> What are Atomic Teams?

Atomic Teams is our take on a bottom up, empowering approach to returning to the craft-built buildings of our past....but with comfort and function that feels like it must be from the future.

What's wrong with what we have?

The construction industry suffers from an endemic top down approach. There is an assumption that those at the top know how to do something best. The search for ever-cheaper builds has led to low-quality materials, unskilled labor, high turnover and tightly defined scopes of work in an attempt to keep quality up.

But building a building isn't like canning carrots in a factory. Our industry needs a revolution akin to what Toyota brought to auto manufacturing decades ago.

Means & Methods

The ideal solutions here are bottom up. Those in charge of the work are in charge of how the work gets done. Our industry currently tries this with "means and methods." Each trade is allowed to perform the finer details of their work how they see fit. This is to limit the liability of those further up the top-down chain. The result is more silos and less shared knowledge. This works OK for just-get-it-done low-cost projects, but what happens when those means and methods are in direct conflict with the higher goals of a project?

Bring in the Consultant

The top down focused team brings in various consultants who specialize in certain goals. We know this role well when those goals are durability, health, comfort or low carbon. This approach can work. We have daily wins educating each trade. We see poor materials permanently dropped for better ones. Outcomes can improve.

But it's slow, costly and the durability of results can take constant effort.

Flip It Over

What if these trades could evolve into craftspeople? What if the deep dives were completed, the guardrails set, the system in place and these teams could show up daily to do what they love, get work done.....with style.

Atomic Teams

We call our solution Atomic Teams. These are two-person teams working together to build most of a building. Tightly defined systems limit wasted thought, rework and confusion while enabling these people to tackle the work of at least ten trades with increased efficiency.

By limiting side distractions, we encourage these teams to bring their own fingerprint. Specific details can be done with variation without affecting system performance. Each team develops their own tradecraft and contributes to Nopal institutional knowledge.

Support the Whole

This leads to cycles of learning. A culture of sharing becomes natural. Bottom up with support from above. A team climbing a mountain rather than surviving a corporation.

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