The Huddle Board Should NOT Be in Your Head!

I had a burst of inspiration when Brandon Montero and I were doing a boot camp at Petty Coach Schmidt. It came together all of a sudden, and I realized I’d been complaining about two separate things for years without knowing how to connect them. Now it’s clear: your huddle board is in your head. And that’s exactly why you’re fighting fires.

Short answer: If the plan lives in the superintendent’s head, everyone has to come to the superintendent for every answer, and the day turns into firefighting. Put the plan on a visual huddle board (attack plan, six-week look-ahead, weekly work plan, logistics, roadblocks and production tracking) so people go to the board instead of to you, and you can get back to steering the ship.

The first time I started consulting and traveling around the country, I went to a job in Florida, about eight to ten years ago. The superintendent told me he was doing Lean. “Here’s the huddle board. Here’s this, here’s that.” We walked around the project and it was still unsafe, chaos, dirty, no organization. But the superintendent was proud. “Look at this, look at this.” And I’m thinking, “What’s going on?”

The chaos came from the fact that nobody knew the plan. The master schedule wasn’t anywhere to be seen. They didn’t know what the short interval schedule was. He didn’t have a weekly work plan. When I asked, “How do people know where they’re headed?” the superintendent said, “Oh, I tell them.” What do you mean you tell them? “Well, yeah. I have the plan. It’s all in my head.”

And that was the problem. The huddle board was in his mind. Nobody could see it. Nobody could reference it. Nobody could coordinate with it. They had to come to him for everything. And he was running around playing savior, fighting fires, burning through adrenaline, having too much of a sense of importance because he was so needed. But that’s not the way superintendents should do things. If you’re fighting fires, you’re not doing your job as a superintendent.

Why Is a Huddle Board in Your Head a Problem?

I’ve been complaining about two things for a long time. Number one: superintendents that are always fighting fires and never steering the ship. Number two: superintendents that don’t have a visual control system, that don’t have a huddle board, that don’t have the information posted where people can see it.

And it finally clicked. These aren’t two separate problems. They’re the same problem. The huddle board is in the superintendent’s head, which means everyone has to come to the superintendent for every question, every decision, every bit of information. Which means the superintendent is fighting fires all day instead of steering the ship.

Here’s what it looks like in practice. The superintendent has the master schedule, the short interval schedule, the weekly work plan, the logistics plan, the roadblock list, the production tracking, all of it in their mind. So when a foreman needs to know what’s happening next week, they come to the superintendent. When a trade partner needs to know where to stage material, they come to the superintendent. When someone needs to know what the critical path is, they come to the superintendent.

The superintendent spends all day answering questions that should be answered by a visual board. They’re playing savior. They’re burning through adrenaline. They feel important because they’re so needed. But they’re not doing their actual job, which is steering the ship, keeping the ship in orbit, sailing forward.

Meanwhile, the project is chaos because the plan changes every time the superintendent talks to someone. Because it’s in their head, it’s not stable. It’s not visible. It’s not consistent. Different people get different versions depending on when they ask and what mood the superintendent is in.

What Should a Huddle Board Show?

If the huddle board is an actual visual board on the project site, it shows the overall attack plan schedule. It shows the six-week make-ready look-ahead, the weekly work plan, the logistics plan, and where materials are being staged. Production tracking. Roadblocks. All of the critical things that we would have to have or that we would get to have on a huddle board.

People will go reference that visually and reference the plan instead of referencing the plan inside the leader’s mind. And that changes everything. Instead of coming to the superintendent with every question, they go to the board. They see what’s happening this week. They see what’s coming in six weeks. They see where materials go. They see the roadblocks being tracked. They coordinate with each other based on the visual plan.

The superintendent stops fighting fires because the fires don’t start. People have the information they need. The plan is stable and visible. Coordination happens at the huddle board, not through the superintendent’s phone. The superintendent can actually do their job: steering the ship, solving the problems that can’t be solved by the team, improving the system, thinking ahead.

This whole time I’d been complaining about two separate things without knowing how to fix them. And now it’s clear. Get the huddle board out of your head and onto the wall. Visual control systems aren’t optional. They’re fundamental.

How Do You Build a Huddle Board That Works?

Huddle boards are not easy to make. You might need to spend some money on it. You might need to print some things. You might need to experiment. Here’s what it’s probably going to look like for you.

First, you’re going to get some outlines. You’re going to read the book Elevating Construction Superintendents and get the outline and say, “Okay, these are the things I want to show. I want to show my attack plan. I want to show my make-ready look-ahead. I want to show my weekly work plan. I’m going to show my roadblocks, my logistics, my sequence maps. I want to show my shout-outs, my daily agenda.” These typical things, these are the things you want to show.

Then you’re going to start printing things and it’s going to be too small or it’s going to be too awkward or you’re going to have to tape things together or you’re going to have the huddle board outside and it’s going to rain on it or it’s going to blow down or you’ll have stickies and the stickies are going to fall down. All the things. All the things that go wrong.

And you’re going to give up. And then the huddle board is going to go back into your mind because you don’t have to use the printer because you don’t have to use the tape because you don’t have to use the scissors and because you don’t have to pick up the stickies. But that is an absolute mistake. We have to press forward with the huddle board.

Here’s what it can look like next:

• Start experimenting with different prints and formats to see what works for your specific site and team size.
• Get a huddle board that’s weatherproof so rain doesn’t destroy your plan and wind doesn’t blow it down.
• Get a huddle board that’s larger so people can actually see it from a distance during morning huddles.
• Order professional signs once you know what works, because the investment pays for itself in reduced chaos.
• Get a 4-by-8 or 4-by-6 sheet of dry-erase whiteboard with sticky-sized boxes for your look-ahead schedule.
• Print your Takt plan on coroplast since it doesn’t change much, making it permanent and professional.
• Get your maps printed on board with plexiglass on top so you can write with dry-erase markers over it for logistics.
• Format a roadblock board with dry-erase Expo markers in a little box screwed to the board with an eraser.
• Print your agenda that you want to follow constantly so it’s always visible and consistent.
• Add a piece of string with tacks on top and bottom to show the current date on the Takt plan.
• Switch from stickies to dry-erase markers if stickies keep falling off in your environment.
• Add KPIs to your board that you can track visually so everyone sees progress.

You just start improving and improving it until you end up like these jobs that have really remarkable huddle boards and huddle rooms and conference rooms. On YouTube and on the Elevate Construction site, I show examples of these boards and huddle areas, remarkable ones that superintendents use day in and day out. They do a very good job and it’s very easy and it’s very self-sustaining.

What Does It Take to Keep a Huddle Board Going?

To get to that point, it’s going to take what David Goggins calls all the non-cognitive skills. Grit, determination, stick-to-it-iveness, an absolute fierce desire to get it done and to get it done right. This is what it’s going to take for you to get these huddle boards set up. It’s going to take all the non-cognitive skills.

The easy thing is to give up after the first attempt. The stickies fell off. The rain ruined it. It was too small. People couldn’t see it. So you put the plan back in your head where it’s easy, where you don’t need equipment, where you don’t need to print anything.

But that’s exactly the problem. When the plan is in your head, you become the bottleneck. You become the single point of failure. You fight fires all day because everyone needs you for everything. You never get to actually lead because you’re too busy being a human huddle board.

The hard thing is to press through the experimentation phase. To try different sizes. To invest in weatherproof materials. To order professional signs. To keep iterating until you have a huddle board system that actually works, that people actually use, that actually eliminates the need for you to be the information source for everything.

And to make it easier on you, Jason has put resources on the elevateconstructionist.com website. If you go to field resources, then to lean signage, and scroll down, there are all the boards you need. Hoist boards, potable water, project expectation boards, huddle agenda boards, teaming principles boards, construction planner system, weekly meeting plan, quality process, team coverage plan, project delivery board, day plan huddle board, six-week make-ready look-ahead board, banners. All this stuff. It’s all formatted there, free. You can replicate it, take an image, print it out yourself, or have it made through a signage company.

Why Are Visual Boards One of the First Things to Set Up?

The reason Jason at Elevate Construction, one of the first things he did was post these signs available for people to order, is because it’s one of the first fundamental things you have to have in your company and on your project to run a stable site. These visual control systems. We can’t do without them. We just can’t run a project without them because it’s fundamental.

When I first started this, and in every Lean scaling effort I’ve been part of, step one was: get the signs ready. Step two: get your trailer ready. Get your huddle board areas ready and get it out of your head because it’s just that fundamental.

Right now, superintendents are playing savior with people, burning through adrenaline, having too much of a sense of importance because they’re so needed. But that’s not the way superintendents should do things. If you’re fighting fires, then you’re not doing your job as a superintendent. Or if you work with a superintendent that’s fighting fires, they’re not doing their job as a superintendent. It shouldn’t be done. I don’t want you to do it. I want you to stop doing it.

The answer is to get your huddle board set up. Get it out of your head. If you’re running multiple projects or one, or if you have multiple areas or if you’re very busy, as long as you get your instructions, your to-do list items, everything that you know needs to be done for the project clearly communicated in huddles, and then allow it to remain on the huddle boards, you are going to be wildly successful because that’s where people will go.

And you can go back to doing what you should be doing, which is steering the ship, keeping the ship in orbit, and sailing forward.

For more on visual systems, see Total Participation & Visual Systems.

So here is the challenge: get the huddle board out of your head and onto the wall, press through the experimentation phase, and keep iterating until people go to the board instead of to you.

Bottom line: Get the huddle board out of your head and onto the wall, and you can go back to steering the ship instead of fighting fires.

If your project needs superintendent coaching, project support, or leadership development, Elevate Construction can help your field teams stabilize, schedule, and flow.

On we go.

FAQ

Why is having the plan in my head a problem if I’m available to answer questions?

Because you become the bottleneck and the single point of failure. When the plan is in your head, everyone has to come to you for every question. You spend all day answering questions that should be answered by a visual board.

What should actually be on a huddle board?

The overall attack plan schedule, the six-week make-ready look-ahead, the weekly work plan, the logistics plan, production tracking, roadblocks, sequence maps, the daily agenda, shout-outs, and KPIs. Everything the team needs to coordinate without coming to you.

How do I get started if I’ve never built a huddle board before?

Start by reading Elevating Construction Superintendents to get the outline of what to show. Expect the first version to be too small, awkward, or get ruined by weather. Go to elevateconstructionist.com, field resources, lean signage for free templates you can print or order.

Why do superintendents resist visual boards and keep plans in their head?

Because it’s easier in the short term. But keeping it in your head makes you the bottleneck. Most people give up after the first failed attempt.

What’s the difference between fighting fires and steering the ship?

Fighting fires is spending all day answering questions, solving immediate problems, and being the information source for everything. Steering the ship is having visual systems that answer the routine questions, solving problems the team can’t solve themselves, improving the system, and thinking ahead. If you’re fighting fires, you’re not steering.

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