Whose Poop Is This? The Superintendent Walk

The Superintendent Walk That Raises Standards and Restores Operational Control

There are moments on a project where you can feel the set point of the team. You can feel what they think is “normal.” You can feel what they will tolerate, what they will walk past, what they will excuse, and what they will fix without being asked. That set point shows up in the trash cans that never get emptied, the cords draped across walkways, the missing PPE, the messy laydown, the half-finished protection, and the little safety hazards that everyone sees but nobody owns.

And here’s the hard truth. Sometimes people won’t see the truth until they are made to trip over it.

That’s not a slam on the people. It’s a statement about the system. When we don’t make standards visible, when we don’t create a routine for seeing problems, and when leaders don’t have a method to confront what is right in front of them, the project drifts into “whatever.” Not because people are bad, but because the environment is letting it happen.

So I want to give you a method that raises standards fast, builds shared ownership, and helps you regain operational control without living in a constant state of yelling, policing, or exhaustion. It’s simple. It’s practical. And it works.

It’s the superintendent walk. Sometimes I call it the foreman walk, depending on who you bring. But the principle is the same. You take your leaders through the building weekly, you let them see the truth together, and you force the environment to tell the truth out loud.

“We Keep Talking About Standards, But Nothing Changes”

A lot of leaders talk about cleanliness, safety, organization, and quality like they are values. They’ll say the right things in meetings. They’ll hang posters. They’ll send emails. They’ll ask for buy-in. Then the site looks the same on Friday as it did on Monday.

That’s because values don’t drive behavior. Systems drive behavior.

If your system for standards is a speech, you will get speech-level results. If your system is a weekly routine where leaders have to physically walk the work, see deviations, call them out, and fix them, you will get field-level results.

This is why the superintendent walk can be so powerful. It makes the standards real. It makes the gaps undeniable. It removes the ability to pretend.

Standards That Live in People’s Heads Instead of the Jobsite

Most jobsite mess and safety issues are not the result of one big decision. They are the result of a thousand tiny non-decisions. Someone saw it and didn’t want to be “that person.” Someone assumed “they’re busy.” Someone thought, “It’s not my area.” Someone thought, “We’ll get it later.” Later never comes.

This is how projects slip. Not because the team didn’t care, but because the system didn’t create ownership in the moment.

When you don’t have a visible standard and a routine to check it, your team will default to whatever the loudest personality tolerates. If the loudest personality shrugs, the project shrugs. If the loudest personality treats chaos as normal, chaos becomes normal.

That is the set point. And if you want operational excellence, you have to raise it.

The System Failed Them; They Didn’t Fail the System

I’ve worked with leaders who weren’t naturally comfortable with “zero tolerance.” They weren’t trying to be weak. They just didn’t want to be harsh. They didn’t want to be confrontational. They wanted the team to do the right thing without feeling like they were running a prison.

I get that. Not everybody’s style is to lay down rules and enforce them hard.

But if you don’t have a method, you will either tolerate too much or you will burn yourself out trying to personally inspect everything. Either way, your people lose clarity, and the project loses control.

The superintendent walk is a respectful way to raise standards without creating a culture of fear. It’s direct, but it’s not demeaning. It’s visible, but it’s not personal. It’s a system.

The Walk That Made People “Trip Over It”

I was on a project once where a superintendent decided to schedule a superintendent walk once or twice a week. He didn’t implement the strict zero tolerance approach the way I normally recommend. Instead, he created a routine where every superintendent on site had to walk the building together, point at problems together, decide the standards together, and fix things as they went.

It was effective. The project was clean. The site was safe. The operation looked tight. People weren’t guessing. They were seeing the same reality at the same time.

They still struggled with a couple of things, like consistent 100% PPE, but the overall result was operationally excellent. Not because they had magical people, but because they had a method that made the truth visible.

People Change When the Truth Can’t Be Avoided

Chip and Dan Heath tell a story that I’ll never forget, and it’s the reason the phrase “Whose poop is this?” sticks in your brain.

The story is about sanitation work in villages where open defecation was common and disease spread through the environment. The key insight was that the problem wasn’t just “hardware.” You can build latrines and still not change behavior if people do not feel the need to change.

The intervention that worked wasn’t a lecture. It was a walk. A guided walk where the truth was made visible, where the community had to look at the reality together, and where the facilitator asked questions that forced ownership and disgust. The goal was not to shame individuals. The goal was to make the system visible enough that the community would choose change.

That’s the point. People often live with a truth they refuse to discuss until it gets pulled into the daylight.

Construction is the same way. If you want cleanliness, safety, and operational control, you cannot rely on hope. You have to make the truth visible in a way that leaders cannot rationalize away.

The Superintendent Walk as a Jobsite “Ignition” System

A superintendent walk is not a casual stroll. It is a leadership system designed to make standards visible and deviations undeniable.

If you want this to work, treat it like a routine, not a special event. Pick a consistent cadence, usually weekly. I like putting it on a “no office meeting day,” meaning a day where you don’t schedule office-based meetings like coordination meetings, owner meetings, BIM meetings, or pre-install meetings. The field still runs huddles. The point is to protect production focus while still creating leadership visibility.

Start with a short huddle. Set the purpose of the walk. Clarify what you’re looking for. Decide what “good” looks like today. Then walk the building together.

As you move, you stop at deviations. You gather the group. You point. You ask questions. You get the team to talk. You create shared understanding. Then you assign ownership and create follow-through.

If you do this right, you build a culture where leaders learn how to see.

And if leaders learn how to see, the job changes fast.

What You Say on the Walk Matters More Than What You See

A good walk is not just inspection. It’s coaching in real time.

You do not need to humiliate anyone. You do not need to blame trades or foremen. In fact, you should never do that. The system failed them; they didn’t fail the system. Your job is to create clarity, expectations, and follow-through.

On the walk, you can ask questions like, “What’s the standard here?” and “What’s the risk if we allow this?” and “Who owns this area?” and “What would excellent look like by end of day?”

When leaders answer those questions together, they start to build a shared mental model. That shared mental model is the foundation of operational control.

What to Look for Without Turning the Walk Into a Checklist

You don’t want a walk that feels like paperwork. But you do want consistent signals that tell you whether your standards are working. Here are a few natural categories that keep the walk focused without turning it into a list-driven culture.

• Walkways and access that show whether the site is being respected and kept safe for movement.
• Laydown and material staging that reveal whether you have control or whether inventory is controlling you.
• PPE and exposure points that show whether the team is serious about protecting people.
• Temporary protection and finished work protection that reveal whether you are “finishing as you go” or planning for damage and rework.
• Housekeeping in high-traffic areas that tells you what the set point of the project really is, not what people say it is.

If your leaders can see these consistently, your standards stop being theoretical.

Standards Are Not Separate From Production

This is where Lean thinking matters. You cannot separate standards from flow. A clean, safe, organized site is not a “nice to have.” It’s a production strategy.

When areas are cluttered, you create motion waste. When access is blocked, you create delays. When materials are staged randomly, you create searching and double-handling. When PPE is inconsistent, you risk injuries that stop flow entirely. When protection is missing, you invite rework that steals time and destroys morale.

This is why the walk is not about being picky. It’s about creating an environment where flow can happen.

At Elevate Construction and in our LeanTakt work, we care deeply about flow because flow is what protects people, schedules, and families. If the plan requires burnout, the plan is broken. And if the job requires chaos to “stay busy,” the system is broken.

Zero Tolerance and the Walk: Use Both, Not Either-Or

I’ll say it plainly. Zero tolerance is powerful when used correctly. It sets non-negotiables that protect people and the operation. But some leaders struggle to implement it consistently, and some cultures need a bridge.

The walk can be that bridge. It helps people see. It helps leaders align. It creates a shared standard. Then zero tolerance becomes easier because it’s no longer “Jason’s preference” or “the superintendent being picky.” It becomes “this is who we are.”

That is where culture shifts from enforcement to identity.

Get Help if You Want This to Stick

Most leaders can start a walk. The difference is whether it becomes a lasting system that raises the set point of the entire project.

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

This is what we do. We help teams build systems that make excellence repeatable.

How to Make the Walk Create Ownership Instead of Complaints

A walk can turn into a gripe session if you let it. The goal is ownership, not venting. Here are a few ways to keep it productive.

• Start by defining what “good” looks like today so the team isn’t guessing standards.
• Ask “Who owns this area?” and “What’s the fix?” before you ask “Why did this happen?”
• Have leaders propose solutions on the spot so the team is building the standard, not receiving a lecture.
• Close each stop with a clear commitment and a time, so it becomes follow-through, not commentary.
• End the walk by recognizing what looks excellent, so the team knows what to repeat.

That’s how you build leaders who build the environment.

Respect for People Is a Production Strategy

If you take nothing else from this, take this. Clean, safe, organized, stable projects are not about control for control’s sake. They are about dignity.

When we allow chaos, the people at the bottom pay for it. They pay in stress. They pay in injuries. They pay in weekends lost to recovery and rework. They pay in family time. They pay for leadership indecision.

We’re building people who build things. That means we create systems that support them. Standards are not punishment. Standards are protection.

Make the Truth Visible and Raise the Set Point

The phrase “Whose poop is this?” is memorable because it captures something we all know but rarely admit. People will tolerate what they can look away from. If you want change, you have to bring the truth into daylight in a way that makes it impossible to ignore.

Do the walk. Make it weekly. Bring the leaders. Ask the questions. Define the standards together. Create ownership. Follow through. Raise the set point.

1. Edwards Deming said, “A bad system will beat a good person every time.” Build a system that helps good people win. On we go.

FAQ

What is a superintendent walk in construction?
A superintendent walk is a structured, routine leadership walk where key leaders tour the jobsite together to identify deviations from standards and assign ownership for fixes in real time.

How often should we do a foreman or superintendent walk?
Weekly is a strong baseline, and some projects benefit from twice weekly during high-risk or high-complexity phases. The key is consistency, not intensity.

How do we keep the walk from turning into blame?
Focus on the standard and the system, not the person. Ask for ownership and solutions, reinforce good examples, and treat deviations as signals that the system needs clarity or support.

Does this replace zero tolerance policies?
No. The walk supports zero tolerance by building shared understanding and consistent expectations. Together they create operational control without relying on constant policing.

How does this connect to Lean and Takt planning?
Flow requires stability. Superintendent walks help maintain clean, safe, organized conditions that support reliable flow, better handoffs, and fewer disruptions, which strengthens Takt and overall production.