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Module 6 For Construction intermediate 50 min

Define Your Repeatable Jobsite Workflow

The win is the system, not the one-off.

Turn Jobsite Intake Into a One-Page, AI-Assisted SOP

You are the GC standing up a new project: a roughly $3.0M ground-up, single-story medical office building, lump-sum prime contract directly with the Owner (a private developer). Right now your project intake lives in your head and in three other people's phones. Last job, the mobilization went sideways because nobody confirmed the soils report, the right permits, or who owned submittals before crews showed up. You want to turn new-project intake into a documented, repeatable workflow (a one-page SOP) that a PM or even a first-year apprentice could run the same way every time, with a human checkpoint before every money, safety, or commitment step.

Recommended tool

claude

Claude is strong at turning a messy, spoken-out-loud process into a clean, ordered SOP, at separating the steps a human must own from the steps AI can prep, and at producing the one-page SOP plus the field checklist and the intake email template as one coherent package you can hand to a PM.

Bring to the exercise

  • The recurring job you are systematizing (here: standing up intake for a new project)
  • How intake works today, step by step, even the messy parts (who does what, in what order, where it breaks)
  • Your Construction Context Document (project type, delivery method, contract type, key players as role labels)
  • A real example of a past intake that went sideways and what it cost you (time, money, a safety near-miss, a missed permit)
  • Every point in intake where money moves, a safety call is made, or you commit the company in writing
  • The tools you already use (project management software, plan room, scheduling, accounting) so the SOP fits them, not the other way around
  • Who actually runs this in the field (PM, super, apprentice) and what they can and cannot decide on their own

Step 1 of 8

Build Your Approach

Step 1

Build Your Approach

Before drafting a single line of the SOP, draw the line between what needs YOUR judgment (the money, the scope commitments, the safety calls, the signature, the relationships) and where AI can guide (structure, drafting, checking, organizing). AI is the new apprentice. You stay the foreman.

What to substitute before pasting

  • [THE RECURRING JOB] The repeatable job you are systematizing. For this run: standing up intake for a new project (the $3.0M medical office).
I am a general contractor and I want to turn a recurring job into a documented, repeatable workflow (a one-page SOP). The job is: [THE RECURRING JOB, e.g. standing up intake for a new project].

Before we draft anything, help me draw a clear line down the middle of this work.

On one side, list the parts of this workflow that must stay with a human (me or my PM) because they involve money, a scope or schedule commitment, a safety call, a written commitment of the company, or a relationship with the Owner, a sub, or an inspector. On the other side, list the parts where AI can genuinely help: structuring the steps, drafting checklists and templates, catching missing steps, organizing what already exists.

Do not write the SOP yet. First show me that split as two columns, then ask me where you think my own field judgment is most essential so I can confirm or correct you.
What good output looks like
  • Two clear columns: a "human owns this" side (anything touching money, scope, schedule commitments, safety, or the signature) and an "AI can help here" side (structure, drafting, checklists, finding gaps).
  • It puts the soils/site verification, permit and inspection sign-offs, and any commitment to the Owner or a sub on the human side, not the AI side.
  • It asks YOU where your judgment matters most instead of assuming it knows the field.

Verify before using AI's output

Write a Tight Subcontractor Scope of Work and Audit It for Dispute Bait

You are the GC on a roughly $3.0M ground-up, single-story medical office building, lump-sum prime contract directly with the Owner. You are about to issue a subcontract for the electrical work to Sub A. The number looks fine. The danger is in the scope. A loose scope of work is where change-order fights are born: the gaps over what was included, what was excluded, what was furnished by others, and who owned the gray areas turn into money arguments six months in. You want to write a tight scope of work (included, excluded, furnished-by-others, plus site, schedule, and quality expectations) and then have AI hunt it for "dispute bait," the gaps that cause change-order fights later, framed as questions you still need to answer.

Recommended tool

claude

Claude is strong at structuring a scope of work into clean included / excluded / furnished-by-others sections, and especially at the adversarial read, hunting a draft for the ambiguous handoffs and silent gaps that become change-order fights, then handing them back to you as questions instead of inventing answers.

Bring to the exercise

  • Which subcontract you are scoping (here: the electrical work, Sub A; the same method works for the site-work or mechanical sub)
  • Your Construction Context Document (project type, delivery method, contract type, key players as role labels)
  • The drawings, specs, and prime-contract scope language the sub's work has to align with
  • What you intend to be INCLUDED in the sub's scope, EXCLUDED from it, and FURNISHED BY OTHERS
  • Site, schedule, and quality expectations (access, staging, sequencing, milestones, cleanup, submittals, inspections, warranty)
  • A real example of a past scope gap that turned into a change-order fight and what it cost
  • The parts of this trade's scope that are always gray (the handoffs between trades, who provides what, where one trade stops and the next begins)

Step 1 of 8

Build Your Approach

Step 1

Build Your Approach

Before drafting scope language, separate what must stay yours (the scope commitments, the dollars behind them, the trade handoffs you decide, the signature) from where AI can help (structuring the document, drafting clean language, hunting for gaps). AI is the apprentice. You are the foreman.

What to substitute before pasting

  • [WHICH SUB] The subcontract you are scoping. For this run: the electrical work, Sub A. The same approach fits the site-work or mechanical sub.
I am a general contractor about to write a subcontractor scope of work for [WHICH SUB, e.g. the electrical sub, Sub A] on a commercial project. Before we draft anything, help me draw a line.

On one side, list what must stay with me because it is a commitment, a dollar, a risk allocation, or a judgment call: what I decide is included vs excluded, who furnishes what, how I allocate risk on the gray handoffs between trades, and my signature on the subcontract.

On the other side, list where AI can genuinely help: structuring the scope into included / excluded / furnished-by-others, drafting clean and consistent language, and later auditing my draft for gaps and ambiguity.

Do not write the scope yet. Show me that split as two columns, then ask me where my own field judgment about this trade is most essential, so I can confirm or correct you.
What good output looks like
  • Two columns: a "GC owns this" side (what is in vs out, who furnishes what, risk on the gray handoffs, the signature) and an "AI can help" side (structure, clean drafting, gap-hunting).
  • It treats deciding the included/excluded line and the trade handoffs as YOUR call, not something AI should resolve.
  • It asks you where your judgment about this specific trade matters most.

Verify before using AI's output