Capable people can spend an hour in a meeting and walk out without a decision. In this solo episode of Construction Genius, Eric Anderton lays out the meeting structure he’s used with contractor clients for more than 20 years. Teams use it to agree in about 30 minutes on problems they’ve argued about for years.
Before you read on, pick a problem your team keeps discussing without resolving. Write it down and apply each step to it as you go.
Listen or Watch the Episode
Find a Problem in Your Business Model
You want profitable revenue and control over the cost of delivering the work.
Between those two sit the activities your people can influence, like bid accuracy, change order management, quality, productivity and materials management.
Check the numbers you track in those areas. Then ask the people responsible why they look the way they do.
Write a Precise Meeting Question With a 90-Day Time Frame
“In what specific ways can we improve communication?” is still too broad, Eric says. Narrow it to communication between the field and the office. Or between two superintendents competing for the same field resources.
Then add a time frame. A tile contractor used this one. “In what specific ways can we improve quality in the field in the next ninety days?”
Write the question w here everyone can see it, and check that the group agrees it’s worth working on.
Who to Invite to a Problem-Solving Meeting
Eric recommends six to ten people, with twelve as the upper limit. Bring people with direct experience of the work, plus the leaders who’ll help carry out the decision.
Three Ground Rules for Productive Meetings
- Put away distractions. Nobody’s on a phone or a laptop.
- Everyone participates. There are no courtesy invites.
- Nobody criticizes ideas while the group is gathering them.
If someone still won’t participate, deal with it outside the meeting.
Make Your Decision Authority Clear as the Owner
You keep the right to decline an idea, even one that gets the most votes. Say so up front. If you turn down the leading idea, explain why as candidly as you can.
Then keep your own answer to yourself until the group has done its thinking.
Two Minutes of Silent Brainstorming Before Anyone Talks
Set a timer for two minutes. Everyone, you included, writes down as many answers to the question as they can. When the timer ends, each person picks the best two ideas from their own list.
Why the Leader Speaks Last
Go around the room and collect one idea from each person, numbering each one where everyone can see it. The owner goes last.
The person who usually talks the most gets the same turn as everyone else. When someone dominates, Eric interrupts and promises to come back to them.
“I’m responsible for making the meeting useful for the whole group. One person can’t take everyone else’s time.”
For the second round, reverse the order so whoever went last goes first.
Capture Every Idea Accurately
Some people are still working out what they mean when it’s their turn. Give them room to talk it through.
Ask, “What specifically would we do differently?” Then write the idea down, read it back, and ask if you got it right.
Watch yourself when someone challenges an idea you introduced. Hear the suggestion out before you defend your way of doing things.
Vote to Turn Fifteen Ideas Into One Priority
The tile contractor’s team came up with fifteen ideas. Each person chose the best third, so five apiece, and stacking votes behind one favorite wasn’t allowed.
Everyone writes their picks down before anything gets tallied. The owner keeps quiet until the group has chosen.
Two ideas tied at nine votes each. Walking jobs more often, and getting Lil E, the quality control manager, into the field. To break a tie, clarify what each proposal involves and have the group choose between them.
Get Commitment With a Show of Hands
Ask who supports implementing the top idea over the next 90 days. Eric expects objections at this point.
“Healthy teams will object even when everyone else appears to agree.”
If someone can’t commit, ask what would need to be addressed for them to support it. The group is agreeing to try an approach and adjust it as they go, and that gives people a practical reason to commit. Eric says teams using this structure reach unanimous agreement the first time 95 percent of the time.
“We started with a blank piece of paper. About thirty minutes later, everyone has agreed on an approach to solving the problem.”
Then Eric asks how long that usually takes. The room laughs.
Months, sometimes years. Some teams never get there.
Build a One-Page Action Plan: Rally Cry, Fierce Focus, Critical Numbers
Save time for action planning in the same meeting. If you spend the whole hour on ideas, the assignments slide to another day.
Eric’s example of the one-page plan from Kick-Ass Meetings comes from a heavy civil contractor. Their rally cry was “Own the Cost.”
Each role got an area of fierce focus. Project managers set up each job for margin success, superintendents optimize resources, and foremen focus on economic execution. For the foremen, that means doing the work at the lowest cost the job’s requirements allow.
The critical numbers show whether that focus is paying off. This contractor tracked margin growth for the project managers, equipment utilization for the superintendents, and cost per unit installed for the foremen.
Put one accountable person on each area, even when a group does the work. Give each number a starting point, a target, a deadline and a review cadence.
Then let your people own their assignments. An owner who takes every task back ends up with the work on their own desk again.
Accountability Follow-Up: Three Questions
Put the review on the calendar before the meeting ends. At the review, ask three questions.
Did you do it? If not, why not? How can I help?
The answers may show the area of fierce focus needs to change. The accountable person could be overloaded, or missing the skills for the assignment. Sometimes the fix is holding that person more firmly to what they agreed.
Why Problem-Solving Meetings Break Down
When Eric’s clients struggle after learning this process, they’ve usually skipped a step, accepted a vague question or idea, or let one person dominate.
Go back to the problem you wrote down and turn it into the exact question for your team. Then get the meeting on the calendar, with time left for action planning.
Free Downloads and a Special Offer for Listeners
Effective Meetings Assessment: https://ericanderton.activehosted.com/f/256
Kick-Ass Meetings eBook: https://www.constructiongenius.com/kam-2
The first ten contractors who contact Eric get a 60-minute Zoom session with Eric and their team at no charge. Eric normally charges $3,500 for this session. Offer good through 12/31/26.
Bring a specific problem and Eric will run the meeting with your team.
Email eric@constructiongenius.com with “Kick-Ass Meetings” in the subject line, and tell him your problem and that you heard the offer on the podcast or YouTube.
Share this episode with another construction leader who could use it. Subscribe to Construction Genius wherever you listen and leave a rating and review so more contractors find the show. More at https://constructiongenius.com.
Subscribe & Review
If this episode helped you, the best thing you can do is leave a rating and review wherever you listen. It helps other contractors find the show.
Construction Genius is hosted by Eric Anderton.
👉 More from Construction Genius
- 📘 Get the book Construction Genius:https://www.amazon.com/Construction-Genius-Effective-Hands-Leadership/dp/B0BHTRDY1T/
- 🧠 Learn about The Shift: Construction Leadership Course
