Processes First, Tech Second
Curtis Garrard (hopefully soon we’ll meet in-person for the first time)
There’s a subtle frustration humming beneath the surface of our industry.
We have more technology than ever. More dashboards. More integrations. More AI pilots. More digital transformation initiatives with glossy slide decks and bold promises.
And yet, if we’re honest, many of us still feel like we’re fighting the same fires we were ten or twenty years ago. Schedules slip. Margin erodes. Field teams build workarounds around “the new system.” And all the while, leaders invest heavily in tools only to discover that adoption stalls and results fall short of the hype.
But in that failure, that’s where Curtis Garrard of LVL10 thrives. Because beneath all the noise about AI and innovation, Curtis is pulling us back to something foundational.
If we want better outcomes, we have to fix the way we work.
Construction Isn’t Broken. It’s Complex.
Curtis didn’t come up through the traditional construction pathway. His background is in manufacturing and operations management, an environment where continuous improvement isn’t optional. It’s oxygen. In manufacturing, process discipline determines survival. Waste is hunted. Standards are defined. Systems are refined over and over again.
Then he stepped into the subcontracting side of construction and saw something fascinating.
Not chaos, but potential.
Construction is not broken. It’s layered. It’s human. It’s wildly complex. It’s a thousand-piece puzzle where one misinterpreted drawing can ripple through procurement, fabrication, installation and billing. The cost of a mistake inside your own four walls is manageable. The cost of a mistake in the field, under a crane, on a live project with a client watching, is exponentially higher.
And yet, despite that complexity, we often rely more on heroics than on systems.
Curtis’s superpower is taking people, process and technology and snapping them together into systems that are simple, executable and actually used. Not admired in a boardroom. Not screenshot in a strategy deck. Used.
He described business systems like a chain. Each link is a tool. You can’t pull a heavy load with one link. You need them connected. But every additional link introduces another opportunity for failure. If the chain isn’t designed correctly, it doesn’t matter how strong one link is.
Construction loves adding links. A scheduling tool here. A document management system there. A safety app. An AI forecasting solution. We integrate and automate and stack features on top of one another.
And then we wonder why the whole thing still feels fragile.
Because we skipped the design of the chain.
AI Amplifies What Already Exists
Enter AI, the main headline right now. It’s moving from experimentation to execution across forecasting, scheduling, document review, safety analytics, even estimating. The promise is enormous.
But Curtis said something that should slow every executive team down before they buy into the hype:
“If you can’t clearly explain your process, you can’t automate it.”
AI is not magic. It’s amplification. It scales whatever foundation you give it. If your data is inconsistent, if your workflows live in tribal knowledge, if your standard operating procedures are undefined or outdated, AI won’t fix that. It will scale it.
Garbage in, garbage out isn’t just a cliché. It’s a warning.
Most leadership teams, when faced with a problem, spend the first meeting simply defining what the process even is. Who owns it? What are the steps? Where does it begin and end? If we can’t answer those questions ourselves, how can we expect a machine to optimize it?
Before we digitize, we must define. Before we automate, we must standardize.
That’s not anti-technology. It’s pro-results.
The Power of a Standard
In construction, “standard operating procedure” can feel like corporate red tape. It sounds bureaucratic. Restrictive. Like someone trying to box in creativity or field expertise. I even called them out myself recently.
Curtis reframed this in a way I found enlightening.
“Where there is no standard, there can be no improvement.”
A standard isn’t a cage. It’s a floor. It’s the baseline from which you get better. The mistake isn’t creating standards. The mistake is creating them once and never revisiting them.
Continuous improvement means standards are living documents. They are reviewed, challenged, refined. They give you a clear “you are here” marker on the map so that when the industry shifts, you know exactly what needs to change.
Without a standard, you’re guessing. With a standard, you can improve intentionally.
And in an industry facing labor shortages, technology disruption, mental health awareness and supply chain volatility, intentional improvement is no longer optional.
The Disconnect is Growing
When I asked Curtis what construction leaders need to hear that they might not want to, his answer was immediate.
Your team probably already knows the answer.
Have you asked them? Have you gone to where the work is happening? Have you watched how your processes actually play out in real time?
The higher we climb in leadership, the easier it is to become disconnected from the daily friction of the work. Decisions made in conference rooms ripple through job sites in ways we may never see unless we intentionally go looking.
In manufacturing, there’s a concept called a Gemba walk. Go see the work. Talk to the people doing it. Observe before you prescribe.
And construction needs more of that.
Empathy isn’t just a soft skill. It’s operational intelligence. Especially in a season where AI and automation can widen the gap between decision-makers and doers if we’re not careful.
The Missing Ingredient
Perhaps the most powerful part of my conversation with Curtis had nothing to do with construction.
For years, he helped businesses improve operations. He optimized workflows. He implemented systems. He drove efficiencies. And then he realized something uncomfortable.
He hadn’t applied those same principles to himself.
He was building better companies but neglecting his own personal systems.
So he changed that.
He began applying continuous improvement to his habits, his routines, his mindset. Plan. Do. Check. Act. Ask why five times. Define standards for himself. Review them. Improve them.
The result wasn’t just incremental growth. It created clarity and energy. It made him more fulfilled at home and more effective at work.
While we love to talk about work-life balance in construction, the truth is, there’s no clean separation. If your personal systems are chaotic, your professional systems will feel heavier. If you lack clarity at home, you’ll struggle to create clarity at work.
Continuous improvement is not just a corporate initiative. It’s a way of living.
One Person Can Create a Ripple
Maybe you’re reading this thinking, I’m just one person. What difference can I make? Curtis has a simple yet powerful answer to that.
“Be the change you wish to see.”
Yeah, it might sound cliché, but have you tried it? Document a process no one has ever written down. Ask better questions in a meeting. Call out a cross-functional workflow everyone hates but no one has addressed and signal a new standard of ownership.
A pebble creates a ripple. Enough ripples change a culture.
If construction is going to level up, we have to get better at what we’ve always done. Not just newer, shinier and more digital. Better. Clearer. More disciplined. More intentional.
AI will absolutely reshape this industry. Curtis and I believe that deeply. But it will reward the companies that have done the unglamorous work of defining their systems, clarifying their standards and investing in leaders who are willing to improve themselves first.
Processes first. Tech second.
Not because technology doesn’t matter. It does. But because technology without process is just expensive chaos.
So, maybe the next breakthrough for your company doesn’t start with a new platform. Maybe it starts with a whiteboard, a conversation and a willingness to examine your own habits before you try to transform your organization.
Construction is cool, tell your friends!