The Construction Leadership Podcast with Bradley Hartmann

Are construction leaders investing in AI because it solves meaningful business problems or because everyone is suddenly selling them something with “AI” attached to it? AI is creating real opportunities for construction leaders to save time, improve productivity, and focus on higher-value work. At the same time, the surge of investment and attention around AI has created plenty of hype. In this episode, Bradley Hartmann revisits Disrupted: My Misadventure in the Startup Bubble by Dan Lyons and

Could the incentives inside your business be quietly encouraging the exact behaviors you’re trying to eliminate? When three out of every four grades at the University of Michigan are As, changing how freshmen are graded raises a much bigger leadership question: What happens when the system rewards behaviors you never intended? The same problem can show up inside your construction business. Performance reviews become meaningless when everyone “exceeds expectations.” Honest feedback gets avoided

What problem have you been trying to solve for far too long simply because you’ve already invested so much into it? Leaders are taught to value grit, persistence, and the willingness to tackle hard problems. Those qualities can create tremendous value. They can also make walking away from a long-standing commitment incredibly difficult. In this episode, Bradley Hartmann explores Charlie Munger’s famous “too hard pile,” insights from investor Jeremy Gaffen, and Peter Drucker’s concept of intenti

What do you do when the data supports your decision, but reality proves you wrong? In 1985, Coca-Cola replaced its legendary formula with New Coke after extensive research suggested consumers preferred a sweeter taste. The backlash was immediate. Just 79 days later, Coca-Cola reversed course and brought back the original formula. The way Coca-Cola’s leaders responded to that mistake provides a valuable leadership lesson. For construction leaders constantly evaluating new technology, processes

Are you using AI to save a few minutes or to make the decisions that could change your business? Many leaders are already using AI to summarize documents, improve emails, build meeting agendas, and handle other everyday tasks. But what if those applications are focused on the 80% of your work that creates only 20% of the value? In this episode, Bradley Hartmann shares his begrudging, but wholehearted, recommendation of Geoff Woods’ The AI-Driven Leader. Despite a long list of frustrations with

What are you doing every day to strengthen your strategic thinking or are you expecting to get strategically fit from one planning retreat a year? Construction leaders spend their days solving problems, answering emails, making decisions, and reacting to whatever demands their attention next. But when strategic thinking never gets the same deliberate practice, leaders can become the bottleneck, teams struggle to make decisions independently, and execution slows down. Bradley Hartmann shares a