Body Science and Business Our family had a set of World Book Encyclopedias in the front den of our house. My Dad loved science, my Mom was a nurse and our neighbour was a doctor so I was captivated by the book on the science of the human body. I studied it for hours at a time, not by reading but by looking at the pictures. There was a printed page of a skeleton and a series of transparent overlays. Each transparency introduced a different layer of information, a system entirely different from the last: the circulatory system, the organs, the muscles and tendons, and finally the skin. I was spellbound by how it all fit together and how the human body could not function if any layer was missed or impeded. This experience impacted the way I see business. Those transparent overlays I studied in grade four taught me to see the world in layers. That’s how I learned to look beneath the surface of workplace problems to examine the inter-dependent components of the business and identify root cause. Deep thinking is something I do quickly and easily because I’ve identified various layers and assembled a toolkit to help me take them apart and put them back together. |
Listen for the Rhythm
The next incident sharpened my hearing and expanded my ability to listen to people and organizations. Dad owned a business called The Brass Hub Inn in Radville, Saskatchewan. With rooms for rent on the upper level, the main floor had a coffee shop, pub, fine dining lounge, and a pinball arcade. As you might imagine, a room full of pinball machines in the 1970’s attracted teenage boys like a magnet. We packed them in like sardines after school and on weekends. The arcade billowed cigarette smoke and was electrically charged with light, sound, testosterone and intense competition. |
Tana was lead to the work of building communities by focusing on individual dreams and strengths of people as a result of pursuing her own dreams. She arrived in British Columbia from Saskatchewan at the age of 19. "I started work as a dive tender and relief skipper on an underwater seafood harvesting boat. From the rough waters of ocean living and the hard life of working the boats, I began to not only fall in love with the ocean, but also the people who work hard and dream of better things both for themselves and their families". Tana believes that building entrepreneurs is a powerful way of building communities.
It was that vision that led her to a management position at the Steveston Harbour Authority, creating systems that helped diverse communities of harbour users thrive. “Our processes took an organization out of chaos and mis-management, and built a financially sustainable, future-focused and people-first system that worked for the community” Tana recalls. It was these early successes with re-structuring and re-vitalizing communities that led Tana to launch out on her own and create a company focused on building up communities of entrepreneurs. Process prevent politics. |
The Triumph & The Downfall
After a successful career making an impact in the fishing industry, and having two children, Tana decided to enter into the world of entrepreneurship in a bigger way. Together with her husband Randy, they founded Premier Building Products Ltd., a manufacturer and distributor of high-end, panelized, custom homes, and Premier Enterprises USA Inc., a general contracting firm based in Washington state. Within three years, their BC company grew from revenue of $50,000, to $1.5 million, and was one of the top 3 finalists for the 2001 BC Export Awards, Exporter of the year. Then, like the fishermen facing fisheries closures, Tana and Randy experienced their own ‘hurricane winds’ on September 11th, 2001 when terrorists attacked the World Trade Centre in New York. The economy experienced a downturn and residential developers in the US (representing 100% of their customer base), ceased building whole subdivisions. The bottom fell out of the market. Despite efforts to re-tool and resurrect their business into new Canadian markets, the business was sold by 2005. “We had taken it as far as we could, but at the end of the day, we had built a business that was totally dependent on ourselves and on the whims of one singular market” Tana explained. Effective business systems design can shock proof your business. |
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The Possibility process: a proven method to achieve breakthrough business resultsDescribed as “having the capacity to transform not only businesses but the way we live our lives” by DCE client, Maggie Reigh, The Possibility Process is a groundbreaking guide to systems-thinking in the workplace. Developed with over thirty years of facilitation experience by Tana Plewes, MA, The Possibility Process is changing how business leaders solve problems, boost revenue, and ignite growth.
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