The Leader’s Playbook for Operational Excellence

Simple behaviors. Visible systems. Consistent results.

Most contractors assume “firefighting” is just part of the job. It’s not. Firefighting is the symptom of a system that lacks design. When information hides in emails, reminders live on sticky notes, and expectations only surface when something goes wrong, chaos is guaranteed.

This 2-day workshop gives you and your leaders the structure and tools to improve systematically. To make excellence the default condition of your business, not the exception.

What You'll Build

This isn’t another training. It’s a working session where you’ll design the systems your team actually uses, built for your projects, your people, and your operation. Led by Zack Estes of Lean Dirt, you’ll spend two days creating practical, plug-and-play processes that make excellence predictable.

What You'll Learn

How to build clarity and trust

Learn to organize knowledge so everyone knows where to find the information that they need.

How to build consistency and accountability

Learn to capture, organize, and review next actions.

How to build and improve performance

Learn to communicate visibly, reduce friction, and develop operationally excellent people.

How to sustain performance

Learn to make continuous improvement a daily habit.

What You'll Walk Out WIth

A working action system for capturing, organizing, and reviewing every task, idea, and commitment
Three core improvement skills you’ll practice live
Six daily processes that create clarity and drive improvement
A clear information system map that shows where every piece of knowledge belongs
Four daily routines scheduled on your calendar to ensure operational excellence
A complete role chart with accountability for every seat

Who Should Attend

Owners, executives, and leadership teams of excavation and heavy civil companies under $100M.

Bring your senior project managers, lead estimators, superintendents, and key foremen. These are the people who run the work every day. These systems are built for them. When your entire team learns to systematically clarify, improve, and coach together, communication becomes clearer, decisions are made faster, and performance becomes predictable.

This is for contractors who are ready to install the daily habits that make operational excellence stick.

A Warning

Different results require different behaviors.

If your business isn’t already operationally excellent, something in the way you work has to change.

We’ll show you exactly what to do step by step, tactically and specifically, but it’s on you to do it.

Don’t come if you’re not willing to behave differently.

Testimonials

Studying processes like this showed me how to build a foundation of clarity and efficiency within our company, setting our team members up for success and gratification. Not only professionally, but personally, where it really matters.

Dave Newby

Great Divide Earthworks
Afton, WY

The practical applications learned were priceless. Get ready to take notes, be a sponge and be reinvigorated to grow your company.

Jenni Sireci

Better Mondays
Jackson, WY

Sign up. I got more value out of two days than I could learn on my own in years of stumbling through the challenges to figure them out.

Patrick Dunigan III

Dunigan Brothers
Jackson, MI

It will really open your eyes to things your missing, things that are really dragging your business down that you can’t see, or don’t want to accept.

Chandler O’Niell

JMA Construction
Puyallup, WA

The Operationalize Your Dirt Business course gave me a whole new perspective on the power of process. I used to think systems had to be big and complex, but this course showed me how starting with small changes can make a big impact.

Ed Schlect

Maven Utilities
Toledo, WA

Shows you how easy it is to systemize and create standards, even in the dirt world. You want this, your clients want this, your employees want this.

Matt Gillett

Gillett Excavating
North Street, MI

Workshop Agenda

Every session follows the same pattern: Clarify the concept → Train by building it → Walk out with something you can use Monday.

Wednesday, February 4

SESSION 1: Foundations of Operational Excellence
What it is, what it isn’t, and why firefighting is a design problem—not a people problem.

SESSION 2: Building Your Action System, pt. 1
Learn to capture everything that matters—so nothing lives in your head.

SESSION 3: Building Your Action System, pt. 2
Organize and review your work so priorities stay clear and anxiety disappears.

SESSION 4: Installing Your Daily Routines
Build the four routines—Brief, 3S, Debrief, and Reset—directly into your calendar.

Thursday, February 5

SESSION 5: Understanding the Performance Levers
Practice the core behaviors that drive excellence: Clarify, Improve, and Coach.

SESSION 6: Clarifying Your Role Chart
Define every seat on the bus—success statements, KPIs, and accountability.

SESSION 7: Mapping Your Information System, pt. 1
Decide where your information lives—so your team always knows where to look.

SESSION 8: Mapping Your Information System, pt. 2
Practice coaching while identifying improvements to make your systems stronger.

Speaker Lineup

Host

Benjamin Holmgren

Benjamin Holmgren is the founder of Ground Crew where he helps excavation and heavy civil contractors build better businesses. Through workshops and peer groups, he helps contractors simplify operations, become better leaders, and create companies that serve well for the long-term.

Zack Estes is the founder of Lean Dirt, where he coaches civil construction businesses on implementing lean systems, processes, and behaviors that drive daily performance improvement. He has worked with teams across North America, from companies with $2M to $70M in revenue, helping them achieve operational excellence. His focus is simple: make communication visible, reduce friction, and build leaders who continuously improve.

INSTRUCTOR

Zack Estes

What It's Like to Attend a Ground Crew Workshop

We Put the "Work" Back in Workshop

You’re not here to listen. You’re here to build.

Every workshop session gives you time to create real processes for your actual business. Zack provides live feedback while you work. You ask questions. You refine. You walk out with something finished.

No theory. No “great ideas” to implement later. Just working systems, built in the room, ready to plug in Monday morning.

You're Learning With (and From) Your Peers

The room will have 40 leaders from excavation and heavy civil companies. People who face the same challenges you face. People who run businesses like yours.

This isn’t a generic construction event. It’s hyper-focused on dirt contractors.

That means:

The questions others ask are relevant to you
The examples Zack uses match your reality
The processes you build account for your specific industry challenges
The relationships you form continue beyond the workshop

You’ll learn as much from the contractor next to you as you will from Zack. That’s by design.

Pricing & Tickets

Standard Workshop Ticket

$2500

Ground Crew Member Ticket

$2000

Got questions? Shoot an email to benjamin@joingroundcrew.com

Early Bird Pricing

We keep things simple.

This workshop is limited to 40 seats total, and the first 20 registrations get early-bird pricing.

Once those 20 seats are filled, pricing automatically increases by $500.
If you already know you want to be in the room, now’s the time to grab your spot.