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Welcome everybody out to podcast number 1283. In this podcast, I'm going to address some misconceptions. Stay with us.

This is the Elevate Construction Podcast, delivering remarkable content for workers, leaders, and companies in construction wanting to take their next step. Get ready to step out of your comfort zone with Jason Schroeder as he encourages you to do better. Live a remarkable life and expect more.

Let's go. Welcome everybody. Let me go ahead and start out by reading some feedback from our listeners.

Let's go. Just wanted to say thank you again for all your help with the material that you have provided to the industry. My oldest son that you met briefly earlier this year when we were visiting Phoenix has passed away from a lung disease two weeks ago.

At the age of 38, leaving a wife and three little girls, he loved your content. He loved improving and improving and building people. He worked with me side by side for many years and then he got into the excavation field.

He was part owner of a local excavation company. Keep doing what you're doing. You're touching lives that you don't even know about.

Thank you again. Well, I want to say officially that I am so sorry that that happened to your son and to their family. That is absolutely tragic.

I know who this is and he's an absolutely amazing change maker in the industry. It couldn't have happened to such bad things, couldn't have happened to a better group of people. I really feel bad about that.

I give them my best wishes and hope that everything works out remarkably for them. Let's go ahead and head into the podcast here real quick. Let's go ahead and do two real quick.

I saw this the other day. You already know me, so I was absolutely disgusted by this. This person said, I am a safety professional.

I am not a police officer and I do not write citations. My job is to monitor, audit, review and advise. I do not have the ability nor the desire to fire anyone.

My goal is to make sure each employee goes home to his or her family at the end of their shift. I will be firm, fair and consistent with my responses. My ability to communicate is my strongest tool.

I understand that making someone follow the rule is easy, but making them want to follow is my job. I identify gaps in the processes and advise my client on the best way to correct it. My positive attitude, personality and common sense will take me further than any degree or certification I may have because I am a safety professional.

So there's more to this and absolutely you must know that I was originally or immediately horrified by this. Safety professionals are not consultants. They don't just go out there and give people advice.

They 100% must correct bad behavior. Let me go through these one by one. You're a safety professional.

First of all, a safety professional means that you get things done and you keep people safe. You are not a consultant. Most of the time people will say, well, it's not my job to fire, hold people accountable.

That's because they're afraid of holding people accountable or can't do it. I am not a police officer and I do not write citations. Okay, well, why are police officers bad? Like, well, how did we get to this point where we've thought that police officers in a civilization were bad and what's wrong with citations? Police officers help if they, when they do it right, they help keep people safe, they protect people from injuries, from death, from crime and citations are most, most of the time citations or warnings, uh, get that tail light fixed, don't speed that really help correct people's behavior and get them home safely.

Now I'm not asking safety professionals to become police officers or to write citations, but this concept that somehow a police officer in a citation is wrong, it's just complete horse shit. Um, and it has no place that would be like a police officer being like, Hey, could you imagine here, let's do this. Let's have some role playing here.

I, I am, uh, let's say that you have a law enforcement officer and they're like, Hey, I'm not a police officer. I don't write citations. Um, I just go around and help convince people to not break the law.

So this person over here that is like, doesn't have any money and is trying to purchase crack and is going to like, Rob this convenience store. I know what I'll do. I'll talk him out of it.

Have you ever heard of anything dumber than that ever in your entire life? That is so absolutely ridiculously stupid. There are people in a current circumstances that must be detained and citations must be issued. My job is to monitor audit, review, and advise.

I couldn't think of a more worthless thing than a safety engineer or manager being on a site, monitoring, auditing, reviewing, and advising without actually doing things without actually preparing and without actually holding the line and making sure people follow through. I wouldn't pay for that for one minute on any of my projects. I do not have the ability nor the desire to fire anybody.

Okay. We'll get the fuck out of here. Cause I don't like, I don't need your will weak milk toast ass on my project site.

If somebody is violating a safety rule and is capable of doing so, you need to move them to a safe location immediately. You do have the ability to do it. You should have the desire to keep them safe if you truly care and you should implement what I'm talking about right now.

My goal is to make sure each employee goes home to his or her family at the end of their shift. Well, you're not going to do it by giving people advice. You're going to be doing it by educating people, giving them advice and holding the line altogether.

I will be firm, fair, and consistent with my responses. Be firm, fair, and consistent with what goes on with the project. Again, not just with responses.

I don't care about this. Well, I told him mentality. Well, I gave him the advice mentality.

Well, I'm here. You'd make your own decision. No, no, that you don't get a decision on whether or not you're going to be safe on the project site.

And so somebody's not doing it by, but you better damn well do something about it. My ability to communicate is my strongest tool. Don't, um, well, actually I do disagree with that.

Your bit, your ability to communicate is one of your most important ones, but your strongest tool is your mental determination to not determination, to not tolerate bad behavior. I understand that making someone follow a rule is easy. No, it's not, but making them want to do it is my job.

Uh, we try to make everyone wants to do it, but you'll have a third of the people that want to do it. A third of the people that are kind of neutral and a third that are dissenters that won't buy in that you must force, um, making someone follow a rule is not easy. And that is what it takes.

This is a misunderstanding of human nature. Um, uh, human nature is that the gene, our genetics are designed to survive. They are not designed, uh, to do what's best from an altruistic standpoint, especially when we're in our ego.

And so you can't take one tool to a three tool fights or a three weapon fight. You're going to take all of the tools. You have to have the ability to prepare.

You have to have the ability to prevent. You have to have the ability to coach incorrect, and you have to have the ability to hold the line. And if the safety engineer manager has to come back and ask me to do it, then why do I need them on the job? Absolutely worthless statement.

Um, I identify gaps in the processes and advise my client on the best way to correct it, what, okay, is that all you're here to do? And then you just suggest to them to correct it. Um, gaps are observations. They go on a text, they are fixed immediately, or they go on a report to be fixed within 24 hours and they must get corrected.

There is no advising here. My positive attitude. Great personality and common sense will take me farther than any degree.

Don't, don't, uh, argue with that. And because I'm a safety professional, let me tell you what this should read. I am a safety professional on the project site.

I will prevent incidents. If I can correct them in the moment, if I can, but if I cannot convince somebody to prepare, prevent, and to make the right choice, I will hold the line and send them home. My job is to, uh, prevent, prepare, coach, monitor, audit, review, advise with necessary and to hold the line and make decisions in the field to keep people safe.

I have the ability and I have the desire to send people home. If anyone violates these roles, my goal is to make sure each person goes home safely to his or her family at the end of their shift. I will be firm, fair, and consistent with my responses and decisions and actions.

My ability to hold the line, be committed to standards and communicate. These are my strongest tools. I understand that making someone follow the rules is hard.

I would prefer to make them want to, but if they will not, I will, uh, draw a line that they will not pass. And I will make sure that I tolerate no bad behavior. I identify gaps in the processes by direct observation, working directly with the people and making sure that we are doing the right thing in every moment because I have the authority.

My positive attitude, personality, and common sense, uh, will take me further and I have the degree in the certification to back it up and I do all of these things and I am a representative of the project superintendent because I am a safety professional. That is what it should have said. Okay.

Let me do one other one. And then I'll close this down. I saw this from Dell management.

Uh, think more planning equals less risk. Question mark. Think again and construction over planning feels like the safe approach, locking in schedules, locking your budgets, controlling every possible outcome, but in reality, rigid planning doesn't eliminate risk.

It just shifts it. That is categorically untrue. Uh, proper planning prevents risks.

And what he's talking about here is, uh, toxic CPM methodologies. And it does not apply. Meaning that there's a difference between, um, and here, let's go ahead.

There's a difference between locking in a schedule baseline, controlling every possible outcome CPM and rigid planning, um, and doing proper planning where you're doing Pixar planning. Pixar planning is the safe approach. Pixar planning would not lock in a schedule.

It would give you plan A, B, C, D, E, and F locking in budgets, um, would only happen if you, obviously, if you had a completed design, controlling every possible outcome is not how, uh, the book, how big things get done, uh, suggested, and it's not how tack last planner and scrum works. Um, and rigid planning is like I said, only with baselines and CPM and it, and when you do a proper planning with tack last planner and scrum early on, it does eliminate risks and it doesn't shift it at all. So over plan schedules and CPM may equal misplaced focus, but, uh, proper planning with tack last planner and scrum equals consistent and safe project.

Overly rigid budgets equals hidden costs. I probably not going to argue with that right now. Um, these posts are irresponsible because it's starting, if people don't know the differentiation between rigid planning with CPM and baselines and proper planning using the Pixar method with tack last planner and scrum, then people can start to think, Oh, it's not a good idea to go do planning, but it is a good idea to go do planning.

I really think that if Dell management or anybody else wants to do posts about this, they need to be more specific because probably one of the dumbest things I've ever heard in my life is that we shouldn't do proper planning and we cannot wing it out in the field. We are not John wick. Uh, we are not the equalizer.

Uh, we are not emission impossible. We have to make sure that we're planning the proper way. And so sure, uh, don't lock in schedules, don't lock in budgets, don't control every outcome.

Don't be rigid, but absolutely plan properly because it does equal less risk. It does make sure you have multiple options. It does make sure you have the right best overall budget.

And it does control the outcome because you're controlling it with the last planner. So I hope to see more responsible posts, more responsible posts than this in the future. I hope you've enjoyed these two points of, uh, of correction on we go.

Please join us next time in elevating the entire construction experience for workers, leaders, and companies coast to coast. If you're enjoying the show, please feel free to share with your construction colleagues and help us spread the word by rating, subscribing, and leaving a review on your preferred podcast listening platform. We really appreciate it.

We'll catch you next time on the elevate construction podcast.

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