Last Planner in Construction | Crew Preparation Huddle (Get Crews Ready for Flow)

Why Your Information Drowns 5 Feet From Shore (And How Crew Preparation Huddles Get Plans to Workers)

Here’s the mistake that wastes every coordination effort you’ve made: you plan at the project level, coordinate at the trade level, communicate at the functional area level and then you send workers directly to their zones without crew-level preparation. You’ve created the master schedule. You’ve done pull planning with trades. You’ve filtered the lookahead to identify roadblocks. You’ve coordinated the weekly work plan with handoffs. You’ve created the day plan in yesterday’s afternoon foreman huddle. You’ve communicated it this morning in the worker huddle to the entire functional area. And then you immediately send workers to start executing without giving their foreman five minutes to orient the crew specifically to their zone, their work package, their constraints, and their plan for the day. It’s like swimming across a mile-wide channel and drowning 5 feet from shore. You got the information 95% of the way to the people who actually build the project and then you stopped before completing delivery.

Here’s what actually enables execution: crew preparation huddles after the morning worker huddle where foremen take their specific crews, huddle at the zone level with visual boards showing the lookahead, weekly work plan, day plan, and zone maps, and spend five to ten minutes orienting workers to their specific work before they set up and start building. This is where you get everything out of the foreman’s head and onto visual boards the workers can reference. This is where you implement Paul Akers’ 2 Second Lean method in construction 5S the workspace, identify waste, create improvement videos, engage workers in problem-solving. This is where you plan before you go into the zone, build while you’re in the zone, and finish and reflect once you’re done with the zone. One piece, one process, one progress flow. And this is how they do it in Japan where they finish projects earlier and have half as many accidents. This crew preparation huddle is key, and this is very much how we implement lean systems and the Paul Akers method into construction by getting information all the way to the workers who need it, not stopping 5 feet from shore.

When Planning Drowns Before Reaching the Workers

The real construction pain here is running projects where you’ve invested enormous coordination effort hours in weekly meetings, detailed planning sessions, systematic roadblock removal and then that information never reaches the workers who actually execute the work. The superintendent knows the plan. The foremen attended the coordination meetings. But the workers show up, get a vague verbal instruction from the foreman while everyone’s rushing to start, and then they’re executing based on partial understanding and assumptions.

The pain compounds throughout the day when workers discover constraints that were already identified in lookahead planning. “Oh, we don’t have the right materials? That was flagged three weeks ago.” “Oh, this area isn’t ready? That handoff was supposed to be complete yesterday.” “Oh, we’re supposed to coordinate with the electricians? Nobody told us they’d be here today.” All the planning you did becomes worthless because you didn’t complete the final 5% of information delivery getting it from the foreman’s head onto visual boards the crew can reference and discuss before starting work.

The Pattern That Stops Information 5 Feet From Shore

The failure pattern is treating information delivery as complete when it reaches foremen instead of recognizing it must reach workers to enable execution. We hold coordination meetings with foremen. We create day plans. We communicate change points in morning worker huddles. And we assume that’s sufficient. Workers will figure out the details. Foremen will explain as needed. It’ll work out somehow. And we miss that workers cannot execute plans they don’t fully understand, cannot avoid constraints they weren’t warned about, and cannot coordinate handoffs they don’t know are coming.

What actually happens is you create elaborate planning systems that fail at the last mile. All your master scheduling, pull planning, lookahead coordination, weekly work planning, and day planning becomes disconnected from actual execution because you didn’t invest the final five minutes getting information to crew level with visual boards they can reference. You swam across the mile-wide channel. You coordinated through multiple planning layers. You communicated to functional areas. And then you drowned 5 feet from shore by not completing crew-level preparation.

Understanding Where Crew Preparation Huddles Fit in Last Planner System

Let me show you where crew preparation huddles fit in the complete Last Planner System hierarchy. I’m super stoked about this because up to this point in our 20-video series on Last Planner System, we’ve covered everything from the master schedule all the way to the morning worker huddle, which should be a part of Last Planner System. If you want to know all the improvements to Last Planner System, check out the book The 10 Improvements to the Last Planner System. We also have Pull Planning for Builders which expounds on how to do pull planning right.

So, in Last Planner System, you’ve already been through the deliverables. You’ve already been through the master schedule, the pull plan, the lookahead plan, the weekly work plan, the day plan which sounds like a lot, but this is what it takes to actually collaborate. And now you’ve communicated because yesterday afternoon we coordinated the plan for the day with foremen in the afternoon foreman huddle. Today we just communicated to all the workers within a functional area from the parking lot to the morning worker huddle, and then they can go do their work.

Every worker was just part of an entire functional area morning worker huddle meeting. Now it’s time for us as workers, lead persons, and crew leaders or foremen to go huddle with our own crews. This is where we’re at right now as part of Last Planner System. The crew preparation huddle is key.

The Complete Construction Planning Sequence

Let me show you this from a deliverable standpoint and then from a calendaring standpoint. From deliverables: master schedule → pull plan → lookahead plan → weekly work plan → day plan → crew planning. That day plan is communicated to crew planning. This is a really neat way to look at it from a deliverable standpoint.

Now let’s look at it from a scheduling or calendaring standpoint showing when these meetings happen during the week:

Weekly Meeting Structure (Monday Through Friday)

• Team Weekly Tactical: First thing project delivery team does this is their team meeting to balance and build the team
• Strategic Planning and Procurement Meeting: Either same time or that same afternoon, once per week. This is where they’re looking at the long-term strategic plan and aligning procurement.
• Trade Partner Weekly Tactical: I like to do this in the afternoon on Tuesday. This is where you do maybe ad hoc pull planning you can do pull planning at different times but this is definitely where you do lookahead planning and weekly work planning.
• Afternoon Foreman Huddles: Happens every day after the trade partner weekly tactical. The afternoon foreman huddle is where you create the plan for the next day and communicate it in the morning worker huddle.
• Morning Worker Huddle: This morning worker huddle is where you create one social group where everybody can see as a group, know as a group, act as a group, and access visual information everything out of the super’s head, out. Nothing in their head.
• Crew Preparation Huddle: After the morning worker huddle, now the crews are on their own. Technically the project delivery team’s meeting is over. All we’ve asked trades to do is short-interval planning plan every day and for the job site team to understand the plan.

And I want you to know this is a little bit of name-dropping, but they do this in Japan. And they have finished projects earlier and they have half as many accidents. So, if you’re thinking lean, Toyota, Japan this is how they do it. They do it with this morning worker huddle and they have the foreman huddles in the afternoon. These are improvements we have to make to Last Planner System to make sure it’s viable.

How Crew Preparation Huddles Work at the Zone Level

This crew preparation huddle imagines that you’re out on the floor of a building. You will have crews working through the building in different zones. Let’s say this is zone 1, 2, 3, 4. A crew goes from the morning worker huddle and then huddles themselves at their specific zone. This is so good.

The trailer complex is where you did the weekly team meeting, strategic planning and procurement meeting, trade partner weekly tactical, afternoon foreman huddle all happened in the trailer. Then you have the parking lot. Workers move from parking to the morning worker huddle boards where you present to all the most important people on the site the workers in a respectful, looking-up-to-them way, the plan for the day in the morning worker huddle. This is where one crew will come out and go to their specific area where the foreman can take the opportunity to orient their crew.

Making Crew Boards Mandatory by Contract

Now I’ve always made this mandatory by contract because this is the lean way to do it. Everything should be: we plan before we go into the zone, we build while we’re in the zone, and then we finish and reflect once we’re done with the zone. One piece, one process, one progress flow.

What I like to do when I’m leading a project site is not only will foremen receive training with their crews, not only will we 5S meaning teach them to 5S their gang boxes, their conexes, their trucks, and everything but they will have crew boards. We’ll link you to those crew boards in the description. And these workers will not be passive bystanders.

They will have on this board the lookahead, the weekly work plan, the day plan, and then visual maps on this board so that the foreman can say “Hey team, let’s plan the work for the zone with this work package in this zone for the day. Let’s make sure it’s visual and out of the foreman’s head, out.” And then when they’re done, you do a reflection.

The Crew Preparation Huddle Agenda

This crew preparation huddle on the back side of these board formats, there’s actually an agenda for this. Here’s what the crew preparation huddle includes:

Crew Preparation Huddle Components (5-10 Minutes)

• Stretch and Flex: Optional physical warm-up to prevent injuries and prepare bodies for work especially important for labor-intensive trades
• Specific Training: Brief skill development or safety topic relevant to today’s work 2 minutes of daily learning compounds into significant capability over project duration
• Area Observation: Walk the zone together before starting so everyone sees conditions, constraints, access, and staging areas firsthand
• Pre-Task Plan: Fill out the pre-task plan as a crew, identifying hazards specific to this zone’s work, not generic safety theater
• Huddle and Teach: Foreman teaches the crew the specific plan, draws on the board, gets feedback from workers, ensures everyone’s clear on sequence, handoffs, and standards
• Worker Development: Engage workers in problem-solving, ask for their input on better methods, treat them as thinking partners not passive labor

Remember that lean is about having the lean operating system where the leader is engaged with it and leading it, and we’re developing people. Having visuals at all the other steps but not getting it down to the worker is like swimming across a mile-wide channel and drowning 5 feet from shore. We’ve got to make sure the lookahead, weekly work plan, day plan, and the visuals are getting all the way to the crew, and that crew has time to set up properly.

Where Paul Akers 2 Second Lean Gets Implemented

I’ve always encouraged and on the actual templates we have on the back what 5S means and the eight wastes this is where we implement these Paul Akers methods. This is where we do improvement videos, before-and-after videos. This is where we really 5S and look for waste and set up our day.

This is where the Paul Akers 2 Second Lean method is implemented in construction, and this is absolutely phenomenal. We’ve got to get it in the next five to ten years or sooner in construction. We’ve got to get to this place. This is the level where workers engage with waste elimination, continuous improvement, and problem-solving. This is where we pull the andon cord and stop work when it’s not right, just like Paul Akers always talks about.

Why This Is Critical for Last Planner System Viability

In the book Takt Steering & Control, we have a complete list of agendas, guides, all of the boards, everything free. And if you want to know why this improvement is crucial to Last Planner System, that book is The 10 Improvements to the Last Planner System. You’ve got to check it out.

We have clients and partners doing this to great success. This is where, as Paul Akers always talks about, we’ve got to make sure work is at the right level, we’ve got to be able to pull the andon and stop work when it’s not right. This is the level where we do that. And this is where we engage with zone control foremen and workers walking zones together, checking handoff conditions, verifying work is complete and clean before successor trades arrive.

The Productivity Mathematics That Prove It Works

Let me be clear about the time investment and return. I put it in the contract that we are going to spend five or ten minutes doing the worker huddle and the crew huddle. And we will get more done in seven and a half hours than you would in eight hours with no strategic start. The five to ten minutes of preparation creates clarity that eliminates wasted motion, reduces rework, prevents coordination conflicts, and enables focused execution.

I’ve never had a trade pay me or charge me for this with a change order. And I’ve never had a trade not say that this improved their productivity and the well-being of their people. Never. The five-minute investment returns hours of productivity through clarity, coordination, and waste elimination. Workers know exactly what to do, exactly how to coordinate with other trades, exactly what standards to meet, and exactly what to do if problems arise.

How Japan Proves This Works at Scale

This is how they do it in Japan. Morning worker huddles for total participation and communication. Afternoon foreman huddles for creating the next day’s plan. Crew preparation huddles for zone-level orientation and preparation. And they finish projects earlier with half as many accidents compared to Western construction. Half as many accidents. This isn’t theory. This is proven methodology with decades of results showing it works.

The Zone Control Integration

The crew preparation huddle is led by the trade foreman, happens after the worker huddle at the zone level, and then crews engage with their work. But it’s also where zone control begins. After the crew prepares and understands the plan, foreman and workers do zone control walks together checking that predecessor work is complete, verifying handoff conditions are met, ensuring materials and equipment are staged properly, confirming no constraints will interrupt flow.

Zone control means the zone is ready before work starts. The crew preparation huddle is where you verify that readiness and orient the crew to execute within controlled conditions. Without crew preparation huddles, zone control becomes superintendent-driven inspection. With crew preparation huddles, zone control becomes crew-driven verification that they’re set up for success.

Resources for Implementation

If your project needs help implementing crew preparation huddles that complete information delivery to workers, if your planning drowns 5 feet from shore because crews don’t have zone-level orientation, if you want to implement Paul Akers 2 Second Lean method in construction through crew boards and daily improvement, Elevate Construction can help your teams get information all the way to execution through visual boards, proper huddle structure, and 5S workspace organization.

Building Systems That Respect Workers Through Information

This connects to everything we teach at Elevate Construction about respect for people as foundational production strategy. Respecting workers means giving them complete information to execute successfully, not partial instructions and hoping they figure it out. It means visual boards they can reference, not keeping everything in the foreman’s head. It means crew preparation time before they start, not rushing them into zones unprepared. It means treating them as thinking partners who identify waste and improve processes, not passive labor who just follow orders.

Swimming across a mile-wide channel and drowning 5 feet from shore is tragic because you almost made it. Creating elaborate planning systems that stop before reaching workers is equally tragic because you did all the hard coordination work and then failed to complete delivery. The crew preparation huddle is the final 5% that makes the previous 95% worthwhile. Without it, all your planning becomes disconnected from execution. With it, workers have the information, preparation, and engagement to build successfully.

A Challenge for Project Leaders

Here’s the challenge. Stop assuming that information reaching foremen means it reached workers. Start completing delivery through crew preparation huddles at zone level with visual boards showing lookahead, weekly work plan, day plan, and zone maps. Make it mandatory by contract five to ten minutes after the morning worker huddle before crews start work.

Implement crew boards at every zone. Train foremen to huddle and teach, not just instruct. Get everything out of their heads onto visual boards workers can reference. Implement Paul Akers methods 5S the workspace, identify waste, create improvement videos, engage workers in continuous improvement. Practice one piece, one process, one progress flow: plan before the zone, build in the zone, finish and reflect after the zone.

Track the results: workers who understand the plan completely, crews who coordinate handoffs smoothly, zones that stay clean and organized through 5S, waste identified and eliminated by the people doing the work, productivity in seven and a half hours exceeding eight hours without strategic start, improved safety through proper pre-task planning, workers who feel respected through complete information delivery.

This is how they do it in Japan with earlier finishes and half the accidents. This is how Paul Akers implements 2 Second Lean in manufacturing. This is how Last Planner System becomes viable by getting information all the way to the workers who build. Don’t drown 5 feet from shore. Complete the delivery. The crew preparation huddle is the final connection that makes everything else work.

On we go.

Frequently Asked Questions

When does crew preparation huddle happen?

After the morning worker huddle. Workers go from the functional area huddle to their specific zones where foremen orient their individual crews for 5-10 minutes before starting work.

What’s on crew boards?

Lookahead plan, weekly work plan, day plan, visual zone maps, 5S principles, eight wastes, space for drawings and coordination notes. Everything the crew needs to execute and improve.

Why mandatory by contract?

Because without contractual requirement, pressure to start work immediately eliminates preparation time. Five minutes of planning prevents hours of wasted motion and rework. Contract makes it non-negotiable.

How is this different from morning worker huddle?

Morning worker huddle communicates to entire functional area (all trades). Crew preparation huddle orients specific crew to their specific zone with their specific work package and constraints.

What is Paul Akers 2 Second Lean connection?

This is where 2 Second Lean gets implemented in construction 5S workspaces, identify waste, create improvement videos, engage workers in continuous improvement at crew level where work happens.