The Lean Construction Blog's Podcast

Watch on Youtube.Progressive Design-Build (PDB) is an alternative project delivery method that has been gaining popularity in the construction industry. PDB is a variation of the Design-Build method where the owner hires a design-builder based primarily on qualifications, not price, and then collaboratively develops the project design and budget.Benefits:- Improved collaboration and communication- Increased flexibility and innovation- Better alignment of project goals among all parties- Progressive Design-Build aims to combine the benefits of design-build (single point of responsibility, integrated team) with increased owner involvement and flexibility in the design and pricing process.

Watch on Youtube.Evelyn M. Lee, FAIA, is an architect turned tech entrepreneur who blends her design background with a passion for innovation. As an angel investor, startup advisor, and fractional COO, she helps drive growth for architecture firms, embracing new ways of practicing. Lee is the founder of Practice of Architecture and hosts the Practice Disrupted podcast with over 50,000 listeners globally. We think you'll enjoy her insights on integrating technology, leadership development, and better business operations within the architecture practice. She is an advocate for architects to add their voice to conversations other than just architecture and champions inclusivity as an advisor for Women Defining AI, inspiring women to close the gender gap within the tech industry. Join us as we sit down with next year's AIA President for a lively discussion.

Send us a Text Message.Victor Sanvido has been thinking about better project delivery since he worked in his family's business in Cape Town.  He came to the States to study with many of the luminaries in production delivery at Stanford University and later taught many of the leading lights in the lean community at Penn State University.  Victor was thinking about more effective and more collaborative delivery models in the 1980s, more than a decade before the formation of IGLC and almost 2 decades before LCI.  He managed an ad hoc Owners forum from his office in Garden Grove, California and brought his intellect to LCI as a long time Board Member, recruiter and evangelist.  He shares his experience from the early days and talks about ways that lean has and will continue to transform the built environment.

Send us a Text Message.Watch on Youtube.Daniel H. Pink is the author of five New York Times bestsellers, including his latest, The Power of Regret: How Looking Backward Moves Us Forward. His other books include the New York Times bestsellers When and A Whole New Mind — as well as the #1 New York Times bestsellers Drive and To Sell is Human. Dan's books have won multiple awards, have been translated into more than 40 languages, and have sold millions of copies around the world. He lives in Washington, DC, with his family. 

Watch on Youtube.

Watch on Youtube.Vince Chapman started his tenure at the University of Texas as a philosophy major.  He didn't do well in his first accounting course, so like a never fail Longhorn would do, he decided to master that degree.  In the interim, he has become one of the best known auditors of IPD and other construction delivery contracts.  Join us as we explore the three major transparency questions in IPD:  overhead, hourly rates and profit.

Watch on Youtube.Howard Ashcraft is the most recognized and most honoured currently practicing lawyer in the Lean Design and Construction Community.  He has been thinking about and drafting collaborative contracts (most usually IPD) since 2005.  Join us for a thoughtful chat on where he started, where he's been and where he wants to go.

Watch on Youtube.Luciana Burdi returned to Southern Italy after receiving her masters in Architecture from Instituto Universitario di Architettura di Venezia (IUAV) in Venice, Italy.  She had developed a passion for using architecture in the public sector and so turned her attention to the United States.  At the age of 28, with no experience in English, she moved in with family in Chicago and began a career in public service and the built environment that has been remarkably successful.  She was a SPURS Fellow at MIT, then took her Doctor in Design degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Design.  She has been teaching “Negotiation and Conflict Resolution” at Worcester Polytech since 2011 and co-taught “Modern construction Delivery Methods” at Wentworth Institute of Technology for many years.  She's on the Lean Construction Institute (LCI) Board of Directors and was on the Board of Directors of CMAA (Construction Management Association of America) for many years. She won that organizations 2015 “CMAA National Award in New Technologies Techniques in CM.”  Recently she won the Construction Institute's “Industry Innovation” Award.  She serves as the Director of Capital Programs and Environmental Affairs at MassPort in Boston.  Join us for an entertaining hour with this powerhouse woman in construction.

Watch on Youtube.Mark Van Buren came to Queens University in Kington, Ontario looking for a degree in Architecture.  He stayed 8 years and ended up with Ph.D. in Civil Engineering, concentrating on water management.  He spent the next decade or so in California and Milwaukee on large water management projects, largely storm run-off systems.  Turns out the storm was in the contract delivery system and not in the pipes.  Disgruntled with the delivery process, he jumped at the chance to head back to Kingston about 20 years ago.  Since then he has risen through City Engineering ranks to become the Deputy Commissioner of Major Projects.  In that capacity he and his team just delivered the Waaban Crossing, the “third” crossing in Kingston that unites the City through the middle of the Cataraqui River.  The $180M dollar IPD project was the first IPD bridge project in Canada.  Unlike most civil structures and megaprojects, this one landed in Bent Flyvbjerg's .5% of projects:  it was on time, on budget and delivered all the benefits initially proposed.  Join us for a thoughtful hour with this unique bridgebuilder.

Watch on Youtube.Stuart Eckblad has been thinking divergently since he left home for Kent State to pursue a degree in architecture.  That led him to the University of Wisconsin where he received a masters degree in Environmental Design.  He was particularly interested in the effect of color on human beings.   That kind of curiosity inspired a long career dedicated to moving from traditional delivery to a new vocabulary in the built environment, one that focused on collaboration, integration, purpose and innovation.  Join us for a glimpse of the life that led Stuart to found the Center for Innovation in Construction and lead the current team building the $4.5 B Parnassus Heights hospital program.

Watch on Youtube.Jessica Kelley lives in the Pennsylvania farm house she grew up in, and that her Mom also grew up in.  Her two-year-old son is the fourth generation in that house.  While she is obviously honours her traditions, she is also one of the great pioneers and innovators in our lean community.  She participated in the first IPD project with Sutter, helped drive the most successful Community of Practice in Northern California for LCI and worked with mechanical design/build leader Southland Corporation.  She is now director of Lean Delivery at Merck Pharmaceutical and joins us on the podcast to talk about what Owners need from the design and construction supply chain.

Watch on Youtube.There is much talk these days about women in construction. How about a woman who's name is synonymous with thought leadership in construction?  Iris Tommelein describes herself as a secular humanist. She balks at being called the high priestess but she surely is a Grand Dame of lean construction. She leads, and founded with Glenn Ballard in 2005, the Project Production Systems Laboratory at the University of California at Berkeley.  At Berkeley, she has guided, mentored and presided over the PhD journeys of some of the Lean Community's most well-known academicians and luminaries.  She was one of four founders of the Lean Construction Institute in 1997. She is among the leaders of the International Group for Lean Construction. The Project Production Institute recently recognized her with their 2022 Technical Achievement Award.  LCI recognized her with their prestigious Pioneer's Award in 2015. She has been a member of the National Academy of Construction since 2019.  Join Dick Bayer as he spends an hour with the legendary Dr. Tommelein. 

Watch on YoutubeWill Lichtig is Executive VP and Chief of Staff at The Boldt Company. Many know Will by his informal title, "Chief Provocateur."  Will was the author of the original Integrated Form of Agreement and has been central to the development and implementation of lean processes for target value design, lean production planning and control, Built in Quality, lean problem solving, and other key processes that provide innovative approaches to project delivery.  Saying that he is a leader in the lean and integrated project delivery movement almost understates his importance to our community. He is a former Board member of the Lean Construction Institute and recipient of the 2nd Pioneer Award from LCI that “ recognizes individuals who have moved the design and construction industry forward in embracing and implementing Lean tools and techniques.”  He was preceded only by Greg Howell and Glenn Ballard.

Watch on Youtube.Dr. Andreas Phelps is an original thinker of the first order.  He has a phd in Construction Management from Penn State University and is the CEO of the Collective Potential.  He lives with his talented wife and two incredible kids off the grid in a tiny house in the Bay Area.  His Tiny House Presentation at the 2021 LCI Congress was so popular he was brought back to this year's Congress to keynote the opening of the Congress, speaking on intentionality and leadership.  Join us as we discuss living an intentional life that is intentionally lean.

Watch on Youtube.Mike Casten started his construction career as a carpenters' apprentice before attending Colorado State University as an Industrial Construction Management major.  He was working with Hensel Phelps when he was introduced to time lapse photography and Greg Howell.  He was an early pioneer in the quest for improvement of the productivity of the work at the construction crew level overall as well as overall project performance. Over the last forty plus years he has provided consulting services on projects of every size and type all across the US as well as in Canada, Mexico, and Venezuela.  He is currently completing a book on Crew Centered Construction.  Join us as we discuss improving the predictability and reliability of project work flow, the optimizing effectiveness and efficiency of the work at the crew level while supporting a culture of continuous improvement.

Watch on YoutubeGerry McCabe is the Managing Director of Turner and Townsend in Canada.  He was a founding member of his own company that was acquired by Turner and Townsend in 2010.  He grew up in Belfast during the “troubles.”  He came to Canada to visit relatives originally and decided to stay.  He's a Chartered Quantity Surveyor and one of the most interesting people you'll meet.  Come join as we chat about how to estimate the cost of something that hasn't been designed and what to look for in Canadian Supply Chains in the next 5 years.

View the PPI website:https://projectproduction.org/Watch on Youtube.Gary Fischer was born and raised on the Western Slope of Colorado.  Developing and running his own farm as a teenager to pay for College, he went to Colorado State when it was still known as Colorado Agriculture and Mining.  He joined Chevron out of college and stayed until retirement.  Along the way he was in charge of the development, construction and commissioning of Chevron plants world wide. He learned a ton about productivity in construction in that role and shares that with us in this episode of the Podcast.

Watch on Youtube.Rex Miller was a successful manager for a major office furniture manufacturer when he got down-sized—as in out of a job.  He knows hard times. He also knows resilience, perseverance, creativity and leadership. Rex has coached hundreds of teams in North America to understand their strengths and deliver on their commitments.  He kicked off a lot of people's thinking around lean construction when he wrote the Commercial Real Estate Revolution with a team of like-minded believers.    Perhaps nothing describes his life better than his own introduction on his Linked-In page:  “I am on a journey to help 1 million people discover their lost Genius Spark, to be clear about their unique purpose and resilient under any conditions.”  Join Rex for an hour of reminisces and rejoinders on what was behind and what lays ahead.

Watch on Youtube.Jennifer Kahn has been working at Ellis Don for more than a decade, focusing on inclusion, diversity and  people and culture.  In April, she was named Vice President with that same portfolio.  “I am proud to be part of the ongoing education, awareness and real conversations on Inclusive Diversity at EllisDon,” she says. “As a working mother of two boys, a visible minority with immigrant parents, who's married to a Canadian Muslim, diversity is part of my everyday life and I hope to continue to provide a safe space for all employees to feel seen and heard.”  She joins us to discuss all those issues with a candidness and perspicacity we think you'll enjoy.

Mark Konchar learned how to collaborate, growing up playing hockey.  He is one of the PhD's that Victor Sanvido turned out of Penn State that has so influenced our community.  He and Victor collaborated on an early Design Build Study sponsored by the Construction Industry Institute.  He's a co-author of Change Your Space, Change Your Culture with Rex Miller and others.  Mark served as chair of the Board of the Lean Construction Institute and was Balfour Beatty's Chief Innovation Officer for a decade.  Now a senior vice president in charge of BB's rail unit, he's helping develop that much needed aspect of infrastructure.  And he's a hockey coach for his kid's team and, btw, in the Penn State Hockey Hall of Fame.  Enjoy an hour with Mark Konchar.Watch on Youtube.

Watch on Youtube.The pandemic and the invasion of Ukraine have left all of us in the design and construction industry short of supplies and lack of clarity.  Add to that the labour shortages that are evident in construction and we have a difficult time responding to a very hot construction market.  Dick Bayer talks with Tom Soles, Jim Morgan and Guy Gast about how the mechanical trades are responding to these challenges.  Tom Soles was Executive Director of Member Services for SMACNA until his retirement in 2020. He continues his service to the industry as Executive Director of SMACNA's New Horizons Foundation.  Jim Morgan is the President/Owner of Worcester Air Conditioning, LLC, a straight-line sheet metal contractor just west of Boston. Guy is the recently retired President of the Iowa Division of The Waldinger Corporation, which employs nearly 2000 construction professionals in the Midwest. From 2015-2016, he served as the National President of SMACNA. He continues today as the chair of the New Horizons Foundation.

Watch on Youtube.Mark Cichy, well-known digital pioneer chats with Dick Bayer about BIM, AI and what's next in our evolving technological landscape.  Data, information, procedure, and software development will substantially influence work in the built environment. Mark suggests that pre-construction insights and processes can provide consistent and efficient outcomes if we're willing to make appropriate investments in effective and “smart/intuitive” systems – using tech tools to achieve a defined goal through dynamic constraints.  We should be harnessing on-site and design data to build a better decision tree matrix. Mark advocates for a succinctly connected services and delivery vertical – enhanced by data and process loops – that unifies the digital construction delivery mechanism; disposing of the undesirable inefficiencies and redundancies that currently exist throughout construction, from concept to built form.  Don't miss this lively and thought provoking discussion. 

Watch on YoutubeBarbara J. Jackson, Ph.D., DBIA is the Director of the Burns School of Real Estate and Construction Management (RECM) in the Daniels College of Business at the University of Denver and its Center for Integrated Project Leadership for the Built Environment.Dr. Jackson's focus is on integrated project delivery, design-build project management, interdisciplinary collaboration, and integrated project leadership. Dr. Jackson spent 20 years in the construction industry working as a project estimator and senior project manager and then as President and Owner of Design/Build Services Inc. She holds a B.S. in Housing and Design, a Masters in Construction Management, and a Ph.D. in Education and Human Resources with a specialization in Technology of Industry from Colorado State University. Dr. Jackson received a Design-Build Distinguished Leadership Award in 2001 and 2002, and the DBIA Distinguished Service Award in 2005. Dr. Jackson is a nationally recognized speaker on design-build project delivery and high performance design-build teams. She also provides private consulting services and coaching to industry.

Henry Nutt has been in the trades for 35 years as a sheet metal worker, foreman, superintendent, and general superintendent. Henry talks about how to make the trades more attractive to young people, allowing people working in the trades to understand that they are professionals in the same esteem as doctors and engineers responsible for millions of dollars of work. He advocates for helping people find their own journey and discover their own AHA moment. Lean is something that he preaches because it makes everyone's life better.Watch on Youtube

Watch on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIzYYIthHiY

Keyan Zandy is a longtime Lean practitioner, enthusiast, and advocate. As Skiles Group's COO, he has a dual focus on client service and on nurturing a progressive company culture. He is ultimately responsible for the oversight of the firm's daily operations and ensuring that their Lean processes are continuously improved and consistently practiced. He is the co-author of The Lean Builder: A Builder's Guide to Applying Lean Tools in the Field, which simplifies and clearly articulates the benefits of seven primary Lean concepts, and delivers them in a highly-relatable, immediately-applicable, and field-friendly manner. Keyan also holds a patent for an award-winning crisis management communication and emergency response tool called Smart Safety where he serves as CEO.Watch on Youtube.

Katherine Copeland has been doing “lean” since she helped organize her father's shop when she was 10.  She followed her Grandmother to Penn State—her Grandmother was the valedictorian of the class of 1932.  She has followed that pedigree with more—very active in LCI, part of the Southland team at the California Prison Healthcare Receivership and now director of Target Value Delivery with Merck.  Join us as we reminisce and look ahead.Watch on Youtube.

One of Canada's pre-eminent construction lawyers, Geza Banfai worked with the Candian Construction Documents Committee to draft CCDC 30, Canada's first IPD contract.  We visit with Geza to discuss the role of contracts in allowing us to use a full lean design and construction operating platform.  We compare and contrast construction practice in the US and Canada.  And finally we discuss "what's next?"Watch on YouTube.

Watch on Youtube.Stan Chiu is a legendary architect in the Lean Community.  I first met Stan at the California Prison Healthcare Receivership program in Sacramento in 2008.  His journey in lean had begun a few years earlier with Sutter Health, but like all of us, he was willing to invent a new way of seeing, knowing and doing.  Along with Michael Jackson, he was the CPR's first “Chief Engineer,” the person dubbed by the Toyota Production System as the leader of the processes designed to solve a problem.  Stan's remarkable and diverse background prepared him for that moment and he has continued to lead teams in lean healthcare design for the last 15 years.  Join us as Stan talks about the role of the “lean” designer in today's paradigm.  P.S.  If you really want to understand Target Value Design, listen up.

Both Bernita and Rebecca date their lean design and construction journey from 2008. Bernita at the legendary Texhoma Project and Rebeca at the California Prison Healthcare Receivership Program. Both had inklings before then. But they have both been masterful at continually improving the cycle of design and construction. So much so that each was recognized by being named Chair of the LCI Board.Watch episode on Youtube.

Todd Zabelle was among the original founders of LCI.  Glenn Ballard worked with him briefly at Pacific Contractors back in the '90s.  Todd has spent his career thinking about enhancing productivity in design and construction and founded the Project Production Institute to provide a forum for other like minded folks.  He's not doing the 1920 version of productivity of Fredrick Winslow Taylor and he's not doing the Critical Path predictability of the 1950's.  He's truly moved on to operational science and the creation of real production in construction.  Join us to see how he did it.Watch episode on Youtube.

George Zettel was drafted into being the Turner representative at a meeting called by Sutter Health back in 2004. He was immediately hooked on the possibility of a new value to Owners--one that his current Owner was in fact demanding. We explore George's original journey as a lean advocate inside a very large, very successful, very traditional American contractor.Watch the episode on Youtube. 

Bill Proctor led the Project Management team for the receiver appointed by the Federal Court in San Francisco to design and build 10,000 medical and mental health care beds inside the California Prison System. The urgency of the program was to deliver constitutional care to inmates as 6 inmates per month were dying from lack of adequate care. Bill tells us about how they came to chose lean and IPD for the Program and what that Program has taught him that he's implementing now.Watch on episode on Youtube.

Today's guest is Dean Reed, the former lean construction champion at DPR. Dean is the first member of LCI and has been applying lean for more than 24 years. In this episode we discuss: How Dean got started with his lean journey. When he realized that Lean Construction could solve problems that he has observed. How to build an integrated project delivery team.Aligning project goals with sharing risk and reward.Watch the episode on Youtube.