Human Side of Construction

Episode SummaryJosh Vitale — co-founder of Project Built, chair of Construction Suicide Prevention Week, and a self-described recovering superintendent — joins Angelo to dismantle the comfortable lie that awareness alone is solving construction's mental health crisis. They get into the data we don't quote, the family disconnection thread that runs through every superintendent he's ever met, the CEO whose strategy was to wait the obstructionists out, and the cocaine-mice study that explains why our job sites are breaking people. If you lead anyone in construction, this conversation is the one to share. Topics Covered•        Why Josh refused to lead the way the linemen who hazed him led•        The mask: outside success and inside collapse in your twenties•        The construction mental health stats every leader should know cold•        The EAP call that started Josh's second journey•        Becoming "the suicide guy" and the hero complex he had to unlearn•        Why awareness alone is the on-ramp, not the destination•        The 18.3x suicide multiplier for men in financial difficulty•        Family disconnection as the universal thread across thousands of supers•        The CEO who said "wait for them to retire"•        What to actually say to old-school holdouts•        Listening as leadership — and the Jim Allison story•        Programs that work: Proactive Communication and Frontliners•        Mechanical solutions vs. human solutions on a slipping schedule•        The cocaine mice and the case for environment-as-intervention•        Where to start the inner work: self-awareness, journaling, breath work, nature•        Josh's three-word message to every CEO, CFO, and super listening Guest BioJosh Vitale is the co-founder of Project Built, a non-profit confronting addiction, suicide, burnout, and disconnection in construction. He chairs Construction Suicide Prevention Week, the industry's largest annual awareness initiative, engaging hundreds of thousands of participants every year. A former IBEW/NECA high voltage journeyman lineman turned superintendent, Josh helped build Tough Enough to Talk into one of the most recognized mental health programs in commercial construction, and successfully lobbied to include construction workers in the Arizona State Suicide Prevention Plan. He has been open about his own PTSD, suicidal ideation, and recovery. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit humansideofconstruction.substack.com

Construction has a retention problem, and most leaders are diagnosing it wrong. People aren’t leaving for ten thousand dollars and a fancier title. They’re leaving because they can’t see a future inside your organization, and instead of asking, they assume there isn’t one. In this solo episode, Angelo breaks down the four things every construction leader has to get right to stop the slow bleed of talent: confronting the promotion bottleneck honestly, redefining what growth looks like, building a real talent pipeline before it’s an emergency, and having the two career conversations almost everyone avoids. Key topics covered•        Why “they left for the money” is almost always the wrong diagnosis•        The promotion bottleneck in construction — and why silence about it is the real problem•        Generational expectations: progression every two to five years isn’t entitlement, it’s the world they grew up in•        Reframing growth: cross-functional exposure, expanded scope, and seat-at-the-table moves that aren’t promotions but are real growth•        The development-plan test: can your high-potential people describe their path specifically?•        Building the talent pipeline before you need it — critical roles, competencies, and bench identification•        Why companies grooming people in secret are the ones losing them•        The two awkward conversations that separate organizations where careers are built from organizations where people pass through•        Honesty delivered with respect as a leadership standard•        This week’s challenge: have the one career conversation you’ve been putting off This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit humansideofconstruction.substack.com

Kabri Lehrman-Schmid is a Project Superintendent at Hensel Phelps with over 17 years experience. She’s currently leading the S Concourse Evolution Project at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport as part of a $2B+ terminal renovation program, with a career portfolio that already exceeds $2 billion in completed project value. Off the job site, she’s co-founded Build With Pride Seattle, co-chairs the Washington State Task Force on Construction Suicide Prevention, and created one of the first toolbox talks on neurodiversity in construction. In this episode, Angelo and Kabri go deep on what psychological safety actually looks like in the field — not the boardroom version, but the day-to-day decisions a superintendent makes to create an environment where people feel safe enough to do their best work. In this episode: •        How Kabri went from an engineering student working at Starbucks to leading a Pentagon renovation internship — and why you never know what conversation will change your life•        What 17 years at one company actually teaches you about what people need to stay•        Why field leaders don’t need to wait for corporate culture — and how a superintendent builds it from Day One of mobilization•        The “gatekeeper” reframe: why we’re all gatekeepers, and how you choose to be a conduit or a barrier•        Perspective taking as the most important leadership skill in a technical world•        Mental health in construction: 7,000 workers lost to suicide per year, 10,000 to drug overdose•        The room of 45 electricians, and what happened when half the hands went up•        What a low voltage foreman said to Kabri a year after she left his job site•        Why people are afraid to say the wrong thing — and why saying nothing is worse•        The business case for psychological safety as a performance strategy, not a feel-good initiative•        Build With Pride Seattle: 200 people, 85 companies, and what it means when people say it was the first time they felt acknowledged in construction•        Why inclusion programs that don’t survive the job site gate are a leadership failure•        Neurodiversity in construction and the toolbox talk that didn’t even say the word•        The deep foundations foreman who buried cows in an elementary school lawn•        What Kabri wishes she had known on Day One of her career This episode is for any construction leader who has ever wondered whether the human side of the work is really their responsibility — and needs to hear the answer from someone who runs a billion-dollar job site every day.Want to be a guest? Reach out: [email protected] This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit humansideofconstruction.substack.com

Why do construction companies keep losing good people and blaming the generation instead of the gap? In this solo episode, Angelo breaks down the real reason workers walk away — mismatched expectations that nobody talks about — and lays out what leaders can do about it this week.In this episode:•        Why this isn’t a generational problem — it’s an expectations problem•        How frustration and disappointment from unmet expectations are the two fastest ways to lose someone•        The three areas where generational gaps create operational friction: how we live, how we work, and how we communicate•        Why younger workers aren’t soft — their baseline for what’s normal has shifted•        The communication breakdown: performance issue vs. delivery issue•        Why acknowledgement has to come before solutions•        The difference between “treating everyone the same” and “paying attention to what each person needs”•        Why the previous generation worked so hard specifically so the next one wouldn’t have to — and why we’re frustrated that it worked•        Three things leaders can do immediately: audit communication, create structured knowledge transfer, and ask the question•        Your one takeaway: ask someone from a different generation how they need to be ledThis episode is for anyone who leads a multi-generational team in construction and suspects the gap might be costing more than they think.Want to be a guest? Reach out: [email protected] This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit humansideofconstruction.substack.com

Patrick Murphy grew up in a fourth-generation construction family, left to earn his CPA, worked at Deloitte, served in the US Congress, and came back to lead at Coastal Construction — Florida’s largest GC. When he returned, he saw his estimating team spending more than half their time on manual takeoffs. So he built Togal.AI, an AI-powered takeoff platform trained on millions of construction plans. In this episode, Angelo and Patrick go deep on what AI actually means for construction — not the hype, but the real implications for leadership, estimating, workforce development, and the future of how we build. CHECK OUT TOGAL HERE  In this episode: →    What a fourth-generation construction upbringing teaches you about leadership, respect, and hard work→    Patrick’s hero’s journey: from Deloitte to Congress to building a construction tech company→    Why the younger generation isn’t lazy — they’re under-stimulated and under-challenged→    Why estimators spend 50–60% of their time on manual takeoffs — and what that costs the industry→    How Togal.AI was built inside a working GC and why it was spun out to serve the entire industry→    The science vs. the art of estimating: what AI should handle and what humans must own→    Independent research: 4x productivity gains and 98%+ accuracy vs. 97% human accuracy→    Jevons’ Paradox and why construction efficiency will create more work, not fewer jobs→    Patrick’s five-year prediction: prompt-based construction document generation→    Why estimators are about to become the most valuable people in the building→    Career advice: AI proficiency, network building, and solving problems before your boss asks This episode is for anyone who’s heard the AI buzz but hasn’t seen what it actually looks like inside a real construction company. CHECK OUT TOGAL HERE Want to be a guest? Reach out: [email protected] This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit humansideofconstruction.substack.com

The construction industry has been talking about the labour shortage for two decades. We know the numbers. We’ve seen the projections. And yet the gap keeps growing. In this solo episode, Angelo makes the case that we’ve been solving for the wrong problem — and that the real crisis isn’t about who we’re bringing in, it’s about who we’re losing and why.In this episode:→ Why 430,000 new workers per year still won’t close the gap — and what the numbers actually miss→ The hidden cost of turnover: $135K–$180K per employee, plus schedule hits, knowledge loss, and project disruption→ Why 40% of US construction apprentices never complete their programs→ The real reasons people leave construction — and why wages aren’t at the top of the list→ Why the toughness culture that built this industry is now driving talent out of it→ What younger workers actually want — and why calling them “less committed” misses the point→ Why retention is a leadership function, not an HR function→ The one question every construction leader should ask their team this weekThis episode is for anyone who’s tired of hearing about the labour shortage without hearing what to actually do about it.Want to be a guest? Reach out: [email protected] This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit humansideofconstruction.substack.com

Geoff Smith spent 30 years leading EllisDon from a regional builder into one of the largest construction companies in North America. He's a lawyer by training who openly admits he can't build a card house — and that vulnerability became the foundation of a leadership philosophy that shaped an entire organization.In this episode, we get into:→ How Geoff's people-first leadership style was born out of necessity, not strategy — and why that matters more than you think → Why EllisDon has no mission statement and no vision statement, on purpose → The "moments of truth" that define real culture — including firing profitable people who violated it → Why standard EAP programs failed EllisDon's people and what they built instead → Geoff's personal admission about his own mental health struggles and the realization that everyone around him was fighting the same battle in silence → The generational shift in construction leadership: "I spent my career looking for work. Kieran's gonna spend his career recruiting and retaining good people." → The six-word question Geoff wishes he'd asked 30 years earlierThis conversation goes places most construction leaders won't go publicly. Whether you're a CEO, a project manager, or just starting to figure out what kind of leader you want to be — this one's for you. 📺 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@humansideofconstruction🎙️ Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2FShMu5dJbpLEQDAp88KT8?si=GzVtM5HgQNWNKTbZnrkzEw🎙️ Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/human-side-of-construction/id1886591709Want to be a guest? Reach out: [email protected] This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit humansideofconstruction.substack.com

Every construction leader faces the same problem on every project and in every organization. It's not schedule. It's not budget. It's not scope. It's people. In this intro episode, I break down why the construction industry's biggest risk has nothing to do with technical competence — and everything to do with a leadership skills gap we've been ignoring for decades. I share the statistics nobody wants to put on a conference slide, the workforce collision that's already happening, and the question that's driven everything I've done for the past 20 years: how do we fix construction culture before construction culture fixes us? This is The Human Side of Construction Podcast. Episode 1 drops next featuring Geoff Smith, Executive Chair of EllisDon. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit humansideofconstruction.substack.com