Elevate Construction

Jason takes on a hard topic in this episode and calls out the mindset that's silently killing project leadership: playing tennis instead of football. He shares the story of a project engineer who likened his job to tennis, and a project director who would show up to a site, open his laptop, answer emails, and leave without ever leading a single thing. The episode breaks down the real difference be...

Recording stories for Elevating Construction Surveyors book with Brandon Monteiro. Sections on resection, planning daily tasks, applied leveling, level loops, and layout basics. Resection means shoot known points throughout day for QC. Three-wire closed level loops provide double QC methods built right into it. Layout basics means turn 90s manually, flop instrument, see equipment capabilities. Wha...

O'Shea Builders shares lean journey results with Harry Schmidt and Tyler Cormany. Mike O'Shea hired organizational development professionals when company had 35 employees. Doubled staff from 30 to 60 FTEs and got 10x revenue growth. Five people dedicated to overhead: two for people development, three for business strategy. What you'll learn in this episode: Flywheel concept: overnight success 10-1...

Petty Coach Schmidt Micro Mondays presented Ten Commandments of Construction Change Orders. Know thy contract. Do not give away thy leverage. Never perform change work without written signed authorized change order. Ryan Young tracked everything with PCO number in CMIC. Thy job is not finished until the money be collected. What you'll learn in this episode: Ten Commandments: know contract, do not...

The Upside of Stress book came into Jason's life after praying about enjoying the journey. Stress is only harmful to your health if you believe it is. Stress paradox says happy lives include stress. Japanese life expectancy is longer despite more stressful lives. Channel stress into energy that boosts performance instead of trying to calm down. What you'll learn in this episode: Three lessons: str...

Recording stories for Elevating Construction Surveyors book sections six through ten. Math is fundamental pillar, property corners set wrong because party chief did not know doubled angle math. Work is done when math checks out not when finished performing task. Surveyor's client is draftsperson not civil engineer. It's on the cap is not good enough for professional surveyor. What you'll learn in...

Recording stories for Elevating Construction Surveyors book with Brandon Monteiro. Sections one through five covering Rodman technician through learning to read plans. Joe the chainman cut line in wrong direction because head was down working. Plan set is gospel but must QC everything. Don't trust anybody like Indiana Jones Last Crusade. What you'll learn in this episode: Rodman technician: Joe cu...

Created Miro board with complete outline for Takt planning journey. Start here, step by step instructions with links to podcasts, blogs, books, Amazon orders. McCarthy $480M project shaved three months with Takt. Board has red notes for future content Spencer and Jason will add. What you'll learn in this episode: Miro board outline: complete step by step Takt planning journey for individuals teams...

Construction industry has a major problem. General contractors abusing trade partners and running dirty job sites. Stop victim mentality about COVID and supply chains. Everything wrong on project site is general contractor's fault. Superintendent saying I've been doing this 35 years and it's fine is stupid because everyone around him had to smell the mess. What you'll learn in this episode: Indust...

Being a life diabetic means having too much care but not enough time to communicate it. Blood sugar is your care and concern. Insulin is time and resources to transfer that care to people who need it. If you care about too many things and everything is important then nothing is important. Would you rather be 100 percent with four things or 40 percent with 10 things. What you'll learn in this episo...

How you do one thing is how you do everything. No such thing as good superintendent who cannot write emails or schedule. Jason took college courses and learned essay structure, grammar, and how to communicate clearly. Executive positions require skilled communicators in interviews, proposals, OAC meetings, design meetings, and emails. What you'll learn in this episode: Master big and little things...

Fixed mindset versus growth mindset determines progress. Fixed mindset defines self by what they know, growth mindset by what they are learning. Boot camps reveal people to themselves like Navy SEAL training. Heaven is about choice, agency, and progress. Organizations need boot camps to give everyone opportunity regardless of circumstance. What you'll learn in this episode: Fixed versus growth: fi...

Pilot on plane cannot be heard, flight attendant clear. Are you clear with your message or mumbling wasting time. Message needs to be clear, passionate, repeated seven times. Katie says everything is your fault if not clear enough. Leaders must overcommunicate where they are going. What you'll learn in this episode: Pilot mumbling: can't hear a thing, flight attendant projects clearly, are people...

Fixed mindset versus growth mindset determines progress. Fixed mindset defines self by what they know, growth mindset by what they are learning. Boot camps reveal people to themselves like Navy SEAL training. Heaven is about choice, agency, and progress. Organizations need boot camps to give everyone opportunity regardless of circumstance. What you'll learn in this episode: Fixed versus growth: fi...

Moving walkway analogy about safety managers. People stop on walkway and go slower than walking. Three options: walk yourself at good pace, use walkway and walk twice as fast, or use walkway and stop going slower. Culture eats strategy for breakfast determines which happens. What you'll learn in this episode: Three options: do without at good pace, use moving walkway and walk twice as fast, use an...

Widen your circle by looping in your team. Fire truck incident taught Jason to copy everyone on emails and text the group. WhatsApp is best platform for team communication. Field engineer asked how to make decisions without stepping on toes. Trust is built when team knows what each other is doing. What you'll learn in this episode: Fire truck lesson: Derek asked why Jason didn't tell team, you are...

Jason calls this one of the single most important podcasts he could ever record. He builds on the German simulation with Janosch Dlouhy and Marco Binninger and uses two simple games, a clapping rhythm exercise from church and the opposing squares game, to explain what flow actually feels like inside a Takt system. The big idea: stop pushing work forward into the next Takt time, and start using the...

Jason records from the car with his daughter Effie Lee Schroeder and Brandon Montero on the way to a boot camp, and they tackle a topic that hits home for nearly every leader: creating capacity in your personal life so you can keep showing up at your best. They reflect on people Jason and Brandon both know who started powerful improvement efforts but stalled out under overburden. They share what e...

Jason continues recording from his hotel in Mexico and takes on the short interval scheduling responsibilities of foremen and assistant superintendents. He walks through the history from 1965 push CPM lookaheads, through the last planner system with weekly work plans and percent plan complete, all the way to today's gap where many new foremen and supers can't even create a three week schedule them...

Jason records from a hotel room in Guadalajara, Mexico, before delivering a Takt training at LCI Mexico, and tackles one of the biggest reasons projects say Takt planning didn't work for them: the rigid five day Takt time locked between Monday and Saturday. He walks through when a five day Takt is the right call (early conceptual and schematic design schedules), when it stops working (during optim...

Jason coins the Jack in the Box Effect to describe what happens when leadership teams implement strategic decisions in a silo and accidentally trigger the opposite of what they wanted. He shares the story of being asked to back up two car lengths at a Jack in the Box drive thru so the timer would reset, then maps that exact pattern onto leadership teams that issue safety policies, performance metr...

Jason records a short, enthusiastic podcast from the road about Miro and how it's transformed the way he coaches, consults, and runs Elevate Construction. He traces his journey from using Mural during Felipe Engineer-Manriquez's Scrum course to discovering Miro through Nicholas Modig's work, and how it's now the visual backbone of every client coaching board, podcast outline, and church service pr...

Jason sits down with Hal Macomber for a deep, substantive conversation on Takt construction, the production laws behind it, and why most of the industry still doesn't understand what flow actually means. Hal shares the story of his master class at LCI Congress with George Hunt of Touchplan, the Cory Hackler twin towers project in La Jolla, the Doyle Wilson Builders half day Takt homes in Austin, a...

Jason takes on a hard truth in this episode: if a superintendent doesn't create, manage, and live inside the project schedule, that schedule is toilet paper. He walks through the cycle that plays out on jobs everywhere, where the PM produces a schedule, the superintendent doesn't use it, and the project pivots to the huddle board in someone's head. The episode is a direct call for superintendents...

Jason continues the personal coaching series with a candid episode on professional conduct. He shares the story of interviewing a candidate who sounded like he was talking to a parole officer, references John Wayne's "I can't stand a liar" moment from The Cowboys, and walks through the foundational standards every worker, foreman, superintendent, and leader needs to live up to. From confidentialit...