Lawyers & How They Help Us

Why Scheduling Directors and Lawyers Resist Takt Planning (And Why Good Lawyers Don’t)

Usually in a company, even if the company has super awesome people, even if the company is being asked to implement Lean systems, even if the company has people that want to implement Lean systems, you’ll typically have a director of scheduling who is a CPM whoremonger that will not let it, meaning whoring after CPM and significance, that will prevent you from being able to do it. And you’ll typically have a legal department or somebody in the legal realm that’s going to give you a hard time about it.

And that’s certainly the case in the story that I’m about to tell you, where an executive very, very high up in charge of the scheduling department has been giving us a hard time.

The Company Story: Top Notch People Seeing Success with Lean

We’ve been helping this company out with multiple projects, got them back on track, stabilized them, done some amazing work with the people that we have here and that we work with. And it’s been phenomenal. And the human beings at this company are top, top, top, top notch people. They’re hungry. They’re willing to learn. They’re open minded. They’re good people. They treat each other like a family. And they’re just really great.

And they’re seeing so much success with these Lean systems and the training that their jobs are just going well. And job after job after job wants to do Takt, Last Planner and Scrum. But this threatens the scheduling director’s significance.

The Four Basic Human Needs: When Certainty and Significance Become Dominant

Now, let me talk about that. Every human being has four basic human needs: certainty, significance, variety and loving connection. There’s nothing wrong with that. And humans are just wired that way. It’s all good.

But the problem is when you use those as your primary, then certainty, meaning security, which most of the time at work shows up as job security and significance, which means that you feel significant in your control or your role, end up being the dominant forces to the point that you start being self-serving. You become a taker and you become a fear monger.

Fear Sells Better Than Sex: How Scheduling Directors Protect Their Turf

Did you know that sales persons realized that there’s something that sells even better than sex? What sells better than sex is fear. That’s how politicians get us, the us-them thinking. That’s how Hitler got the German people. Fear, fear, fear, fear, fear. If you sell people fear, it’s more powerful than sex.

And sex is a pretty powerful deal because whether we were designed or created by God or organized by God or we evolved, the human brain, and this will sum it all up for you, and your cells in your DNA is designed to survive. And what are the two things that it needs to survive? Reproduction and really great productive paranoia that will enable a human being to assume that a rustling in the grass is actually a lion instead of the wind.

All of our, not all, but most of our ancestors that assumed it was the wind, the optimists, got eaten by lions. And the folks that assumed it was a lion, even if it was the wind, are who are now our ancestors. We are their posterity. So, the most nervous, fearful, and freaked out people survived.

Why Scheduling Directors Love CPM: It’s All They’ve Been Taught

And so, when you talk to a scheduling director that loves CPM, that’s all they know. That’s all they’ve been taught. They’ve been taught to rush, push, and panic people. They’ve been taught to disrespect human beings. They’ve been taught that push is the way to get schedules done faster. And the right way to do a construction project is to prepare to fight it out in court with the owner.

Their first instinct is significance and the fear of losing significance and their certainty, which is their fear of losing certainty. Because if you got promoted as a scheduling director knowing CPM and here come Lean systems and you may not know Lean systems and your body, which is also in brain, which is also designed to conserve calories, is saying, “No, no, no, no, no, no, this is a lot of effort.” And you also now fear that you’ll be replaced or that you’ll be insignificant. You’re going to try and protect your own turf based out of that biological necessity to survive.

It is selfish, but it is also natural. And if you are in charge of the scheduling department, you are incentivized to be buddy-buddy with your scheduling department. And you are incentivized to fear monger.

Why Lawyers Love CPM: They Make Money in Court

Let me explain something here. Lawyers love CPM, at least the lousy ones do. And everywhere I go in Phoenix, every billboard is filled with accident lawyers. Even the good lawyers, and I’ve had experience with this, will try and take you to court to fight it out so they make money. They make money when you go to court. They make money when you sue somebody. It’s not just all billable hours.

So, there is motivation because your billable hours are increased when you actually go to court. And in arbitration, there’s fees for the lawyers as well. And the key here is their focus, which is the system they’re in, is to try and fight court cases and to muddy the water.

What would they prefer? A Takt plan that shows it’s possible and shows everybody’s weaknesses, including the general contractor, or a CPM schedule where we can play poor boy and victim and try and blame it on everybody else and win with lawyer skill?

The lawyers and the arbitration experts and the scheduling directors all want CPM because it’s an unaccountable system where they can sit back in their office and play the game for what they’re incentivized to do.

The Executive and Scheduling Director: Bad-Mouthing Despite Success

So, this happens. And in this particular story, this executive and the scheduling director, no matter how good the job is going, is bad-mouthing us, bad-mouthing Takt, bad-mouthing Lean systems, and advocating for CPM even though they have to write down multiple millions of dollars every year because they failed projects. And even though the CPM track record, even tracked internally, is horrific.

Now, this ought not to be because Takt is one of those systems where even done poorly, it benefits the project.

Here’s why resistance happens:

• Certainty and significance become dominant forces: self-serving, taker, fear monger – When you use those as your primary, then certainty (job security) and significance (feel significant in your control or your role) end up being dominant forces to point that you start being self-serving. You become taker and you become fear monger. Fear sells better than sex. That’s how politicians get us, us-them thinking.
• Scheduling directors taught to rush, push, panic people, prepare to fight in court – When you talk to scheduling director that loves CPM, that’s all they know. That’s all they’ve been taught. They’ve been taught to rush, push, and panic people. They’ve been taught to disrespect human beings. They’ve been taught that push is the way to get schedules done faster. Right way to do construction project is to prepare to fight it out in court with owner.
• Fear of being replaced or insignificant: protect own turf out of biological necessity – If you got promoted as scheduling director knowing CPM and here come Lean systems and you may not know Lean systems and your body designed to conserve calories saying, “No, no, no, this is a lot of effort.” And you also now fear that you’ll be replaced or that you’ll be insignificant. You’re going to try and protect your own turf based out of that biological necessity to survive. Selfish, but also natural.
• Lawyers make money in court: CPM is unaccountable system for playing the game – Lawyers love CPM, at least lousy ones do. They make money when you go to court. They make money when you sue somebody. Billable hours increased when actually go to court. In arbitration, fees for lawyers as well. Their focus: try and fight court cases and muddy the water. Lawyers and arbitration experts and scheduling directors all want CPM because it’s unaccountable system where they can sit back in office and play game for what they’re incentivized to do.
• Bad-mouthing Takt despite success, advocating for CPM despite writing down millions – This executive and scheduling director, no matter how good job is going, is bad-mouthing us, bad-mouthing Takt, bad-mouthing Lean systems, and advocating for CPM even though they have to write down multiple millions of dollars every year because they failed projects. Even though CPM track record, even tracked internally, is horrific.

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

A Gentle Nudge for the Industry: You’re Going to Look Like Asses

Now, let me say a couple things that’s really crazy. And this is a gentle nudge for everyone out there in the industry. Guys and gals, you’re going to be embarrassed. But ladies and gentlemen, those of you who are protecting CPM, you’re all going to look like asses pretty soon. When it scales across the industry, I mean, massive companies are scaling to Takt and Last Planner and Scrum. When this scales to the industry and we see our numbers rising, when we see Takt actually working, you all are going to look like unmitigated asses. There are two things here. Number one, somebody can just be blissfully ignorant of the problem. Like, I’ll give you a for instance. I never thought two things about public school or not. And I hear the talk, The Seven Lessons of School Teacher by, I think it’s John Gatto. And then I’m like, “Oh, wow, we have some problems in our school system.”

So, if you don’t know, if you’re not thinking about CPM and construction, like you got a hall pass, like you’re not thinking about it. But if you now have heard well-articulated points, have seen the YouTube videos, have read the blogs, are seeing the benefits of Takt, Last Planner and the Kanban method, and you are still holding on to it for dear life, I don’t know a better way to say this. I’m trying to be loving, but here, do me a favor. Just translate what I’m saying into something loving and kind. But you look dumb. Like, if you’re like, “Oh, yeah, increasing work in progress above the capacity of resources and people is smart.” Or, “Hey, having a critical path without float or buffers is smart.” Or “Pushing, disrespecting and panicking people is smart.” Or “Recovering with resources and overtime and push is smart.” Or “Being toxic with people is smart.” Like, if you’re actually saying that, that’s really dumb.

At a Certain Point, It’s Not Ignorance I Question Intelligence

Like, at a certain point, it’s ignorance. After a while, I question somebody’s intelligence. So, like, that scheduling director and that executive, it’s like, how intelligent are you? Like, if you actually dig into these things and still want to stay, are still making the decision to hurt people, and are still choosing a system that only has a 24% mildly acceptable track record and that causes most of the issues we have in our industry. There’s going to be a point of no return for this. And it doesn’t even matter. Like, even if Takt wasn’t going to take over the industry, even if big companies weren’t going to start using it for the right reasons, it’s still the right thing to do.

Good Lawyers Find a Way to Do the Right Thing

Now, let me make a point. Lawyers, if they’re good, will find a way for us to do the right thing in the system we have. But right now, weak and wimpy lawyers and executives in charge of the risk management and legal teams who don’t know what they’re doing are like, “Oh my god, we can’t do it. We can’t do Lean. We can’t do Takt. We’re going to get sued. It’s going to be bad.”

Do we really want to say that? Like when somebody, like a developer partner that we worked with the other day was like, “Jason, what if we got materials from overseas? What if we self-perform some trades?” I’m like, “Yeah, none of that scares me. Why would that scare me? I’m all in, man. There ain’t nothing I can’t do.” If I was a lawyer and somebody was like, “We need to build Takt, build a Takt plan, run the project off of Takt. And we need to know how to keep safe in the court of law.” If I was a good lawyer, I would be like, “Not a problem.”

A Challenge for Scheduling Directors and Lawyers

Here’s what I want you to do this week. If you’re a scheduling director, stop protecting your turf out of biological necessity to survive. Stop being self-serving, being a taker, being a fear monger. Stop bad-mouthing Takt despite jobs going well. Stop advocating for CPM even though you have to write down multiple millions of dollars every year because of failed projects.

If you’re a lawyer, stop being weak and wimpy. Stop saying, “We can’t do Lean. We can’t do Takt. We’re going to get sued.” Good lawyers find a way for us to do the right thing in the system we have. Not a problem. If you actually dig into these things and still want to stay, are still making the decision to hurt people, and are still choosing a system that only has a 24% mildly acceptable track record and that causes most of the issues we have in our industry, there’s going to be a point of no return for this.

Nobody can ever say, “No, Jason, you’re wrong about CPM. We believe CPM is a good system.” The numbers don’t show it. The logic doesn’t show it. The theory doesn’t show it. The science doesn’t show it. The math doesn’t show it. As we say at Elevate, CPM scheduling directors resist Takt out of fear and significance. Good lawyers find ways to do the right thing. Weak lawyers say we can’t do Lean or Takt.

On we go.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why do scheduling directors resist Takt planning?

Because fear of being replaced or insignificant. Got promoted knowing CPM and here come Lean systems may not know. Body designed to conserve calories saying “No, this is lot of effort.” Try and protect own turf based out of biological necessity to survive. Selfish, but also natural.

Why do lawyers love CPM scheduling?

Because they make money in court. Billable hours increased when actually go to court. In arbitration, fees for lawyers as well. Focus: try and fight court cases and muddy water. CPM is unaccountable system where can sit back in office and play game.

What’s the difference between good lawyers and weak lawyers?

Good lawyers find way for us to do right thing in system we have. Weak and wimpy lawyers and executives in charge of risk management and legal teams say “We can’t do Lean. We can’t do Takt. We’re going to get sued.”

What happens when Takt scales across the industry?

Those protecting CPM going to look like asses. Massive companies scaling to Takt and Last Planner and Scrum. When scales to industry and we see numbers rising, when we see Takt actually working, you all going to look like unmitigated asses.

What’s the CPM track record?

Only has 24% mildly acceptable track record. Causes most of issues we have in our industry. Numbers don’t show it’s good. Logic doesn’t show it. Theory doesn’t show it. Science doesn’t show it. Math doesn’t show it.