Creating Culture is like Dental Hygiene: Consistency > Intensity

You know what doesn’t set culture?

A fiery Monday morning speech about accountability, followed by you showing up late to Tuesday’s meeting. Or a one-week push during Safety Week, then pretending to not notice the missing gloves the rest of the month.

We’ve all seen it. 

But here’s the hard truth: culture isn’t built in those big, intense moments. It’s built in the small, boring, repetitive stuff. It’s the day-in, day-out consistency that shapes your site’s culture way more than any dramatic display of intensity ever could.

Just like fitness. Or dental hygiene.

The guy who lifts weights for 30 minutes every day? He’s going to be in better shape than the guy who lifts until he pukes once a quarter. Or take brushing your teeth - two minutes every morning and night beats the guy who scrubs until blood before his dentist appointment because he’s been “too busy” for six months.

Consistency wins. Every time.

Construction Culture Is No Different

Here’s the good news: most construction sites have small, tight-knit teams. It’s not like trying to steer a cruise ship - it's more like piloting a pontoon boat. Change is possible, and it can happen fast. But it still won’t happen through intensity. It’ll happen through consistency.

If you’re a project manager, you’re in a leveraged position. You don’t just influence the culture - you define it. Because of your title, people naturally look to you for leadership but they’re always looking.  At your habits. At how you show up every single day.

You set the tone in a hundred subtle ways:

• Do you laugh when someone makes a “joke” that goes too far?

• Do you let it slide when the senior foreman strolls in ten minutes late to the three-week lookahead?

• Do you act like you didn’t see that near-miss because "at least nothing happened”?

• What time do you head home each night?

None of these moments seem big. But that’s the point. Culture is built on the little things that happen all the time - not the big things that happen once in a while.

Everything Counts

Here’s a concept I wish someone had drilled into me earlier: there’s no neutral in culture. Everything you do - and everything you ignore - moves the needle either toward or away from the culture you’re trying to build.

Let’s say someone shows up late to your meeting. You call them out? That sends a message. You say nothing? That sends a message too. And if you gave a passionate lecture last week about how discipline in the little things leads to discipline in the big things - but today you let it slide?

Guess what sticks?

Not the speech. The silence.

What gets tolerated becomes the norm. And once something becomes the norm, it’s damn hard to walk it back.

So What’s the Play?

First, get clear on the kind of culture you want. That’s the target. Do you want a site that starts on time? Where safety isn’t just a box to check? Where people respect each other, even when they’re under pressure?

Great. Now comes the boring part.

Live it. Every day. Say something every time someone walks in late. Reinforce safety every time you see someone doing it right. Back people up when they step in and do the same. Repeat it until it feels like second nature.

Culture isn’t a campaign. It’s a lifestyle. You don’t build it by shouting louder. You build it by showing up, consistently, in the small stuff.

Because in the long run, the small stuff? It’s everything.

-Dan