Hoots on the Ground | The Lean Builder

In this episode, Hoots interviews Mr. Ray Terry who is 71 years young, going on 40, and super passionate about putting tools in schools. Through Ray's organization *Put Tools in Schools*, he has been to 10 high schools and spoke with over 5,000 students this year. That is 33% of the high schools in the Charlotte Mecklenburg Area. Ray is not afraid to step on toes and spread his beliefs and message...

Tune into this first episode of the second season! Hoots highlights one of his lean heroes, Niklas Modig! The author of This is Lean who coached Hoots when he was with DPR Construction. Niklas helped Hoots understand the story of the Toyota dealership that won the award of Role Model of the Year. This company went from being one of the worst performing dealerships (#287) to the best performing com...

In this episode, Hoots discovers and introduces the lean builder nation to Justin Uyar, of Shelco Contractors out of Charlotte, NC. Justin is a newlywed, and super proud of his new wife who is a vet technician! Somehow Justin ended up going to Clemson yet is a Carolina Gamecock fan. If you're from the southeast, this is a big sin! Justin started on the route to becoming a civil engineer. After spe...

Matt Olshefski shares his 26 th wedding anniversary with Adam Hoots on this episode of The Lean Builder's Hoots on the Ground with No Bullshido! He dives into the story of meeting his wonderful bride in the parking lot! Matt mentions trust as being important to maintain a relationship for 26 years! Matt started his lean journey as a laborer on a construction site and has progressed to his current...

In this episode, Hoots on the Ground discusses the comfort zone! Hoots runs through why the comfort zone is important and how we need to move through our fear zone and into the learning and growth zone. Hoots shows off some of the famous illustrator Jennifer Lacy's work. Be comfortable being uncomfortable! Hoots explains some of the awkward moment in his personal life! For instance, have you ever...

In this episode, Hoots on the Ground interviews George Hunt who is on a project site in North Carolina. George dives into his curious self, insert Curious George joke here! He tells us about his family's Christmas tree farm where he worked until high school. The conversation was brilliant as George enlightens us throughout this entire episode! Sir George breaks down what he learned from the 2022 L...

In this episode, Hoots on the Ground interviews Kevin Rice, Chief Operating Officer for Elevate Construction and discovers a laborer that went from ripping out flooring, to placing concrete, and eventually managing work for a General Contractor. Currently he is coaching construction teams on takt planning nationwide and in Canada! Hoots and Kevin took part in Elevate Construction's field engineer...

In this episode, Hoots on the Ground interviews Dr. Colin Milberg and hears his story on how he went from packing dumpsters and swinging hammers demolishing work. Working for his father, who was a residential contractor AND a psychologist. His mother, also a psychologist, Colin has an interesting and unique view on respect for people. Colin tells story after story on how he came to know about lean...

In this episode, Hoots on the Ground downloads the Lean Builder Nation on LCI NOLA style! Live from New Orleans, LA Hoots does a quick pause & reflect moment near the river and you're able to hear some of the street performers playing music in the background. Hoots highlights some of the best presentations that he witnesses at LCI and talks a little bit about the Unconference, which was his highli...

This episode is video of Lean Construction Blog's Lean in the Field Conference from a month ago and Adam Hoots introduces the world to his wife Brittany Hoots. Adam claims that Brittany has taught him more than anyone else when it comes to trust. Tune in to hear them flow together on how important trust is, how to make, maintain, and measure trust. Hoots breaks down the circle of trust process and...

In this episode Tom and Jeremy share their secrets on how they've gotten the LCI Community of Practice performing to the next level! LCI has selected New Orleans, LA and Jeremy and Tom explain the theme of LCI Congress which starts the week of 10/17/2022. What is Gumbo? Who makes the best Gumbo!? Here Hoots get a little vulnerable while Tom and Huckleberry as they teach him exactly what gumbo is a...

In this episode, Hoots meets Carey George and discuss his approach to running work and how he's always had a lean mindset when building projects. As a superintendent with over 45 years of construction experience, Carey offers a lot of wise knowledge in this episode! Carey highlights Keith Patterson from Waco Construction who taught him how to be a great Superintendent. The conversation ranges from...

In this episode, Hoots discovers who James Bouton is! James tells us about all of his girls and his mission to bring compassion into the world. He tells us all about his lean journey and experience working with a Japanese based General Contractor. The conversation lightly touches on mental health and death by suicide. Brace yourself as Hoots gets on his soap box when it comes to Percent Plan Compl...

In this episode, Keyan and Hoots discuss chapter 7 from The Lean Builder. This chapter describes the race between Alan and his father while trying to chop down a row full of trees as Alan was growing up. You either have to read the book or listen to the podcast to find out result of the story! Constantly 'sharpening our saw' allows us to be more productive in the long run. This is something that H...

This episode, Spencer Easton announces big changes in his life and appreciation and admiration for the lean community who has had his back through some tough times over the last few weeks. From his first vehicle, an ambulance to being a recovering CMP guru, to his father who helped Spencer develop a love hate relationship with construction – Spencer puts it all out there! He is by far one of the m...

Tune in to this episode to meet Kyle Potts, the Unicorn of Superintendents! Kyle is a true "pracademic" as he is running a major project, earned two master's degrees, and is currently working on obtaining a doctorate degree! Wow!! Not to mention, he predicted his future as a toddler when he told his pre-k class that he wanted to be a doctor and wear a yellow hat! He is well on his way as he pursue...

In this episode, Hoots discusses one of his favorite topics: Capability development! How many times on project sites have you heard, I don't care how you get it done, just get it done! This completely misses out on the point of innovation and improving on what we are doing. With too much emphasis on productivity and not enough on capability development, the construction industry doesn't take advan...

In this episode, Harry Schmidt, director of business strategy for O'Shea Builders, brings up a book titled The 5,000 Year Leap: A Miracle that Changed the World, which is about how framers built The Constitution of the United States . Hoots compares this to the CDC's socio-ecological model on how to prevent disease spread. Both concepts are compared to how the construction industry develops indivi...

Tune into this episode as L.R. (Lee, Leandris) informs the Lean Builder Nation who he is and where he got his initials from! Working with Layton Construction, a national healthcare builder, LR helps us to understand how he is incorporating lean principles throughout project sites. New in the role, but not to Lean he has been practicing since 2014. Lee clearly understands people as he advocates for...

In this episode, Hoots discovers who Josh Kreitler is! Graduating college during a recession in 2009 led Josh to work for an aerospace manufacturing machine shop. Josh takes us through his lean journey starting with manufacturing and taking advantage of these concepts once he had the opportunity to run his own project! Josh tells us about his role with McCarthy Building Companies and all of the am...

In this episode, Hoots and Key review one of the many principles in Jason Schroeder's book Elevating Construction Superintendents. This principle is on personal organization and time management. Time management is an oxymoron. You cannot manage time; you can only manage yourself within the time that has been allotted. Time will go on with or without you! You have to plan your week in order to maxi...

In this episode, Hoots on The Ground grills Felipe Engineer-Manriquez on Scrum. Felipe does an excellent job helping The Lean Builder Nation understand what Scrum is and how to apply. Felipe dives into his recently released book titled Construction Scrum , and we give that a quick review. We discuss a few of the stories at the beginning of the book and then discuss the Scrum Guide by JJ Southerlan...

'Respect for People' has become a cliché within the construction industry. Everyone is talking about it but few people are actually practicing true respect for people. In this episode, Hoots flirts with the idea of the term Respect for Resources with Respect for People being one of the many categories of Respect necessary for a productive project site. Hoots runs through each of these categories w...

This is a new segment that we are coming to you with via the inspiration from Harry Schmidt with O'shea Builders! R&D (Rip & Deploy). Join us on the first episode as The Lean Builder's Keyan Zandy breaks down the communication styles between generations and how this can affect how we delegate tasks or activities. He describes how each generation communicates the best. He also breaks down what the...

In this episode, we get to meet a great Holt Construction project team working at the DFW Airport. Sarah tells us about how she started early on working with her grandfather out of Louisiana. We learn more about Armando's story coming through construction from a laborer to a General Superintendent. Armando asks Hoots a great question on what the deal is with the bullshido of the word culture!? Hoo...