WTC ‘Construction Mentality’ with Adam Hoots

In this episode: Adam Hoots joins Women Talk Construction with co-hosts Christi Powell and Angela Gardner to discuss lean construction as “flow” centered on respect for people, emphasizing that high-performing teams require intentionally developing high-performing individuals and optimizing global project flow. He describes shifting his mission to elevate and serve skilled craft workers by spending time in the gemba, “standing” on projects to focus on workers’ needs, connection, and ergonomics, including sharing photos with craftspeople. Drawing from managing over $1.5B in technical projects for clients like Stanford and the University of Florida, he highlights construction as a socio-technical business where communication and emotional intelligence matter as much as technical skill, sharing a lesson about unclear direction. They discuss managing stress through self-awareness and choosing responses, and ways to pass construction wisdom to the next generation via podcasts, books, university engagement, teaching, consulting, and improving industry conditions to boost retention.