Leadership by the Seat of Your Pants..? There Is a Better Way

The 20th annual Lean Construction Institute Congress brought together Jean-Marc Legentil and Clifton Cole. Henry Nutt III and Matt Graetz added two more perspectives on the same leadership problem. One described a disciplined experiment. Another had to translate conference learning for his company. A field leader centered people and relationships. A manufacturing veteran was beginning a Lean rollout in construction.

Together, their comments point to a leadership routine: name the condition, write down the next experiment, translate it into language the team uses, and return to the place where the work happens.

Write the gap before choosing the experiment

Jean-Marc Legentil described kata as a routine grounded in a scientific approach. The team defines a target condition, records the actual condition, identifies one obstacle, and tries one next step. “Kata is about making experiments and learning,” he said.

The sequence protects the team from changing several things at once and then guessing which change helped. It also creates a record. Jean-Marc returned to a direct instruction near the end of the exchange: write it down. A lesson that stays only in one person's memory cannot guide the next cycle or pass to the next person.

Translate the idea before asking people to use it

Clifton Cole said the volume of conference information felt like “drinking from a fire hose.” His response was to take notes, debrief, and build a written plan that could be reviewed after people tried it.

Clifton did not want to lead with unfamiliar tools or borrowed terms. He wanted his company to establish why Lean mattered in its own work, then connect the ideas to language people in the office and field could understand. Translation was part of implementation, not a finishing touch.

Let leadership show up in how people are treated

Henry Nutt III brought the focus to supervision. He discussed behaviors, emotions, and the experience of people who do not feel heard or connected to a larger purpose. His test for leadership was personal and practical: would someone leave the interaction believing the leader cared about them as a person, not only about how much work was installed that day?

Henry also said every trade becomes the most important trade when its work is not being done correctly. The statement moves leadership away from rank. People closest to the work need enough standing to speak when their knowledge matters.

Return to the field with a purpose

Matt Graetz was two months into bringing manufacturing experience into construction. He said Lean's pillars of respect for people and continuous improvement remained, while the construction environment changed how they had to be applied.

Matt's takeaway was to go where the work is performed with a clear purpose. His organization had asked him to attend, return, and make recommendations. That made the next step visible: observe the field, decide what fits, and explain what the organization should try.

Conference learning crosses into practice when a team can name the gap, understand the experiment in its own language, and review what happened where the work was done.