Last Planner in Construction | Add Worker Huddles (Upgrade Your Production Planning)

Add Worker Huddles: Upgrade Your Production Planning

Here’s something that will change everything for Last Planner implementation: I have never seen operational excellence at scale without the morning worker huddle. Multiple billion-dollar projects, multiple hundreds-of-millions-dollar projects, multiple hundreds-of-thousands-dollar renovations, multifamily, townhomes, data centers, hospitals, schools all of it. Without the morning worker huddle, the Last Planner System stops at the foremen and only 20 to 40 percent of the plan reaches the workers who are actually doing the work.

And that’s the missing piece.

The Pain of Information Stopping at the Foreman

Now when you look at the Last Planner System, it’s pretty great but it is in its one-point-zero and we need to take it to two-point-zero, three-point-zero. I am not the inventor of the Last Planner System, but I am a builder and have my own opinion and these opinions are solely mine about how to take it to the next level. And if it’s a Lean system, we will improve it. I’m very disappointed that it’s not farther along than it is. If it’s a Lean system, it should be upgraded by now.

The Last Planner System basically says that if you have planners, it should come to the last planners, which are the foremen, to execute work in the field. But that’s not complete. We need first planners and a first planner system in collaboration with last planners. And we need to get that all the way to workers. And that is what is meant by getting it all the way to the field.

What I’ve seen and you’ve seen as well is that you are in your conference room and you are talking to the trades. You’re around your horseshoe and these are your trade foremen. Whatever you’re coordinating and talking about in here, only about 20 to 40 percent of that actually reaches the people who are actually doing the work, the workers.

Here’s what happens. You have a great coordination meeting. You solve roadblocks. You align on the plan. The foremen leave the meeting. And then they go back to their crews. But they filter the information. They forget parts of it. They prioritize what they think is important. They communicate in their own style. And by the time the information reaches the workers, 60 to 80 percent of it is gone. The workers don’t see the plan. They don’t know the coordination. They don’t understand the roadblocks. And they’re swimming across a mile-wide channel and drowning five feet from shore.

The Workers Are the King

Now, there’s a story from Toyota by Toyota. It’s a really great story where a Lean practitioner in Toyota was asked by a sensei, “Who is the king?” Now, I know that terminology doesn’t really land with us here in the United States, but the point remains. And she was like, “Is it the general manager? Who is it?” And then she thought, “Oh, it’s the operator on the line.” And then she told her sensei, and he was like, “Yes, but let me tell you more. The operator is the king and everybody supports the king.”

Our workers and foremen are the value-added entities on a project site. And if they are not getting the information, if they can’t see as a group, know as a group, and act as a group, if they don’t have full kit, if they don’t know what’s going on, I always say it’s like swimming across a mile-wide channel and drowning five feet from shore. How would you like to swim that far just to drown? You’re almost there.

So, the Last Planner System in its original conception is misguided in this sense: that the information should only make it to the foreman and that human beings naturally and genetically will get the information to workers. That’s not reasonable to understand or to assume.

Why Human Genetics Work Against Communication

Richard Dawkins said, and I love his books about evolution, if humanity is to altruistically elevate and take its next step, you cannot count on genetics for help. Our genes are designed to reproduce and self-perpetuate. Selfishness, greed, isolation, hoarding resources. If we want to do the right thing and be enlightened, we have to override our genetic programming. And our brains are wired to auto-filter information and to uncommunicated and to conserve calories.

And so, to assume that foremen, even though they’re awesome humans and they’re good people, that genetically in their gene housing that they will naturally communicate what we want is not realistic. And so we have got to make sure that we have systems not only where the project is planned with the right systems in the first planner system, but we’ve got to get it all the way to the workers.

So, when we’re in the office, we also have got to get that information out to a field board every day, to the workers every day.

Here’s the truth. Foremen are good people. But they’re human. And humans filter information. They forget things. They prioritize what they think is important. They communicate in their own style. And they’re contractually incentivized to take care of their own interests. So instead of you as the superintendent controlling the environment and the rhythm, they control it. And they’re doing what they want. And they’re all going in separate directions.

That’s not because they’re bad. That’s because they’re human. And we need a system to bypass the filtering.

How Foremen Create Separate Cultures

Now let me tell you, I’m not a consultant. I’m not dissing on consultants. I am a career field super that’s now trying to help the industry. And I have noticed that if you do not do this worker huddle, you still have foreman filtering for you, which means they create the culture separately, not you. And they’re good people, but they are contractually incentivized to take care of their own interests.

So instead of you as the superintendent controlling the environment and the rhythm, they control it. And they’re doing what they want. And they’re all going in separate directions. This is not a lecture. I love you.

Here’s what happens without worker huddles:

• Foremen filter information only 20 to 40 percent reaches workers
• Foremen create the culture separately instead of the superintendent creating it
• Each foreman goes in their own direction instead of rowing together
• Workers don’t see the plan, don’t know coordination, don’t understand roadblocks
• The superintendent loses control of the environment and the rhythm

Without worker huddles, you’re delegating culture creation to the foremen. And they’re going to create separate cultures. Not because they’re bad. But because that’s what happens when there’s no system to bypass the filtering.

How Worker Huddles Bypass Filtering and Create Total Participation

When you create that worker huddle, you bypass this 20 to 40 percent and you communicate to the crews. Let me just be real candid with you. If a behavior is happening, I have in morning worker huddles before said, “Hey everybody, you are all contracted to be able to spend 15 to 25 minutes in your crew preparation huddles going through and 5S’ing your areas, identifying eight wastes, filling out your pre-task plans, getting ready, shaking out materials, and starting clean, safe, and organized. And if your foreman’s not letting you do that, you’re not obeying the contract. And if you’re not obeying your foreman, you are not in total participation.”

There is no question about what they should be doing. There is no filtering from the foreman whether they want or don’t want to do something. I as the superintendent have control of the environment and I have control of the rhythm. And I do not control people. I am setting up the job site for success and we are working in total participation.

Here’s what happens when you implement worker huddles. If you love these workers and you should, they will see it. They will hear your shout-outs. They will hear you asking for feedback. They will learn Lean thinking two minutes every day. They will hear the plan and be better aware. You will have stable environments and you will have the second most important concept in Lean after respect for people, and that is total participation.

We think that Lean will work outside of that. It won’t. Paul Akers, Paul Akers, Paul Akers. Total participation. You go to Japan, 130 million people are working and acting the same way. They are a highly coordinated society. And here in the United States we act like we’re cowboys and cowgirls in the Wild West. You can’t do that. We have to row together in total participation.

The Results of Worker Huddles

When you implement this, your job site will get cleaner, safer, more organized, everybody working in the same direction. This is the missing piece of getting the Last Planner System all the way to the people changing the product and putting the work in place. This is why you must have a worker huddle. If your project needs superintendent coaching, project support, or leadership development, Elevate Construction can help your field teams stabilize, schedule, and flow.

Here’s what worker huddles create:

• Information reaches 100 percent of workers, not just 20 to 40 percent
• The superintendent controls the environment and the rhythm, not the foremen
• Everyone rows together in total participation instead of going in separate directions
• Workers see the plan, know coordination, understand roadblocks, and have full kit
• The culture is unified instead of fragmented by foreman filtering

Worker huddles bypass the genetic filtering that humans naturally do. They create total participation. They get the Last Planner System all the way to the workers. And they transform the job site.

A Challenge for Superintendents

Here’s what I want you to do this week. Start a morning worker huddle. Get everyone together for 10 to 15 minutes before work starts. Review the plan. Give shout-outs. Ask for feedback. Teach two minutes of Lean thinking. Communicate expectations. And bypass the foreman filtering.

You’ll see it immediately. Workers will start seeing the plan. They’ll start understanding coordination. They’ll start rowing together. And the job site will get cleaner, safer, more organized, and more productive. Not because you pushed. But because you created total participation. As we say at Elevate, the Last Planner System stops at the foremen and only 20 to 40 percent reaches workers. Worker huddles bypass filtering, create total participation, and get plans all the way to the field. Start the huddle. Control the environment. Row together.

On we go.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why do only 20 to 40 percent of plans reach workers?

Because foremen filter information. They forget things. They prioritize what they think is important. They communicate in their own style. And they’re human. Humans are genetically wired to auto-filter information, uncommunicated, and conserve calories. Worker huddles bypass this filtering and get 100 percent of the plan to workers.

What happens without worker huddles?

Foremen create the culture separately instead of the superintendent creating it. Each foreman goes in their own direction. Workers don’t see the plan. And the superintendent loses control of the environment and the rhythm. Foreman filtering creates fragmented cultures instead of unified participation.

How do worker huddles create total participation?

By bypassing foreman filtering and communicating directly to the crews. The superintendent controls the environment and the rhythm. Workers hear the plan, see coordination, understand roadblocks, and have full kit. Everyone rows together in the same direction instead of going in separate directions.

What should you cover in a morning worker huddle?

Review the plan. Give shout-outs. Ask for feedback. Teach two minutes of Lean thinking. Communicate expectations. Remind crews to spend 15 to 25 minutes in crew preparation huddles 5S’ing areas, identifying eight wastes, filling out pre-task plans, and starting clean, safe, organized.

Why is total participation the second most important concept in Lean?

Because Lean won’t work without it. You can’t have some people rowing and others going in separate directions. Japan has 130 million people working and acting the same way. That’s total participation. Worker huddles create that same coordination on the job site.