Compton Replaces On-Site Shamans With Employees’ Younger Selves
After the overwhelmingly transformative success of last year’s Blueprints & Balance initiative, Compton Construction is proud to announce the next evolution in jobsite insight: Inner Child Consulting.
After spending the last year aligning the spirit of the rebar with the soul of the subcontractor, we asked an even more important question:
What if the best person to evaluate a construction project… was your 8-year-old self?
Early results have been promising.
Unlike traditional consultants, inner children are not especially concerned with schedule compression, permitting timelines, or value engineering. They are, however, deeply impressed by large equipment, mildly suspicious of budgets, and very interested in who decided adults get to build restaurants for a living.
“We’ve always believed great work starts with curiosity,” said Blake Compton, founder and CEO of Compton Construction. “And no one is more curious than the version of yourself who still thinks excavators are the greatest invention of all time.”
Under the new program, Compton team members are encouraged to astrally project their younger selves to work for the day. These unofficial advisors are invited to weigh in on everything from site walks to finish selections to the emotional power of a really well-organized jobsite.
Initial feedback from Inner Child Consulting participants has included:
- “Wait, your job is making cool places before they even exist?”
- “You get to wear a hard hat and tell people where walls go?”
- “What is a punch list, and why does it sound so aggressive?”
- “So grown-ups just have meetings about tile?”
- “You mean somebody actually has to decide where the lights go?”
The program has already revealed several valuable business insights.
First, many aspects of construction are significantly more exciting when explained to a third grader. Second, a surprising number of adult responsibilities sound made up when repeated out loud. And third, there is still no better way to describe design-build than, “We help people figure it out, then we build it.”
Field reports also show a measurable increase in wonder during site visits. Team members have reported pausing more often to appreciate steel, millwork, paint colors, and the fact that entire spaces begin as conversations and end as places people gather, work, heal, celebrate, and grow.
One project manager shared that their inner child was especially impressed to learn adults can have full-time careers built around solving problems, coordinating details, and making sure things come together the right way.
Another reported that their younger self had just one question after hearing about pre-construction planning:
“So the whole job is basically thinking really hard before doing something expensive?”
Correct.
In many ways, Inner Child Consulting has proven to be a natural fit for Compton’s work. Construction is serious business. It requires trust, communication, craftsmanship, and a lot of moving parts. But it also requires imagination. Every project begins with the ability to see something before it exists and care enough to bring it to life.
That part, it turns out, is very easy to explain to a kid.
At press time, Compton is exploring additional enhancements to the program, including jobsite sticker distribution, official excavator nicknames, and a revised meeting policy that allows at least one participant to ask, “But why?” as many times as necessary.
The company is also rumored to be piloting a companion initiative known as Snack-Driven Scheduling, though leadership declined to comment.
Until then, Compton remains committed to building great spaces the same way it always has: with craftsmanship, collaboration, and just enough childlike wonder to remember that, yes, this job is actually pretty cool.
