3 Questions Following the 2024 LCI Congress

The 2024 Lean Construction Institute Congress in San Diego was a great opportunity to reconnect with friends and learn what people in the AEC industry are doing to implement lean design and construction practices. The Congress left me considering three questions.?

Is changing people really the issue?

The belief that we need to convince people they should embrace change assumes the scarcity of continuous improvement growth mindsets among members of a project team is somehow natural. We therefore must “change our people or change our people.”

A more accurate assessment is that many people have been conditioned to repress their natural growth mindsets, often beginning at a young age. Many children learn not to challenge the status quo and not to question things they “don’t understand.” This carries through from school to many professional organizations, within which conformance is prized, often in unrecognized ways. Immunity to Change by Robert Kegan and Lisa Laskow Lahey describes well how this dynamic stunts a growth mindset through our development of protective measures against threats that may not exist in our present environment.

During conversations at the Congress, several people were open to the idea that rather than change people, we can focus on unleashing their natural capacity for contribution to collaborative work. Brain studies indicate that people have a natural desire for growth that supports shared causes. The challenge for all of us is to design work teams and environments that recognize and celebrate our individual strengths, valuing them over conformance.

Has any AEC company changed its business model because of lean practices?

I received both pushback and agreement when I asserted that no AEC company has changed its business model due to lean design or construction practices.

While individual projects using a high intensity of lean practices have demonstrated superior performance, no design or construction firm has yet to figure out how to leverage these practices in a strategic sense. The implementations are tactical, and far from universal in any organization.?

Should the lean community be emphasizing continuous improvement in personal health and fitness?

This question wasn’t discussed directly, however inviting Jocko Willink to be a keynote speaker opens the door. Nearly half his book, Discipline Equals Freedom, is directly focused on a health-oriented lifestyle through physical conditioning and nutrition.

This can be a sensitive question, as different causes have led many of us to neglect aspects of our personal health. Conversations about health can unfortunately appear, or even become, judgmental.?

This is unfortunate, because there is relatively recent research that reveals the importance of skeletal muscle for longevity and vitality. As we age skeletal muscle declines without regular, trained exertion and proper nutrition. Additionally, declines in aerobic capacity accelerate without regular conditioning.

Combatting declines in our health as we age is one reason for focusing on physical conditioning and nutrition. Another reason is that both, and especially physical conditioning, provide an opportunity to regularly experience a training concept known as progressive overload. In strength training using weights or weight machines progressive overload is the slow and periodic increase in either weight moved or repetitions. A similar concept can be applied to aerobic activities.

More importantly, progressive overload as another way of describing continuous improvement can be applied to our work. By applying the concept to regular physical conditioning, we may be reinforcing a continuous improvement growth mindset that we will apply to our work, while becoming healthier.