Fast Start Project Leadership Coaching

Project reliability isn’t luck — it’s leadership.

When schedule pressure builds, most teams add meetings. The best build habits. Fast Start helps leadership teams install the discipline that keeps projects predictable when conditions change — accelerating both project progress and profit velocity by eliminating the drag of unplanned recovery work.

Fast Start Project Delivery

Structure. Clarity. Reliability.

Most construction executives already know what reliable planning should look like.
The challenge is turning that knowledge into consistent daily habits across teams and projects.

That’s where Fast Start comes in. It’s a focused, two-month engagement that helps one project leadership team strengthen coordination, improve schedule reliability, and reduce firefighting. Through structured onsite sessions and a live performance dashboard, teams make and keep short-term commitments more consistently—freeing field leaders to direct the work instead of chasing it.

Who Leads It

The program is led by Tom Richert.

Tom has coached teams in Lean Design and Construction for more than two decades and is among the first professionals worldwide certified by the Lean Construction Institute as a Lean Practitioner Subject Matter Expert in both Design (LPD-SME) and Construction (LPC-SME). He was mentored by the creators of the Last Planner System® and has guided project teams for major healthcare, commercial, and institutional owners to stronger performance and faster delivery.

His coaching results include:

• Cleveland Clinic Project – Five Months Gained
  A 19-month construction schedule reduced by five months through disciplined planning and coordination.
• Newton-Wellesley Hospital – Schedule Recovery
  Reliability re-established after early delays restored both flow and confidence.
• Eastern Maine Medical Center – Flow Restored
  Structured planning routines replaced reactivity with steady progress.

These outcomes are typical of what disciplined, well-led project teams achieve when field leaders manage a coordinated system instead of a collection of individual efforts.

Challenges on the Horizon

The pressures facing construction leadership are shifting fast: project durations are compressing, owner expectations are rising, and a generation of experienced field leaders is transitioning out—taking intuitive coordination skills with them.

Even capable teams find themselves reacting more than leading—dealing with late information, resource conflicts, and lost time they never get back.

Why It Matters

Fast Start bridges the reliability gap that results in rework and delays—turning proven planning structure into habits that double your teams’ planning reliability and decision clarity within two months. The result is shorter schedules and faster profit realization, fueled by stronger leadership capacity and fewer hours lost to recovery. For owners, these same gains translate into smoother, on-time completions and project teams that inspire confidence—building the relationship equity that wins the next project.

When reliability becomes a habit, your best people spend twice as much time leading work instead of fixing it.

How the Fast Start Program Works

1. Structured Onsite Coaching and Remote Support
   • Practical, on-site working sessions that install the core behaviors of reliable planning.
   • Built on the proven discipline of the Last Planner System—the planning approach used by the world’s most consistent project teams.
2. Visibility for Executives
   • A live dashboard displays plan reliability and constraint trends.
   • Leadership gains real-time insight into what’s working, what’s blocked, and where to intervene early.
3. Leadership Offsite
   • A short offsite aligns leadership intent with planning discipline—ensuring what’s learned becomes part of how the team works.

Who Fast Start Is For

Fast Start is for builders and construction managers who take pride in the quality of their work — and know that reliable delivery shouldn’t depend on heroics. It’s designed for teams that are capable, but stretched. Projects where deadlines tighten, coordination slips, or experienced leaders are spending more time reacting than directing.

Fast Start works especially well when:

• You want to stabilize a project before schedule pressure escalates.

• Leadership wants clarity without more meetings or reports.

• The company is ready to strengthen planning discipline as a core capability, not a temporary fix.

You don’t need everything to be running perfectly to benefit — in fact, most teams start when they see early signs of stress and want to regain control before it costs time or credibility. Fast Start meets you where you are and helps you build the habits that make reliability the rule, not the exception.

Getting the Full Value

You’ll get the most value from Fast Start when your field leadership team brings three key qualities:

1. Engagement – They’re willing to think ahead, speak openly about constraints, and treat plan reliability as a shared responsibility.
2. Discipline – They already care about execution quality and are ready to refine how they plan, not just what they build.
3. Influence – They hold the respect of their crews and trade partners — when they commit, others follow.