THE PLEXUS BLOG

Back to Blog

Brick by Brick Podcast Episode Two

Today's session is a great conversation around what business owners can do to prepare, train and support first time leaders. We explore issues such as communication, organisational culture through trust and even discuss the challenges of learning disabilities that are faced by many staff.  Rae MacDonald is a trainer based at Responsive Trade Education in Hamilton. They are a Private Training Establishment that provides three core programmes to 'Build people's knowledge and skills' within th...

What would I do - Episode One

I find reflecting on real experiences can often be the best way to explain Lean Thinking.  Having a perspective on when situations, processes go wrong, can we then better understand what excellence may look like.   Which is why I have introduced the series “What would I do”. Those moments where I was the customer receiving less than optimal service,  I can’t help but wonder how I would help the team or business improve their service if I was invited to work with them. Last w...

Five Principles of Lean Leadership

I could really drop the term ‘Lean’ out of the heading, but being a Lean practitioner, I should at least align it to my specialty.  When work feels like it is getting complicated, you are having difficulty working out where to start, these principles are there as a guide to help you get better as a business leader.  Adapt them, add your own thinking to them, but keep true to the philosophies. Lean Leadership Principle 1: Lean is a Journey One thing an business owner that truly unde...

So you have set the direction, now what?

If you are like me, you are sitting there, champing at the bit to get on with it.  You have just set your plan, you know what the goals are and you are getting pretty excited about it all.  The clarity is there, now let’s get out there and do it! Stop. It is one thing to have gone through a great planning process and celebrate this.  It always surprises me how many SMEs in NZ don’t have a documented plan - so you are already ahead of much of your competition. You have set the ...

Brick by Brick Podcast

This is the pilot episode of Brick by Brick.  In this episode I talk to Craig Oliver, business advisor and owner of Project HQ and O2E Business Academy.  Craig also hosts his own podcast - 'Talking Better Business'.  We cover some of the common challenges small business owners face when running a business and discuss some ideas on how they can over come the issues.  Topics range from business planning, creating your support network as a business owner and other practical issu...

Something Old, Something New, Borrowed and Blue

Don’t panic, this isn’t me turning all nostalgic and mushy, this is still a business blog with a real focus. It is, however, a reflection on how I have seen businesses time and time again try to ‘change things up’ whilst using the same processes, approaches to planning, invariably resulting  in achieving the same thing. As Einstein quoted “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”.  It may be the world's biggest understatement whe...

Have you got two plans?

Life is certainly different in a C-19 world. Please note, it’s not going to be post-COVID, because whether or not we like it, this will be life as we know it. At the time of writing this, New Zealand is about to head back into a space where businesses can operate with Level 3 restrictions. Though this approach comes with restrictions and guidelines not too different to Level 4. Coming out of a Level 4 lockdown, I am sure there are 100’s of things an owner, manager, team member wants to do.&n...

Productivity for the People

Making productivity real for real people - this is my big hobby horse for 2020 and probably for a few more years after that! Following the impact of COVID-19 it has become more critical for the survival of small, medium businesses (SMEs). Before I start into my rant about this topic, let’s start at with a simple question, well two actuallyWhat is productivity?! What does it have to do with your business? Because, at the end of the day, all of this is pretentious bullshit if SMEs aren’t achie...