Successfully introducing Lean construction in your organization

Katherine Van Adzin:

Hi, Jeremy. Could you introduce yourself briefly?

Jeremy Atkinson:

I'm Jeremy Atkinson. Actually, I work with Landis Construction but also have a big role with NOLA Lean down here in New Orleans. I actually play other roles too, like I'm with the LCI, the CoP, the Champion CoP, another one I work with here. Then I work a lot with ABC, Associated Builders and Contractors doing a Lean Learning Series, which we're actually working with you guys at Bosch on for an upcoming Lean Roadshow that's going to be right here in New Orleans. I'm pretty excited about that.

So, I grew up in Louisiana. After high school I went to college and joined the military. After 10 years of that I got out and got into construction and then had a short job at a small family company before ending up at Landis. And I've been here at Landis for about 10 years now. Started off as a project engineer, that's what I started out as, and became project manager, and then now my official role title is Process Improvement and Project Management where mainly I focus on not just project management, but helping different departments and teams on their process improvement, Lean coaching. And I have fingers in a little bit of everything, so.

But really, the bottom line is when they gave me the role was they asked me the question of, "What do you want do?" And I said, "I just want to help people." So they kind of tried to put me in a position that allows me to help as many people as I can at the company.

Katherine Van Adzin:

That sounds fantastic and it sounds like a very good fit for you.

Jeremy Atkinson:

Yeah, that's what gets me up in the morning.

Katherine Van Adzin:

So when you encounter people who are new to Lean construction, how do you frame the benefits when you're talking to them?

Jeremy Atkinson:

Carefully, because sometimes people really see the word as — Lean can come off as, "Oh, just another fad word," right? Or another buzzword. So I really try to focus on kind of like that Paul Akers thought process, to “fix what bugs you.” So really starting there and kind of asking them those questions, talking about, asking what is it that frustrates them about their job, whether it's in construction or not, because Lean applies across the board.

And once you figure out what bugs them, then you can start talking about Lean and maybe how it benefits and maybe, I don't necessarily use the [Lean] terminology, but maybe start to talk about, "Hey, there are better ways to do planning." Right? "There are better ways to do coordination and collaboration." And then you could lead those into some of our principles with our six tenets of Lean and start talking about, "Hey, this is all called Lean."

And it's really designed to fix what's bugging them. Because more likely if somebody tells me the things that are bugging them, it's going to be somewhere I can relate it and tie it to a Lean concept or principle and say that Lean was really designed to fix those things. It's all about trying to make your work life better, which in turn should make your actual home life better too. Because I'm a firm believer that there's no such thing as a work-life balance. It's all integral.

And what I mean by that is if you look at how many hours a week, a typical person works 40 hours in a week over this lifespan of that week, that's almost a quarter of their life is really spent working. So how can you not have those two come together where if you're benefiting from the work life, it's going to help with your home life, or vice versa?

It's like when people have a bad day, if they have a bad day at home, they're going to have a bad day at work too. And we've got to remember those concepts, and Lean tries to focus on that, to really focus on the person and make their lives a little better.

Katherine Van Adzin:

Yeah, I think that's really key, is making sure that you get into a positive cycle of good day at work, good day at home, and then that leads into the next day ideally. So for teams just starting off with Lean, what do you tell them to do first? How do they get started?

Jeremy Atkinson:

One, again, focus on what's bugging them the most, right? So with a lot of my teams I start with typically it's something like, "Let's just do a daily huddle." Let's do one small thing.

And you always want to start small. I remember my very first Lean Congress, man, I was so excited. I had all these ideas in my head and everything that I wanted to do with my teams. I just wanted to come back and I was going to start doing it all.

Luckily I ran into an architect at a networking event and he said, "Hey man, pick one thing. Focus on that one thing and once you get that established, go to the next thing and the next thing. Because if you try to do it all at once, you're going to lose people. You're going to overburden them, you're going to feel like it's too much. You won't be able to get to actually take off."

So always try to talk and tell them like, "Hey, start small and get the small win. After you get that small win, go to the next win and the next win and grow and get bigger." But another key part of that there too is that I tell them too is you can't just have one person trying to do it all. I learned that lesson the hard way myself.

You can't be the facilitator, the Lean champion and the coach all in one role. There's too much to handle. You need to have somebody that's going to be a champion, somebody else that can be a coach, someone else can be a facilitator. Maybe even rotate those roles a little bit.

But when I tried to do that all by myself, balls would get dropped, I would get burned out. You'd just lose some of the motivation. So small-bite stuff and then delegate out roles.

Katherine Van Adzin:

Small batch sizes, right?

Jeremy Atkinson:

That's right.

Katie Van Adzin:

As Lean becomes better known in the industry, how do you think things will change? What is the next step for Lean and construction?

Jeremy Atkinson:

So at least in my general area, the big thing that we've noticed is a lot of the general contractors, you can't come across a general contractor here in New Orleans who doesn't know what Lean is or isn't practicing some form of it.

The biggest struggle we all have as a group though is getting those trade partners to get more involved. So at least in here locally, I think that's kind of where we're starting to turn more of a focus to, is how do we get these trades on board with Lean and the Lean principles and tenets?

And that's tough. It's a tough sell. And actually, I think it was last year I did a whole study action team on why Lean trade partners have such a hard time getting into it. And a lot of it comes down to education, people doing fake Lean. That's a big one we have to fight with, so we have to get through that. And just a lot of it, just willing to be vulnerable and let go of the way they used to do things and actually keep creating a safe place for them to learn.

And so as general contractors, we need to look at that and really tackle those problems in order for us to actually get Lean to continue to grow I think within the industry really is getting in those people at that level. Because, honesty too, right? That's the thing we preach like, "Yeah, we're the general contractor." We're more of a facilitator of Lean in reality, right? Yes, we try to push the principles and do the work, but who's actually doing it? It's those Last Planners®. And who are those Last Planners really? Those are the trade partners. Those are the guys in the field, in the trenches, putting work into place, getting it done. They're the ones who need Lean the most. And we as GCs need to be able to find a way to get them to use it and really be more of that facilitator.

Katherine Van Adzin:

I think that's a really interesting way to put it. I think that's a great thing for people to keep in mind. Well, thank you so much, Jeremy, for these insights. It was fantastic talking to you.

Jeremy Atkinson:

Yeah, it was great talking to you too. Thank you.