Three Strikes — and Mean It

Module 2 · Accountability · Play 5 of 5

The problem in one breath

You've got a guy who's good on the roof but keeps dropping the same ball — the promise that slips, the callback he never returns, the paperwork that's always late. You've talked to him about it three, four, five times. Nothing changes. And every time you let it slide, the rest of the crew watches you let it slide.

Why it happens

Firing feels like the only other move, and you don't want to lose a decent worker over something that "isn't that big a deal." So you avoid it — you drop hints, you re-explain, you just do the job yourself. But a man can't act on a hint. With no clear rounds, you either blow up too late or never. What you're missing isn't backbone. It's three plain steps and the nerve to finish them.

The play

Three rounds. What counts as a strike is objective: a promise on the list came up not-done — a miss you can point to on the board. Not a mood, not one bad day. Three of them on the same thing and you're at round three.

Strike one — get curious (this is the blocked-not-blamed review). The first time a promise breaks, you already know this move: run the blocked-not-blamed review (Module 2, Play 3). On the tailgate, not in an office:

"Danny, the Miller dry-in slid past the date we put on the list. Walk me through it — what's getting in the way?"

Then reset what you need and build a plan with him. Strike one isn't punishment. It's a fix.

Strike two — name the pattern, give the warning. The same thing breaks again. Now you say the word pattern out loud:

"Danny, here we are again — same promise, off the list, twice now. We already talked this through. Help me see why it's still happening." (Let him talk. Build a plan.) "I'll be straight: this is a pattern, and it can't keep going. It matters — for the crew and for you. I need it stopped."

Still calm. But he walks away knowing this one landed different.

Strike three — the job is on the line, and you mean it. It happens a third time:

"Danny, this is three. I've got to level with you — this keeps up, the job's not going to survive it. I don't want that. So let's build a plan that actually holds, and I'm going to hold you to it."

Build the plan. Then here's the part most owners skip, and it's the whole thing: if it breaks again, you follow through. A third strike with no consequence is worse than never starting — because now the entire crew has learned that the promise list is theater and that dropping the ball costs a man nothing. Follow through once, fairly, and the list means something to everybody from then on.

Do this this week

Picture the one person who keeps breaking the same promise on your list. Figure out honestly which strike you're really on with him — one, two, or three — and have that conversation, with the script above, this week. Not a hint. The actual round.

The tool

Get the sheet

Or fill it in here — no download →

Opens in Excel, Google Sheets, Numbers or LibreOffice. Grab it on the phone now — it’ll be waiting on the computer at the shop.

Two pieces, working together. The scripts run on the promise list (Module 2, Play 1) — that's what keeps a strike fair: it's a broken promise anyone can see on the board, not how you felt about the guy that morning. The strike log (the-strike-log.xlsx) is where you write it down. One row per strike: the man, the date, which round you ran, the promise that broke, his side, the fix you agreed, and how it turned out. A box on the side counts strikes per man, so a glance tells you who's sitting on two. The list surfaces the miss; the log is your record of what you did about it.

If your crew is 1099

Be careful here — three strikes is built for employees, and a subcontractor is not an employee. Progressive discipline — warnings, improvement plans, "the job's on the line" — is employee machinery, and running it on a sub is one more way to smudge the line that makes him a 1099 in the first place. With a sub this isn't discipline; it's contract enforcement. He agreed to deliver certain work by certain dates. When he keeps missing, the conversation is "you're not meeting the terms we agreed to," and the third "strike" isn't a firing — it's declining to hand him the next job. Keep it to that plain principle. And before you formally end things with either an employee or a steady sub, run your process past an employment attorney or HR advisor first — the rules differ by state and by how your contracts are written, and you want that answer before the meeting, not after.

One more thing: this play is how we run a shop — it's not legal advice. Rules change by state and by contract, so before you act on the legal-sounding parts, run them past your own attorney or accountant. It's your business, and what you do with any of this is your call and your responsibility.

M2-05 · Three Strikes — and Mean It — Roofer MBA, https://roofermba.com/plays/accountability/three-strikes

The sheet notes

How the sheet works — the columns and the formulas

The columns, the formulas behind them, and the judgment calls — so you can rebuild it by hand if you ever need to.

What it does

One row per strike. When a promise breaks and you run one of the three rounds, you write it down here: who, when, which round, the promise that broke off the list, his side, the fix you both agreed, and how it turned out. Over a season it becomes a dated, written record of every hard conversation — man by man — instead of a story you half-remember. The box on the right counts strikes per man, so a glance tells you who's sitting on two. Three grey rows are filled in as one example (Danny, strike 1 through 3); delete them before you start.

How to use it

Add a row the day you run a round — strike one, two, or three. Do it same day, while the words are still exact.
Fill the yellow cells left to right: Man, Date, Strike # (column C dropdown: 1, 2, 3), Promise that broke (copy it as written on the promise list), What you said / which round, His side, Agreed fix + date, Outcome.
Write His side in his words, not yours. The record is fairer — and more use to you later — when it shows you actually listened.
In the box on the right, type each man's name into a yellow slot — there are sixteen, rows 5 through 20. Strikes counts his rows; the flag shows on two or on three so nobody's count sneaks up on you.
Keep it current. A strike you ran but never logged is a strike that, on paper, never happened.

Columns

Column	What it is
A Man	The one man this strike is about. One name.
B Date	The day you ran the round.
C Strike #	1, 2, or 3 (dropdown).
D Promise that broke (from the list)	Copied word-for-word from the promise list.
E What you said / which round	Which round you ran and the gist of what you said.
F His side	What he said back, in his words.
G Agreed fix + date	The plan you built together and when it's due.
H Outcome	What actually happened after.

Formulas (so you can rebuild it by hand)

The log rows hold no formulas — it's a written record you type. The only formulas are in the box:

Strikes per man (K5, filled down to K20): =IF($J5="","",COUNTIF($A$5:$A$28,$J5)) — counts the rows in column A that match the name you typed in J5. The IF guard keeps an empty name slot blank instead of miscounting.
Flag (L5, filled down to L20): =IF($K5="","",IF($K5>=3,"on three",IF($K5=2,"on two","")))

Only IF and COUNTIF are used — no Excel-365-only functions — so it opens and computes in old Excel, Numbers, and LibreOffice.

Notes / judgment calls

The list surfaces it; the log records it. The promise list (Module 2, Play 1) is what makes a strike fair — a broken promise anyone can see on the board, not a mood. The strike log is the written record of what you did about it. Two tools, one path: the promise breaks on the list, the strike gets written here.
One name per row. A strike belongs to one man. If two men dropped the same ball, that's two rows, because you'll run two separate conversations.
Count from the range. The box counts column A rows 5 through 28, and holds sixteen name slots (rows 5 through 20) — enough for a thirty-man shop, since only men who've had a round need a slot. To add log rows, insert them INSIDE the block; if you go past row 28, widen the $A$5:$A$28 range in the box formulas to match.
The sheet ships with the numbers already saved in it, so a phone preview shows real figures; they recalculate as soon as you type in it.

Before you act on it

This is your written record — nothing more. It documents what was said and agreed; it does not tell you what the law requires or promise that keeping it protects you. Employment and discipline rules differ by state and by how your contracts are written, so before you end anyone over what's in this log, have your accountant or a labor lawyer look at your process.

The one thing

Do this this week

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Same fire

Nobody follows through

All the fires →

Fixed this?

The promise list fixes the forgetting. The man who ignores the list is a different play.

The fire right behind it is usually You've told him ten times and nothing changes.