High-Performance Leadership #10 - Facilitation of Collaborative Problem Solving

In this tenth and final post, we present more of what you need to know to become a High-Performance Leader. In this post we finish the discussion of collaborative problem solving started in HPL Post #9. This post presents a facilitator’s roadmap for a series of small agreements that lead to a solid final agreement.

The Big Pull Planning Mistake Projects Make

Many project leaders have been conditioned to understand a good plan as a good schedule. Believing they have a good schedule; the expectation is that every player on a project team will be able to follow the schedule and the project will progress as planned. This can work on a slow-paced project in which the natural variability in productivity has little impact.

Using Scrum Role Definition to Assist Site Management

An observed shortcoming in construction site management is the over-reliance on high-performing individuals. While this can benefit the company and project initially, it also poses a risk of burnout for those individuals and may inhibit other team members from growing due to a lack of delegation or trust.

A Lean-based Index To Predict and Prevent Delays in Construction Projects

In the pursuit of greater reliability and control over project deadlines, Lean Construction professionals are increasingly turning to location-based planning and takt-driven production. While traditional indicators like physical progress measure what has been done, they often fail to predict when a project will be completed.

How Wise Construction Reduced a Construction Schedule by More Than 25%

In late May of 2023 Wise Construction began the renovation of a 20,000-square-foot hospital wing that provides Newton-Wellesley Hospital outside of Boston with a 24-bed medical/surgical unit.

High-Performance Leadership #9 - Collaborative Problem Solving

In this post #9 we'll discuss how to lead problem-solving efforts. Big agreements at the end of a problem-solving process are generated by a series of smaller agreements. Put another way, if you don't agree on the problem, you probably won't agree on the solution.

Avoid Lean Construction; why?

Lean Construction (LC) categorizes the project’s activities as Value-Added (VA) activities and Non-Value-Added (NAV) activities. The second category has eight different types: 1) Rework; 2) Overproduction; 3) Transportation; 4) Inventory; 5) Waiting; 6) Over-processing; 7) Unnecessary Movement; and 8) Non-Utilized Talent [1-8].

Process Mapping as Key to Capital Project Continuous Improvement

When people discuss waste in design and construction, most of the conversation focuses on the work performed by tradespeople in the field. We see excessive material, people waiting, and rework because these forms of waste are visible. The waste embedded in many management processes is much less visible.

Building an internal lean infrastructure to scale up lean deployment in a company with over 10,000 employees

WasteWalk Observations have led to the identification of over $300MM worth of estimated and $52MM of actual net cost savings/added value on over 300 projects and yards. 2024 saw the highest employee engagement in WasteWalks since introducing them as a Building Smarter best practice in 2022.

How to Improve Design and Engineering for Upstream Projects

Upstream capital projects are dynamic and complex endeavors. Their criticality continues to increase, as producers look to meet market demand and carbon reduction commitments, in addition to producing revenue faster through project acceleration.

Last Planner and Takt Software Directory

This directory contains all of the Last Planner and Takt Software on the market. We encourage you to do your own research, set up a call with the vendors, and choose the software that fits your needs. This directory is meant to make it easy to find, compare, and make the decision on which software you can use.