Featured Congress Session: “Weird New Feeling”—Opening Day Preparedness
Get ready for Lean learning with the impactful session, “Weird New Feeling”—Opening Day Preparedness, presented by Christopher Cheu of Skanska USA Building Inc., Dawit Birru of Massport, and Grace Lin and Mini Cheeti of Stantec. We got a fantastic sneak peek of the topic during our conversation with Christopher and Dawit.
The session name was inspired by the unique sense of calm—versus stress—the team felt in the weeks leading up to the project opening, a newly refreshed passenger pick-up area at Boston’s Logan Airport. This sense of calm was described as a “weird new feeling”—and you can learn how to gain it on your own projects!
We hope you will join this session and take part in all the learning Congress has to offer. Join us at the 2025 LCI Congress, October 20-24, in Arlington, Texas. Register today for the best available rates.
The session was inspired by the team’s success in meeting a critical milestone for a high-stakes project.
An initial milestone for this $40M project at Boston’s Logan International Airport Terminal B was to open a newly refreshed passenger pickup area, adding 1,000 linear feet of passenger pick-up space and deconflicting passenger vehicles and buses by November 21, 2024, one week before Thanksgiving.
Christopher noted, “To start, I want to highlight where we were working with Massport at Logan Airport. It’s an active, very busy area. The stakes and visibility were high, and a lot of people would be impacted. We were able to alleviate congestion and improve safety before the holiday season.”
He added, “The success was due to the planning that happened ahead of time, and I’m happy to share that in our session.”
The success hinged on clear alignment among all stakeholders on the same target.
Christopher offered, “I remember the night of November 20th, the night before the turnover happened at 5 am, how much calm and peace we had, and how anticlimactic it was to wait for the first passenger to use the new pickup area…The collaboration among all stakeholders—Massport, Stantec, Skanska—they were all aligned from day one. At no point throughout the first few months leading up to the opening did we deviate, thinking maybe we can do December or maybe October. There was clear alignment all along and that allowed us to all home in on the same target.”
When obstacles arose, they were handled effectively. Sharing an example, Christopher offered, “We discovered a duct bank in the middle of the project. It was unexpected and required a redesign. Through conversations and working together, we could identify the impact and options to mitigate it. Massport was able to give us additional workspace and make some sacrifices with their external client, a taxi company, to support the construction project, and together, we delivered the milestone that everyone was looking for. In the end, I would like to think the taxis that had to make some concessions were happy as well. The team spirit goes beyond those who were working together on a day-to-day basis.”
Lean tools were used to foster successful collaboration, trust, and open lines of communication.
The team will share how they utilized Conditions of Satisfaction to establish clear expectations for the project. They’ll also discuss how the Big Room approach played a crucial role in fostering collaboration and enabling the team to effectively address any challenges that arose. Dawit noted, “The entire team was fully aligned to complete phase one by November 2024.”
He added, “The two components that helped keep the open lines of communication going were trust and collaboration. That was a core part of the team dynamic. At no point did anyone assign blame or point figures to any member of the team. Instead, we came together and applied A3 Thinking and used Choose by Advantage to identify current problems and from that point, collaboratively developed actionable items. We solved issues using Lean tools.
The key takeaway from our perspective is that planning and collaborative efforts work. Whether you’re using Conditions of Satisfaction, Big Room, A3 Thinking, or any other Lean tool, the takeaway is the value of collaboration and planning throughout the project.”
Planning is a team sport.
Christopher offered, “We talk about teamwork, working with stakeholders—planning is a team sport. It’s not something we do in a silo or individually. Everyone brings something to the table. When we bring our expertise together, the quality of the planning improves, and the chances of success also improve.
The process of working together is where a lot of Lean tools can help facilitate the conversation and keep the same goal in mind. I hope everyone takes that away from this session.”
The project team worked to ensure everyone impacted was involved and had a voice. On the Massport side, there were stakeholders from capital programs, the aviation terminal, and ground transportation unit. On the designer side, there were traffic management stakeholders to support signage, inside and outside, and at the right time. There were weekly virtual Big Room calls that were two hours from start to finish.
Pull planning can get lost in translation, but on this project, “there was a direct connection of what we’re talking about and the coordination we had. Our Pull Plan showed who will be where hour by hour.”
Anyone who works in a team setting and wants to achieve success should join this session.
This session is geared towards empowering all project stakeholders with Lean tools for successful collaboration. Offering a full range of perspectives, presenters include Massport from the owner side, Stantec on the designer side, and Skanska on the construction side.
The team is looking forward to presenting and sharing their experience.
Christopher is looking forward to “presenting and sharing my experience, as well as learning from others at Congress.” It’s Dawit’s first time at Congress, and he expects it to be “a great experience.”
Join us at Congress.
Join us at the 2025 LCI Congress, October 20-24, in Arlington, Texas, for this inspiring session and much more! Register today.
Stay in the know.
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Interested in sponsoring or exhibiting at this year’s Congress?
Email Ilene Goldberg or call (703) 785-9087, for more information.
Questions on the Congress program?
Contact Joan Piccariello with any questions about the Congress program.