paranoid

Productive paranoia isn’t something you’re born with. It’s a discipline you develop through practice and intentional coaching. When I’m walking to a job site with a foreman or assistant superintendent, I’m not just looking at today’s work. I’m narrating what I’m seeing three weeks out. I’m asking questions like, “That steel delivery is scheduled for two weeks from now, but I don’t see the crane access cleared yet. What happens if it shows up and we’re not ready?”

Over time, this becomes second nature. Your team starts thinking about work that’s coming instead of just work that’s here. They start asking what could go wrong before it does. They start building relationships with stakeholders before they need favors. And suddenly you have a field leadership team that prevents crises instead of just responding to them.

Here’s what productive paranoia looks like in practice. These are the quiet disciplines that prevent loud emergencies on Monday morning:

  •  Scanning three weeks ahead every Monday and asking what could derail the schedule before it’s urgent 
  •  Building relationships with inspectors, utility companies, and stakeholders before you need approvals
  •   Staging materials and preparing work areas before deliveries arrive instead of scrambling when trucks show up
  •   Processing crew capacity and trade availability for next month instead of assuming everything will work out

These habits don’t feel urgent when you’re doing them. That’s exactly why they work. You’re solving problems when solving them is still easy, not when it requires heroics and overtime and safety compromises.

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 want to protect their people while delivering exceptional results, and we teach the practical disciplines that turn reactive leaders into strategic ones.

The other thing Bannon demonstrated was hands-on knowledge of the work. The book describes how he knew from long experience how to pile different lumber sizes so each would be ready when needed. He was out there giving a hand here, an order there, always good-humored though brisk, and always inspiring the crew with his own activity. He wasn’t hiding in the trailer. He was leading from the front.

This speaks to why I love self-perform work and why I encourage people to come up through craft positions or field engineer roles. When you’ve built with your hands, you understand what your crews are facing. You know what good sequencing looks like. You know the difference between busyness and flow. That knowledge isn’t optional for great superintendents. It’s foundational.

Building Better Standards While Learning from the Past

I need to address something about the book we’re discussing. “The Calumet K” was written in 1901, and there’s a section where the superintendent says they can’t have any women on the job. That language and attitude are unacceptable by today’s standards. It costs us nothing to support women and minorities in construction. Nothing. When I see a woman superintendent or project manager succeeding, I have genuine joy because I know that diversity makes our teams statistically more likely to win and do well.

Any time you have diversity on your teams, you have a higher statistical chance of success. That’s not political correctness. That’s data. We should all be acting appropriately one hundred percent of the time, creating environments where even children could be on the project site. Good language, respectful behavior, no inappropriate conduct, and genuine support for everyone who wants to build a career in this industry. That’s not soft. That’s smart business and basic human decency.

The Challenge: Make Your Strategic Moves Now

So here’s my challenge to you. What’s the strategic move you’ve been avoiding because you’re not in crisis mode yet? What’s the problem you can see coming but you’ve been telling yourself you’ll deal with it later? What’s the stakeholder relationship you need to build before you need it?

Don’t wait for the crash landing. Make your moves now, while you have options. Be productively paranoid. Anticipate problems. Protect your people by making the hard decisions early, when making them is still a choice instead of a desperate reaction. As W. Edwards Deming said, “It is not enough to do your best; you must know what to do, and then do your best.” Knowing what to do means seeing problems before they arrive and solving them before they become crises.

On we go.

Frequently Asked Questions

What’s the difference between productive paranoia and just worrying about everything?

Productive paranoia is disciplined anticipation with specific action attached. You’re dedicating time to look three weeks ahead, identify potential roadblocks, and assign someone to solve each one before it becomes urgent. Worry paralyzes you, while productive paranoia creates a checklist of preventive moves and executes them systematically.

How do I convince leadership to invest in early strategic moves when we’re not behind yet?

Frame it as risk mitigation with specific dollar amounts. Calculate the cost of a crash landing including overtime, rework, safety incidents, and burned-out workers. Then compare that to the cost of adding a shift now or staging materials better. Track outcomes and show leadership the disasters you prevented.

What if my team doesn’t have experience to anticipate problems like experienced builders do?

Then teach them by modeling it every day. Narrate your thinking when you walk the job together. Ask them to present a three-week look-ahead every Monday that includes potential problems and mitigation strategies. Over time this becomes second nature.

How do I balance productive paranoia with trusting my team without micromanaging?

Productive paranoia targets systems and processes, not individual people. You’re verifying that the system for tracking deliveries exists and is being followed, not checking whether a specific person did a specific task. When you find a missing system, create it, train people on it, and trust the system.

What are the most common warning signs a project is heading for a late-stage crash landing?

Watch for small delays that aren’t being recovered, deferred decisions like open RFIs, relationship friction being ignored, material long-lead items that haven’t been confirmed, and crew capacity assumptions that haven’t been verified. Any of these in combination means make strategic moves immediately.

 

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.

Final Thoughts on FEBC

Posted on by Danny Jiménez⁩
Read 22 min

The Missing Step That Creates Incomplete Superintendents

Here’s the uncomfortable truth about how we develop construction leaders. We take talented people, promote them quickly through the ranks, and make them superintendents based on their organizational skills and leadership potential. And then we wonder why they struggle to earn respect from trades, miss critical constructability issues in the drawings, and can’t solve problems that require deep understanding of how things actually get built.

The system skips the builder step. We go straight from foreman or project engineer to superintendent without ever teaching people to think like builders. Without ever forcing them to connect primary control to secondary control to AutoCAD to Revit to lift drawings to actual construction layout. Without ever making them visualize how components fit together before they exist. Without ever putting them through the grinding, detailed, technical work that teaches you what’s possible and what’s fantasy.

I just finished the second half of field engineer boot camp, and I’m exhausted. Fifteen to seventeen hour days running an intensive program that transforms people. And what I witnessed over those four days confirmed something I’ve believed for years: the field engineer position isn’t about doing layout or creating lift drawings. It’s about training future superintendents who bring builder experience into leadership roles. And our industry desperately needs more of them.

The Pain of Leadership Without Builder Experience

You’ve seen this superintendent. Smart person. Good organizer. Natural leader. But when the trades ask technical questions about how something goes together, there’s a pause. A hesitation. A need to check with someone else. And slowly, over time, the trades stop asking that superintendent and start going around them to find people who actually understand the work.

This isn’t a character failure. It’s a system failure. We promote people into superintendent positions without requiring them to become builders first. We assume that organizational skills and leadership ability are enough. And they’re not. Because respect on a construction site isn’t given to titles. It’s earned through demonstrated competence. Through knowing the work intimately enough that when you say something is possible or impossible, people trust you without question.

At boot camp, we give participants garbage drawings. The civil drawings have problems with centerlines of roads that don’t relate properly to property lines that don’t relate properly to grid lines. We give them two or three survey points and challenge them to build two footings accurately by the end of day four. And we watch normal everyday people, workers and foremen and college graduates, do complicated engineering math. Figure out bearings and azimuths. Calculate inverse and latitude and departure. Use AutoCAD to best fit their control points. Lay out building components with precision.

Why do we put them through this? Because superintendents who’ve never done this work can’t lead people who do it every day. They can’t troubleshoot problems. They can’t catch errors before they become disasters. They can’t earn the trust that comes from shared struggle and demonstrated mastery.

The System Teaches Disconnection, Not Connection

One of the most damaging things about how we train people in construction mirrors what happens in traditional education systems. We teach disconnected subjects. One hour of surveying. Another hour of AutoCAD. Another hour of reading drawings. Another hour of scheduling. And we never connect the dots. We never show people how primary control connects to secondary control connects to building layout connects to actual construction.

At boot camp, we teach the connection of everything. Day two is when participants get their drawings and survey points. They have to figure out the relationship of two footings to grid lines and the relationship of grid lines to a coordinate system. It’s mentally taxing beyond belief. But it’s also the moment when everything starts connecting. When they realize that surveying isn’t just about numbers, it’s about establishing the foundation for every single thing that gets built. When they understand that AutoCAD isn’t just drafting software, it’s the tool that analyzes control and identifies problems before you ever step into the field.

Day three is when they have to find their primary control points, traverse their primary control, analyze that system, best fit their points within AutoCAD, and then go lay out their footings while simultaneously digging and setting up intersecting baselines. The teams that don’t communicate frequently and often start to fail and fall behind. This is when they struggle with prism constants and total station errors and layout precision. And this is when they learn that construction isn’t a series of disconnected tasks. It’s an integrated system where everything affects everything else.

One moment stands out from every boot camp. We schedule concrete delivery for their footing placements, and they’re always an hour and a half to two hours behind when it arrives. We wouldn’t do that in real life because rushing people creates mistakes. But in boot camp, it provides an experience that shows what rushing does, how people perform under stress, and the critical importance of double-checking before you commit to permanent work. They learn viscerally what happens when you skip steps or cut corners or assume you got it right without verifying.

Why Field Engineers Are the Key to Better Superintendents

Let me say something clearly that might surprise some people. The only reason we need field engineers in our industry is to train future superintendents. Not for layout, though we need that work done. Not for lift drawings, though those matter. The only reason the construction industry needs field engineers is to make and design and create and structure and format and develop superintendents who are builders before they become leaders.

The field engineer position is where you learn to read plans like an expert. Where you piece things together visually in your mind before they exist physically. Where you write RFIs that solve problems instead of just asking questions. Where you review submittals with an eye for constructability. Where you communicate in the field with precision and clarity. Where you do construction layout and control and understand the entire chain from survey points to finished building components.

This is the builder experience. And if you skip this experience to go straight to superintendent, you’re going straight to the leader and organizer and planner role without bringing builder knowledge with you. What we need is superintendents who are planners and organizers and leaders and builders together from experience.

Here’s what this development path looks like in practice:

  • Field engineer position for one to three years learning technical details, layout, drawing coordination, and problem-solving • Assistant superintendent position applying builder knowledge while learning project management and leadership • Superintendent position leading projects with credibility earned through demonstrated technical mastery • Senior leadership positions with deep understanding of what’s realistic versus what’s fantasy in the field

This isn’t just one company’s preference. This is the pattern that creates the most effective construction leaders. And yet most companies skip the field engineer step entirely, promoting talented people directly into leadership roles without giving them the builder foundation they need.

The Transformation That Happens When People Connect the Dots

On day four of boot camp, something shifts. After three days of struggle and stress and problem-solving, participants start to see themselves differently. The reflection sessions become emotional. People share stories. They cry. They talk about how this experience changed their perspective on their careers, their families, their lives.

We sing a song from The Greatest Showman called “From Now On” at the end of graduation. There’s not a dry eye in the room. Some people say this is the single most impactful event of their entire lives. They say it changed them. Made them better husbands, better fathers, better workers, better versions of themselves. It becomes a trigger for excellence. An invitation to close the gap between where they are and where they want to be.

Why does this happen? Because for four days, they experienced connection instead of disconnection. They saw how everything fits together. They struggled through problems that seemed impossible and discovered they were capable of more than they believed. They relied on teammates and learned to communicate under pressure. They made mistakes and fixed them and learned that rework is more expensive than doing it right the first 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 developing complete leaders requires teaching them to be builders first, not just promoting them based on leadership potential alone.

The environment at boot camp reinforces this transformation. We create warmth and cohesion with Christmas lights and decorations and campfires. We start every morning with meditation and reflection. We end every evening with personal development and what we call leader press conferences. We make it an experience that people remember not just intellectually but emotionally. Because transformation happens when you engage the whole person, not just their technical skills.

The Challenge for Our Industry

So here’s what I’m asking you to consider. If you’re a company owner or business leader or training manager, strongly consider establishing a field engineer position with proper training. Get field engineers paid for in your general conditions and cost of work. Create a development path that requires people to become builders before they become superintendents.

If you’re a young person trying to figure out your career path, don’t skip the builder step. Even if you could get promoted directly to superintendent, resist that temptation. Spend time as a field engineer. Learn the technical details. Earn the credibility that comes from doing the hard work of figuring out how things actually get built. You’ll be a better leader for it.

And if you’re a superintendent who never had the field engineer experience, it’s not too late. Find ways to dive back into the technical work. Shadow your field engineers. Learn AutoCAD and Revit if you don’t know them. Get out there with the total station and learn layout. Fill the gaps in your knowledge so you can lead with confidence that comes from competence, not just authority.

The field engineer position is the Rosetta Stone between the builders of old and what we’re training our builders to be today. It’s how we preserve back-to-basics technologies and skills while developing leaders who can navigate modern complexity. As Benjamin Franklin said, “Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.” Field engineering involves people in the complete process of construction. That’s why it creates better superintendents.

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 the person’s learning pace. The goal isn’t a specific timeline but ensuring they’ve developed builder competence across surveying, layout, drawing coordination, and problem-solving. When trades ask them technical questions and they can answer with confidence, they’re ready.

What if my company can’t afford dedicated field engineers?

Then you’re probably paying for it in other ways through missed issues, rework, and superintendents who lack technical credibility. The field engineer position should be built into general conditions and cost of work. It’s not an optional luxury but an investment in developing complete leaders.

Can someone become a good superintendent without field engineer experience?

They can become an adequate superintendent with strong organizational skills. But they’ll always have gaps in technical knowledge and credibility with trades. The superintendents who command the most respect are almost always the ones who came up through technical roles where they proved their builder competence first.

What’s the difference between a field engineer and a project engineer?

Field engineers focus on technical work: surveying, layout, coordination, constructability. Project engineers focus on administrative work: submittals, RFIs, scheduling, documentation. Both are valuable, but field engineering specifically develops the builder skills that create effective superintendents. Many companies combine these roles, which can work if the technical focus isn’t lost.

What makes boot camp different from regular field engineer training?

Boot camp compresses months of learning into four intense days by teaching connection instead of disconnection. Participants see how primary control connects to layout connects to actual construction. They experience the entire process under time pressure with real consequences for mistakes. The emotional intensity and team struggle create transformation that normal training doesn’t achieve.

 

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.

Show Me!

Posted on by Danny Jiménez⁩
Read 21 min

 Show Me That People Are Your Most Valuable Asset

Dr. Steve Grennan challenged me the other day with three words that cut straight to the heart of construction leadership: “Show me.” He said there are a lot of people out there who claim that people are their biggest asset, but then they don’t do anything about it. They say the words. They put it in their mission statement. They mention it at company meetings. And then they ask workers to sacrifice their families for projects, work seven days a week for customers, and ruin their health for deadlines.

Show me that people are your most valuable asset. Don’t tell me. Show me. This isn’t a lecture. This is a lamentation. This is me connecting with you about something that’s been on my heart for a long time, because I know you care about people. And I know that most of us are working in systems that teach us the wrong priorities without even realizing it.

The Pain of Expendable People

Here’s what I see happening across our industry. Leaders say people are their most valuable asset while simultaneously treating them as expendable resources. When a decision comes down to taking care of the owner or taking care of an employee, the employee automatically becomes second class. When there’s a mean customer or a job running families into the ground or a crash landing that requires weekend work, we pull people away from their families and tell ourselves it’s necessary.

I’ve worked with people where the customer is number one. Where the business is number one. Where money is number one. And in those situations, people will always be expendable. They will always come last. It’s always going to be the busiest day, the toughest time right now, just one more Saturday, one more night, just this difficult customer, just this critical deadline. It’s always going to be something. And then we look back and realize we’ve done something temporary and ruined something eternal. Our marriages. Our children. Our relationships. Our health. Our perspective.

The System Teaches Us the Wrong Priorities

Here’s what I want you to understand. The construction industry doesn’t teach us to protect people first. It teaches us that the project comes first, the customer comes first, the schedule comes first, the budget comes first. And people? People are the variable we adjust when everything else is fixed.

That’s the system failure. Not that we don’t care about people, but that we’ve been trained to believe sacrificing them is normal. Necessary. Part of the job. The cost of doing business. And we accept it because everyone else accepts it, and we tell ourselves there’s no other way.

But there are ways to run projects right. There are ways to run companies right. Through personal organization, through Lean systems, through proper planning and production management, we know how to protect people while delivering exceptional work. The question is whether we’re willing to prioritize it.

I recently got a church call that’s pretty strenuous. My church leader asked me who the most important person in my church unit was. I said it’s my wife, it’s my family. Because if I go do this calling temporarily and in the meantime ruin something that’s eternal, then I have my perspective way off. He told me I got it right. My wife is the most important person to me right now. That same principle applies to construction leadership. If we build projects temporarily and in the meantime ruin families that are eternal, we have our perspective way off.

Who’s There When Everything Comes Down to the Wire

Think about this seriously. When you’re in the hospital, whether you’re dying or just getting old or recovering from a heart attack, and you’re no longer able to receive significance from what you do at work, who is going to be there by your side? Who is going to help you? Who are you going to be connected enough with that they can see you through?

Will the building be there for you? Will the company be there for you? Will the owner or architect or engineer be there for you? The answer is no. We work to live. We do not live to work.

If people are working too many hours because of a need for significance, or because they just don’t know how to do it any better, that’s an opportunity for change. And my point is that it will work if our most valuable asset truly is people. But if somebody says that and doesn’t do it, that does us no good.

What “Show Me” Actually Looks Like

So here’s what Dr. Grennan’s challenge means in practice. Show me that you’re doing personal development training. Show me that you’re doing technical training. Show me that you’re taking care of people’s bodies and mental health. Show me that when a decision comes down to taking care of the owner versus taking care of one of your employees, you don’t just automatically default to making the employee expendable.

Show me that on your leader’s standard work, you have times where you personally connect with people. Show me that you’re going out to lunch with them. Show me that you’re mentoring people and connecting with them on a personal basis. Show me that you know their families. Show me that they’re truly connected.

Here’s what this looks like on Monday morning:

  • Time blocked in your calendar for one-on-one conversations with your team, not just task reviews 

  •  Training investments in your budget, not just equipment and software 

  • Projects designed with reasonable hours built in, not heroic overtime assumptions 

  •  Decisions that protect family time even when customers ask for weekend work

If we ever find ourselves not taking care of people, not doing training, not doing personal development, not doing one-on-one, not carving out time in our leader’s standard work to be with people, that’s an opportunity to improve. Everything we do should be through people, for people, because of people, and with a wonderful team. That’s when it gets remarkable.

The False Concept of Company Loyalty

Let me say something directly to those of you stuck in situations that are destroying you. There’s no such thing as an employee doing a multi-billion dollar company a favor. There’s no such thing as being loyal to a company over your family. It doesn’t exist. It’s a false concept.

Loyalty is loyalty to doing what you’re paid to do. Loyalty is being honest in your day’s work. Loyalty has nothing to do with sacrificing your family for a corporation. You are loyal to your family. You are loyal to your spouse. You are loyal to your children. You are loyal to your health. You are loyal to yourself. You are not ever, under any circumstances, loyal to a company above these things.

If you’re stuck in a position you hate, stuck on a job that’s running your family into the ground, stuck with people who don’t care about people, you need to understand something clearly. You get paid to do good work. If that company is not doing good work and not taking care of people and not being safe, then you as an employee fire them. You get rid of them. You are not a good enough company to employ me, because I have an obligation to be a guardian of my family, my health, my heart.

I hear all the time, “I can’t leave the team because I’m loyal. I don’t like my company. I’m miserable, but I can’t leave.” Or “My company asked me to do this favor, so for two years I’m going to work seven days a week and my family understands.” That’s the false pretense that will leave you with a divorce, delinquent children, a heart attack, and a life unfulfilled.

Building Systems That Protect People

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 protecting people isn’t soft leadership. It’s production strategy. It’s respect for people translated into operational decisions.

There are people out there who just want the technical skills. They just want the business results. They just want the self-adulation and significance. They want to prove something to themselves or their parents by leading big jobs or building businesses. And at the end of the day, they just don’t care about people.

But I’m talking to you because I know you do care about people. My superpower is bringing out the best in others. And I’m telling us, telling me, telling everybody, that we have to make sure everything we do protects people first. Not just in words. In actions.

The Challenge: Prove It

So here’s my challenge to you. If you or your company or your department says that people are your most valuable asset, show me. Show me in your calendar. Show me in your budget. Show me your decisions. Show me your culture. Show me when the owner asks for weekend work and you protect your team’s family time. Show me when a difficult customer demands sacrifice and you refuse to make your people expendable.

Don’t just say it. Prove it. Because at the end of the day, when everything comes down to the wire, the company is going to make millions of dollars and you’re going to walk away with whatever you invested in. Make sure you’re investing in what’s eternal, not just what’s temporary.

As the Stoic philosopher Seneca wrote, “It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it.” Don’t waste your life on false loyalty to companies that don’t protect people. Don’t waste your team’s lives asking them to sacrifice families for projects. Show me that people truly are your most valuable asset.

On we go.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I balance taking care of people with meeting project deadlines and customer demands?

Through proper planning, Takt production, and Lean systems, you can meet commitments without sacrificing people. The question isn’t whether it’s possible but whether you’re willing to invest in the systems that make it possible. Deadlines are real, but destroying families to meet them isn’t the only option.

What if my company culture doesn’t support putting people first?

Then you need to decide whether you’re working for a company worth your life. You get paid to do good work, not to sacrifice your family. If the culture consistently makes people expendable, you have permission to fire that company and find one that aligns with your values.

Isn’t some overtime and sacrifice just part of construction?

There’s a difference between occasional challenges and systematic exploitation. Yes, construction has urgent moments. No, that doesn’t justify asking people to work seven days a week for months or miss critical family events regularly. If the plan requires burnout to succeed, the plan is broken.

How do I show people are my priority when I’m not the owner or executive?

Start with what you control. Block time for one-on-ones. Invest in training. Make decisions that protect your team’s family time when possible. Model the behavior in your sphere of influence and create evidence that it works better than the burn-out-your-people approach.

What does “show me” mean for my personal leadership this week?

Look at your calendar. Is there time blocked for personal connection with your team? Look at your last month of decisions. Did you protect people or make them expendable when pressure came? Look at your team. Do you know their families? That’s what “show me” means.

 

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 Safe Mind – Field Engineers

Posted on by Danny Jiménez⁩
Read 23 min

You’re Not Safety-Minded Enough Yet

Here’s some conflict for you. You’re probably not safety-minded enough yet. And before you dismiss that statement because you think you’re doing pretty good with safety, let me tell you why that reaction is exactly the problem. Most of us don’t realize our standards are too low until someone forces us to raise them. Until consequences arrive. Until we get called into an office and told we have a decision to make about whether we’re going to take this seriously or hit the road.

I’ve been there. I thought I was doing fine with safety. I’d grown up in my career not really relying too much on paperwork, having safety managers come around just when something happened or they needed to yell at somebody. I wasn’t used to total participation when it came to safety. Wasn’t used to actually enforcing the rules. That was just my experience.

Then I transferred to a new company as a superintendent on a job. The regional safety director wanted lights up on the sidewalk, wanted me to do walks every week at minimum, wanted pictures corrected within twenty-four hours. I blew her off a couple of times. Yeah, yeah, okay, okay. The third time wasn’t so nice. She came with the general superintendent. They sat me down and told me I had a decision to make. I was either going to take this seriously or I was going to hit the road.

The Pain of Unconscious Low Standards

You know what’s dangerous about low standards? You don’t know they’re low until someone shows you what high standards look like. You think you’re doing fine. You’re not causing obvious problems. Nobody’s getting hurt on your watch. And then someone with higher standards arrives and suddenly you realize you’ve been operating at a level that would never be acceptable to people who truly care about protecting others.

After that conversation, I snapped. I immediately switched. I all of a sudden cared about safety. I cared about the inspections. I cared about the pictures. I cared about the cleanliness. I cared about making sure the project was remarkable. I cared about the workers because they woke me up to a higher sense of living, a higher sense of purpose, and a higher sense of responsibility.

From that point forward, the project was beautifully clean. Worker huddles were amazing. I had zero tolerance for safety, respectfully done, but no tolerance for bad behavior. All pre-task plans were checked every morning. All permits, especially excavation and dig permits, were filled out that day. I planned cranes six to twelve weeks ahead of time. I was on it. Everything made sense. I became a safety fanatic.

But here’s the painful part. It took someone threatening my job to get me there. I had to be forced to care enough. And that’s the failure pattern that’s costing our industry too much. We wait until consequences arrive before we develop the mindset that should have been there from the beginning.

The System Doesn’t Teach High Set Points From Day One

Here’s what I want you to understand. The construction industry doesn’t start people with high safety standards. It teaches acceptable mediocrity. It teaches you to do enough to stay out of trouble. It teaches you that safety is about compliance and paperwork and avoiding incidents, not about genuinely protecting people because you value them.

I had another moment like this around the same time period. I was joking around at work with inappropriate humor. I didn’t think it was a big deal. I’d grown up in environments where that kind of joking was common. And then I got suspended without pay for a month. Not written up. Not warned. Suspended. Because my behavior created an unsafe environment for people who weren’t physically unsafe but emotionally and mentally unsafe.

I hated that man for years until I finally reflected that it was my fault. And now I thank God for him because he got my mind straight. He showed me that safety isn’t just about hard hats and fall protection. It’s about creating environments where everyone feels safe, respected, and included. Where inappropriate comments don’t happen. Where unconscious biases get challenged. Where we protect people’s dignity as fiercely as we protect their physical bodies.

My set point on both those instances wasn’t high enough. My safety set point should have been set to perfect. My set point for ethics and morals and interactions in the workplace should have been set to total inclusion and appropriateness. And it wasn’t. The system failed me by not teaching me higher standards from the start. And then two people cared enough to force me to raise my standards before I hurt someone or destroyed my career.

Safety Is a Value, Not a Priority

When I started working at DPR, they said something in orientation that changed how I thought about safety forever. They said safety is a value, not a priority, because priorities can change but a value will remain constant. That distinction matters enormously. When safety is just a priority, it competes with schedule and budget and customer demands. When it’s a value, it’s non-negotiable regardless of pressure.

Think about what that means practically. If safety is a priority, you might cut corners when you’re behind schedule. You might skip steps when the customer is pushing hard. You might tolerate borderline behavior because you don’t want confrontation. But if safety is a value, none of those pressures matter. You don’t compromise values when things get difficult. You protect them more fiercely.

This applies to physical safety and to what I call mental and emotional safety. Physical safety means proper fall protection, clean job sites, enforced rules, pre-task plans, planned crane lifts, excavation permits. Mental and emotional safety means total inclusion, appropriate language, no harassment, protecting the innocent, creating environments where diversity is welcomed and everyone is treated with dignity.

Both require the same mindset. Both require setting your internal standard, your set point, to a level where you won’t tolerate anything less than excellence. Not because someone is watching. Not because you might get in trouble. But because you genuinely value protecting people.

Here’s what raising your safety set point looks like in practice:

  • Going over the top with safety orientations when you’re asked to lead them, not just going through the motions • Putting heart and soul into safety walks and observations, finding real issues that protect people • Approaching tough, unapproachable workers within four seconds when you see something unsafe instead of walking by • Taking training seriously instead of treating it like a box to check • Developing safety mindset everywhere, not just at work

These aren’t suggestions. These are the disciplines that separate people who wait for consequences from people who prevent them by living at higher standards from the beginning.

The Everywhere Mentality

Let me challenge you beyond just work sites. Do you have a safety mindset at home? How many times do people put up Christmas lights on roofs without fall protection? How often do we put a ladder on top of something else, maybe in the back of a truck or on a scissor lift, with something else stacked on top, being completely unsafe? I’ve heard of people getting severely injured doing that. I knew someone who was paralyzed from exactly that kind of decision.

Do we have safety mindset in our volunteer organizations? At church? Are we protecting the innocent? Are we protecting children? Are we protecting people from inappropriate situations? Are we driving safely and making sure people wear seatbelts? Are we protecting people from COVID-19 by social distancing and wearing masks? Are we protecting people by doing proper planning everywhere, not just on construction sites?

My point is our mental set point needs to be set a lot higher for us to have a safety everywhere mentality. If we don’t develop and encourage and support a safety mindset that serves us at work, we’re going to have moments where we get in trouble for harassment or EEO violations. We’re going to have moments where we could have protected somebody in a bad situation but something bad happened. We’re going to have safety incidents where we could have said something and stopped it.

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 protecting people physically and mentally isn’t optional. It’s the foundation of everything we do, and we teach leaders to set their standards high from day one instead of waiting for consequences to teach them.

The people who aren’t safe and clean and organized become nightmares to supervise. General superintendents dread going to their jobs because they know they’ll have to pester them into running a good job. It takes emotional currency to give someone the third butt-chewing of the day about things that should be automatic. That leverage, that emotional energy required to force someone to care, is draining and wasteful.

The Challenge: Raise Your Set Point Now

So here’s my challenge to you. If you’re a field engineer or entering the construction world, do not become someone’s nightmare. Don’t be that person who has to be forced to care. Become safety-minded and make it one of your core values now, before consequences arrive to teach you.

Do not get numb to the current condition. There are unconscious biases on every project. There are people sometimes outright prejudiced, racist, or sexist on our sites making inappropriate comments. There are people in unsafe situations. There are innocent people in bad situations where we’re not speaking up. There are people trusting us to return their spouses home safe, COVID-free, and we’re not always enforcing the rules as we should.

Begin right now to get exposed to inclusiveness, to safety, and to the concept of protecting the innocent. Take it seriously. Use all the tools you’ve been given. Learn them, study them, practice them, implement them. Make sure everything you do has purpose and care enough to spend time doing these things right. And if you care enough to spend time with safety and make everything purposeful, you can actually make it fun too.

I’m thankful for the two people who cared enough to force me to raise my standards. One who chewed me out about safety. One who suspended me without pay for a month when my behavior created an unsafe environment for others. They invited me to a higher level of existence. They showed me that my set point wasn’t high enough. And now I’m inviting you to the same higher standard, but without needing consequences to get you there.

As Eleanor Roosevelt said, “It is not fair to ask of others what you are not willing to do yourself.” Don’t ask your crews to be safe while you tolerate mediocrity in yourself. Don’t expect others to create inclusive environments while you make inappropriate comments. Set your own standards impossibly high, and watch how it transforms not just your projects but your entire approach to protecting people.

On we go.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I know if my safety standards are high enough?

Ask yourself honestly: would you be embarrassed if a respected mentor watched you work for a week? If someone with higher standards showed up tomorrow, would they find gaps in how you handle safety, cleanliness, or inclusiveness? If you’re not sure, your standards probably aren’t high enough yet.

What if my company culture doesn’t emphasize safety the way you’re describing?

Then you have a choice. You can wait for that culture to change, or you can set your personal standards higher and become the example that shifts culture. The people who transform industries are the ones who refuse to accept current conditions as acceptable, regardless of what everyone else is doing.

How do I develop a safety mindset beyond just following rules?

Start seeing safety as protecting people you care about, not just compliance. Imagine every worker on your site is someone’s spouse, parent, or child who needs to get home safely. That mindset shift changes how seriously you take every decision, every inspection, every moment where you could speak up or stay silent.

What should I do if I see inappropriate behavior or unsafe conditions but feel uncomfortable addressing it?

Make the decision within four seconds to say something. The discomfort of speaking up is temporary. The regret of staying silent when someone gets hurt or harassed is permanent. Your obligation to protect people overrides your personal discomfort with confrontation.

How do I balance being safety-focused without becoming the person everyone avoids?

Safety done with respect and care doesn’t make you unlikeable. It makes you trustworthy. People avoid leaders who are inconsistent, who yell without teaching, who enforce rules arbitrarily. They respect leaders who consistently protect them, explain why standards matter, and hold everyone including themselves to high expectations.

 

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