The Audit That Made a Superintendent Cry: LaShira Champion King on Lean, Quality, and the People Inside the System

LaShira Champion King never applied to work at Walbridge. She got a call for an internship she had not asked for, planned to be an architect in a black turtleneck, and instead became the company's lean champion because her managing director liked how "our lean champion is L. Champion" sounded in a meeting. Twenty years later she is Director of Quality, Lean, and Innovation at one of the largest privately held builders in the country, and the resident systems thinker in a 110-year-old firm.

Carolina sat down with her solo to ask what a quality and lean leader actually does on a job site, and got a story she did not expect: a burly superintendent, tough as nails, in tears at the end of an ISO audit. Not because of the non-conformance. Because, in his words, "I wish I could describe myself the way you just described me."

That line changed how LaShira does everything, and it is the thread through the whole episode.

In this episode:

• Why the L. Champion story is really a story about systems thinking, and why "there's not a whole ton of us"
• Committees people are voluntold onto and then refuse to leave when their term is up
• Walking into a trailer "like I'm there to give them a root canal," and what changes by the end of an audit
• The 5S study: a 15-minute task that took two hours because nobody could find the drill
• What lean is not: not "do more with less," not a way to cut your job
• Great processes get skipped when the project is going great, and the rework shows up two phases later
• Design for maintenance: the air handler nobody can reach to change the filter, and why closeout thinking should start at the spec
• The zero punch list mindset and the discipline it takes to get there
• The Carolina question: what should the industry be talking about? LaShira's answer is knowledge transfer. We are getting people into the trades. What are we giving them when they get there?

LaShira is a repeat featured speaker at Advancing Construction Quality, September 21 to 23, 2026 in Phoenix. Use code BUILDPERSPECTIVES10 for 10% off registration.

Build Perspectives is co-hosted by Carolina Baffigo and Tim Seims. Each episode is designed to give you immediate value while introducing you to the people broadening perspectives in the construction industry.