Episodes
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Episode 79 – Building the Circle
This week, we’re talking about diversity in construction again. With the launch of our new Build the Circle scholarship program, we’re spending some time talking about the problem, as we see it, and the logic that went into our approach at one solution. If you have ever felt like things aren’t...
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Episode 78 – The Project Life Cycle and Training PMs
This week, we’re taking another dive into our new model of organizational change, the newly named “Groundswell Theory.” As we prepare to roll out our new PM Basic Training program in a couple of weeks, we wanted to spend some time talking through the details of the framework that supports all of...
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Episode 77 – Interview with a Construction Vampire
This week, we are talking about growth, hiring and promotion – all of the ways that a company gets an infusion of fresh blood. Of course, being the nerds that we are, we went ahead and made the vampire analogy. We talk about: • Promoting from within the company • Hiring people from outside the...
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Episode 76 – Top Secret Value Engineering Tips
This week on The Critical Path, we are talking about a subject that is at the center of a great deal of stress and drama in the industry – Value Engineering. We talk about: •What Value Engineering is and who is benefits • Understanding which pieces of the puzzle are immovable • Understanding the...
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Episode 75 – Managing Schedule Impact
Last year, just before Covid hit, we recorded an episode about how to manage schedule in construction. The plan was to record a second part to that episode where we addressed how to handle impacts to the schedule, once it was all built out. Now that we’re getting back on track with the podcast…
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Episode 74 – Now What?
It’s been a while since we have made an episode of The Critical Path, but we’re back and we have lots to talk about! After a long break to think about our business, our podcast, and what’s next for Arcade and The Critical Path, we’re talking this week about what’s been going on, and how we’re...
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Episode 73 – Rediscovering Building Local with Kathryn Larsen
This week, on The Critical Path, we’re talking with architectural innovator Kathryn Larsen, who has earned the nickname, The Seaweed Girl in the international design community. Kathryn is doing some amazing research into how we can avoid reinventing the wheel, by making use of materials and…
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Episode 72 – The Future of Virtual Construction with BNBuilders
This week’s episode is a lot of fun! We’ve been working to learn more about how Extended Reality (XR) is being put to use in the construction world for a long time. From using Virtual Reality (VR) for safety training or to better understand models while offsite to Augmented Reality (AR) like...
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Episode 71 – Building a Better World with Shannon Bunsen and Kevin Hunter
Recently, we started hearing about some really cool projects that have been happening around the world. We wanted to learn more about what companies like Sextant Foundation and Construction for Change are doing, and how the rest of us can help them in the important work they are doing. We sat…
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Episode 70 – Foreman Basic Training – A Sneak Preview
This week, we start running our first group through our Foreman Basic Training program. For that course, rather than give our trainees reading assignments, we put together a series of podcast style audio reviews, so that they can listen to their homework while they drive or get other things done....
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Episode 69 – Sink or Swim
As we gear up to roll out our Foreman Basic Training Program next month, we’re talking about the phenomena that prompted us to create that program – promotion without preparation. It’s a major factor in the conversation about psychological safety, and a problem that we see on a daily basis in…
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Episode 68 – The Impact of 9-11 on Safety with Special Guest Brian Polis from Graham
It’s been 19 years today since the September 11 attacks. That date is engraved in our minds for a reason – many things about our world changed on that fateful day. In a recent conversation with this week’s special guest, Brian Polis, Director of Health, Safety and Environment at Graham, we talked...
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Episode 67 – Bidding – Is It A Xenomorph?
We’ve had a busy couple of weeks, and lots of guests on The Critical Path lately. It felt like it was time to just settle in with an audio only episode and talk some serious construction (but also get silly with some nerdy movie references.) So, we present to you – Bidding in Construction – Is It…
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Episode 66 – Reimagining Construction Education with Mark Zimpfer
As COVID has changed our world from the highly localized Seattle community to a more global perspective, we’ve been talking with a lot of people who are further away than before. As we found ourselves having more distant conversations, and building those communities up, we have been talking a lot...
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Episode 65 – Value vs Cool in Construction Tech with Trevor Lunde
It seems like every day we see some new tool or software solution that is the ‘next big thing’ in construction. It’s true that there are a lot of new advances that can go a long way to saving us from injuries and unnecessary mistakes in the construction industry, but it’s important that we think...
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Episode 64 – Unleashing Your Superpower
This week, we’re talking about all the time you spend doing things that aren’t your strongest or best skills, and why you should do less of that! We talk about: • Aleister Crowley (and Ozzy Osbourne) • The risk of being a little good at a lot of things • The role you are ‘built’ to play at work •...
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Episode 63 – Looking for Work
This week, we’re talking about a subject that is on a lot of minds right now – looking for work. As everyone tries to sort out the best way to respond to the economic uncertainty of the COVID crisis, many people who are great team members with valuable skills are finding themselves looking for a...
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Episode 62 – True Stories with Nigel Chiddick
This week, we’re catching up with Nigel Chiddick, who has been running a series of LinkedIn stories about his experiences with racism in his history in the construction industry, the importance of mentors and relationships, and what it’s like to share your own, very personal life stories with the...
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Episode 61 – How Can I Motivate People?
A question we hear all the time is, “How do I get my team motivated?” A related question that not enough leaders ask is, “How can I keep from demotivating my team?” Keeping people engaged, coming to work and being excited about getting things done is one of the most common concerns of leaders.…
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Episode 60 – Downsizing and Survivor’s Syndrome
Downsizing. No one wants to talk about it. No one wants to have to do it. It’s not exactly a fun topic. In the era of COVID though, it’s more important than ever that we think carefully about downsizing decisions and then handle the implementation of those decisions in the right way. So, this…
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Episode 59 – Diversity and Inclusion in Construction with Special Guest Dan Lester.
Recently, we had a great conversation on the podcast with our friend Jason Jones, and that conversation brought up a lot of really great information. After recording that episode, we found that we wanted to learn more about what a Chief Diversity Officer really does, and get some thoughts from...
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Episode 58 – The Power of Stupid Questions
Knowledge is so important in the construction industry. Knowing the right way to build things, knowing the way the customer wants things built and being able to communicate that information across teams is the most important part of our work. As important as it is to know the right answer, it is...
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Episode 57 – Do Black Lives Matter in Construction? – with Special Guest Jason Jones
Okay Constant Listeners, get your Jetpacks on because we are getting a little serious this week. There is a conversation happening in this country right now, and it’s long overdue. Race and inequality are heavy topics, and they can be really uncomfortable to talk about, so often we just don’t....
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Episode 56 – Working with Equipment with Luke Powers of Gearflow.com
This week, we recorded our first remote guest on The Critical Path. (In the past, when you have heard guests on the podcast, those people have been sitting right here in the Arcade office with a cup of coffee in hand!) In the era of COVID, we’re all making changes, and learning to work with audio...
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Episode 55 – Tracking the Impact of COVID
As everyone slowly, but surely (and safely!) gets back to work in the construction world, we’ve been talking with a lot of clients about how to start getting a handle on keeping track of all of the impacts we’re seeing as a result of the quarantine, the new safety protocols and the effect of...
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Episode 54 – A Case Study on Pivoting
In Episode 53 – How Are You?, we talked about the way that the COVID crisis has been impacting Arcade and our business model (in short – being a company who focuses on bringing people together in a classroom and playing games together is a little rough right now!) In Episode 54, we’re talking…
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Episode 53 – How Are You?
Lately, we have been talking a lot about the impact that the current pandemic has on the economy. Work has been shut down in so many industries, and so many people have been vaulted into economic insecurity, it’s hard to begin to grasp the impact this will have. We’ve been talking about the…
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Episode 52 – Hitting the Ground Running
It’s been quiet here on the podcast for the past couple of weeks as we get our heads around this ‘new normal’ that everyone is talking about. We have been busy, re-imagining a lot of the work we do as we convert our training to remote sessions and take on lots of new challenges, but that’s not…
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Episode 51 – Stay Home, Stay Healthy
Last night, Washington state announced a ‘Stay Home, Stay Healthy’ order, in response to the COVID-19 crisis. Today, everyone in the construction industry is scrambling to understand what it means to us and our work. Today we cut an episode, talking about current assumptions about the...
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Episode 50 – Not How We Planned This Episode
Unless you have been hiding in a bunker beneath the city, you are probably aware of the fact that things are a little different in Seattle (and the US) right now. With COVID-19 making the rounds, most companies are making compromises and sending as many people to work from home as possible. While...
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Episode 49 – Planning Your Project Schedule
This week’s episode topic was a request from longtime listener and previous guest Jason Lange, who wanted to hear more about managing schedule on a construction project. As it turns out, we had a lot to say about schedule – so much, in fact, that we are covering schedule for two episodes. This...
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Episode 48 – Seven Levels of Delegation
Delegation is tough! We talk to leaders every day who want to give their teams the freedom to make decisions, but can’t seem to get to the place where they can hand over that authority. Often, we jump to the conclusion that team members can’t handle the responsibility, when in fact our delegation...
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Episode 47 – Annual Review Time!
We’re back! After a not-so-short unplanned hiatus over the holiday break, we are back in the saddle and turning out episodes again! We’re starting with the single topic we spend the most time addressing in January: Performance Reviews. Back in Episode 34 we talked about setting up a good system…
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Episode 46 – Giving Thanks
This week, we are talking about the sometimes complicated topic of being grateful. If you celebrate Thanksgiving, you know that while we’re all enjoying a giant holiday meal with whatever your family’s favorite dishes may be, the underlying meaning of the holiday is right in the name – giving...
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Episode 45 – PM Software
This week, we’re talking about one of Jason’s pet peeves – Project Management Software. We see all kinds of PM Software issues, from software that we have to continually work around, to software that just doesn’t do what we want it to do. In this episode we’re going to talk about why that happens...
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Episode 44 – Do Something That Terrifies You!
Last week, we were the ‘Big Top’ Sponsors for ABC’s circus themed Fall Event, and we promised a surprise. We had a lot of fun with the sponsorship, the event and this episode. We’re talking about: Taking the Risks that we’ve always wanted to take The times when you have to just take a leap Circus...
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Episode 43 – Team Tasking
Back in Episode 31, we talked about keeping track of all of your tasks in one place. This week, we’re talking about what the benefits are of keeping your whole team’s tasks in one place with Team Tasking. Team tasking is a great way to make sure that everyone is on the same page, from keeping...
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Episode 42 – Spooky Safety Stories
This week, it’s our favorite holiday – Halloween! (Check out the podcast image to see Bowie, our new pet dragon skeleton!) We’re talking to some longtime Arcade friends and family, as well as some newcomers about spooky safety stories. Tune in, if you’re in for a scary good time! Crack open your...
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Episode 41 – Leaving Well
This week, we spoke with another special guest – Jason Lange, Chief Operating Officer for AM Exteriors. We asked him what he’d want to discuss on the podcast, and he had a great idea for a really relevant topic – leaving a job well. After his recent experience of spending some time away from AM...
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Episode 40 – Trade Organizations
We help construction companies. Being in a line of work like that puts us into contact with other organizations who do the same all the time. We work with several different trade organizations in a few different capacities, but always to the same end – helping subcontractors and GCs to do their...
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Episode 39 – Don’t Let Zombies in Your House!
Halloween is coming, and if you hadn’t heard, we’re big fans of Halloween at Arcade. (Hence the upcoming Halloween party – #GetPunk’d2019) In preparation, we thought we’d record a podcast episode in the holiday spirit, so this week, we’re comparing Project Management to a Zombie movie! Often, we...
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Episode 38 – Planning Ahead
In the construction industry, it’s pretty common for companies to be busy all summer long. When the summer ends and the Seattle rainclouds come back out, a lot of our clients use that shift to start thinking about the coming year, so we’re talking this week about Planning. Whether you bring your...
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Episode 37 – Storytime with Arcade (Part 2)
This episode is the second and final part of Storytime with Arcade. In this episode, we talk about our lives and work after we moved back to the Pacific Northwest from Toronto. Also, more (and possibly a tiny bit too much) scotch. As with last week, if you’re looking for business development...
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Episode 36 – Storytime with Arcade (Part 1)
This week’s episode is a little different than our usual episode. After 35 episodes of talking about business development and company culture, we thought it might make sense to make an episode about where we came from, and how we came to this line of work. If you’re looking for business…
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Episode 35 – The Art of War
This week, we’re talking about our upcoming training series, The Art of War with ABC. People often ask us why we named the series The Art of War. When we read Sun Tzu’s book of military advice of the same name, we couldn’t help but feel like it was relevant to the contracting world today. We’re...
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Podcast Episode 34 – Managing Performance
All month, we’ve been talking about the ways you can tune up your organization with regards to taking care of your team. This week, we’re talking about the misunderstood black sheep in the HR toolbox – Performance Management. On the one hand, we hear all the time that it’s everyone’s least…
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Podcast Episode 33 – Building Your Map
This month on The Critical Path, we’re focusing on all of the little tweaks you can make to run a tighter ship. We talked about tasking, about compensation, and now we’re getting into the brass tacks of Organizational Mapping – the art/science of informing your teams of what they’re expected to…
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Podcast Episode 32 – Navigating Compensation
We talk a lot about company culture and the fact that money isn’t the only factor in a good hire. That being said, compensation is still an important factor to navigate if you want to strengthen your teams with every new hire. This week, we’re talking about compensation – about how to sort out…
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Podcast Episode 31 – Get Your House in Order!
If boosting your business up to the next level is a journey (and it is,) the necessary first step of the trip is Time Management. Having the mental energy and actual minutes and hours to spend thinking about what you need and where you want to go requires having a little time to spare! This week…
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Podcast Episode 30 – Jetpack Leadership Cohort
We’ve been talking a lot about leadership lately, and this week, to celebrate our 30th podcast episode, we are talking about our newest offering, the Jetpack Leadership Cohort. (Also, another scotchisode, if you’re interested in that sort of thing…) We’re building a year-long cohort program to...
About this show
A Weekly Podcast about business development, company culture and loving the place you work just a little bit more.
Hosted by
Mary and Jason Sturgeon, Arcade Wayfinding
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