FEDERAL
SECTOR REPORT
January 2001
(c) P2C2 Group,
Inc.
DOING GOOD
What's "Good" Got to Do with It?
You know the drill for government proposals and projects: Knock
yourself out developing new business and a winning proposal. Negotiate
costs until your financial officer yells "ouch!" Scramble to assemble
your project team and resources. Then execute your project so well that
the government wants to do repeat business. Do it efficiently, and
maybe your financial officer will even begin to look like his
hemorrhoids have been cured.
So, in the middle of all this angst, Jim Kendrick writes about "doing
good"? You bet.
When we're doing our job right, proposals and projects have social
value ... in addition to business purpose. And I'm not just talking
about grants and contracts for education, health, welfare, housing, and
small business development projects where the social goals are stated
in the government's Solicitation.
Almost every newspaper and magazine reminds us that the world is in the
midst of a postindustrial revolution. Change is the byword:
technological, economic, organizational, political, and cultural.
Leaders and managers cannot avoid the steamroller named change. They
struggle with how to manage it, get in front of it, or at least avoid
being squashed.
Proposal developers and project managers should take time to look in
the mirror, for they will see a change agent. We are a lubricant that
enables change. We have social value and necessity, and I will outline
this idea for both proposal developers and project managers.
Proposal
Developers as Change Agents
You want to win a competitive proposal. So what do you do? You attempt
to develop a proposal that blows away the competition. Some of this may
be through better writing, effective visual images, and superior
organization of information--a revolutionary change from the dreary,
tone-deaf blathering of mediocre business documents. You will try to
prove beyond a reasonable doubt that your personnel and past
performance histories are stellar. But, beyond that, you will also be
thinking about how to create:
- A better
technical solution
- A more
efficient management plan
- A pricing
model that balances performance and cost trade-offs
- The optimum
project team
- Improved
business processes
- Better project
deliverables
- Effective
scheduling, quality assurance, and project monitoring/control systems.
Not always,
but often, you may introduce innovations in your proposals, and
innovations may be better practices that serve as stepping-stones to
enable change. Over time, the winners change the game. They redefine
solutions to the customer's problems. They find ways to increase the
value of the work to be performed. They introduce improved management
efficiencies and quality. They may even help the customer find better
ways of thinking about change management.
Change is why successful proposal developers cannot simply rely on
boilerplate. It's like a football season. Your competitors will know
your most recent plays and figure out tactics to beat you. Unless you
constantly search for improvements, you're dead meat.
Change occurs in the crucible of competition. Successful proposals are
the literature of winning, and they have both social and economic value
as blueprints for change.
Project
Managers as Change Agents
If proposal developers are architects, then project managers are the
builders who erect the operational reality. Projects may cause change,
and the projects themselves are likely to change. "Scope creep" is a
well-known complaint, where cost-conscious budget officers complain
that the sweet little puppy of a project is growing into a hippopotamus
... constantly adding breadth and girth to the project's purpose,
requirements, duration, and Scope of Work.
Notwithstanding scope creep, the project manager must deal with real,
bona-fide causes of change:
- The customer
organization today has changed. It is not quite the same organization
that existed when the Scope of Work was written or the contract signed.
- Technology may
change.
- The project
team changes.
- Implementation
of the project may reveal erroneous assumptions or omissions.
- The customer's
mission or budget may change.
- The customer's
leaders and managers may change, and the new regime may have different
priorities.
- The customer's
personnel may be unable (or too busy or inexperienced) to use the
services or products defined by the project.
Effective
project managers negotiate change, and as such they are change agents.
People skills are paramount, because all stakeholders (customers,
project employees, the contractor or grantee, suppliers, and others)
must acknowledge the changes and arrive at a reasonable degree of
consensus about how to respond. Negotiated changes are usually
incorporated in the contract, the project plan, and schedules. Like an
attorney, the project manager must broker and document the negotiated
responses to change.
When done well, the project manager is golden. The PM enables all
stakeholders to negotiate the challenges of change and win.
Bottom
Line
It helps to know that we are in the "change business." The best
government contractors and grantees recognize this, learn how to manage
the risks, build an enviable reputation, and attract additional
revenues.
Expert
Assistance Is Available
The P2C2 Group serves results-oriented government agencies,
contractors, and grantees through:
- Analysis,
coaching, and training
- Proposal
development
- Project
management for government contracts and grants
- Technology
management consulting
- Electronic
publishing and Web-based systems
- IT capital
investment and acquisition planning processes
- Strategic
planning and evaluation.
Our website at
www.p2c2group.com has more information. Services are fee-based (like a
CPA or attorney). Work for government agencies is strictly segmented
from services for contractors and grantees to assure compliance with
rules for integrity in procurement. We subscribe to the code of ethics
of the Institute of Management Consultants.
