| Click here if your email program has trouble displaying this email. | ||
|
||
Inside This Issue: How Do Reviewers Really Evaluate Your Proposals? Leadership Styles and Your Career Tales from the Proposal Graveyard APMP NCA 2005 Board of Directors Russell Smith, President Dennis Doubroff, Vice President Jan Cook, Secretary/Treasurer Lou Robinson John Bender Michael Scruggs Rick Patterson Tom Harmon, Newsletter Patricia Westlein Executive Summary Editorial Staff Cathy Kilday Maggie Mestraud Chris Froberg Ralph Scherer
|
This kind of renewal is critical if an individual, organization or company wants to be successful, and that's where our APMP and our chapter can be an asset. We live in an era of change, and the dramatic changes in the focus of the federal government, the shifting changes in state economies directly and immediately affect our business. It has become common for business development and proposal departments to manage multiple deals at one time, adjusting daily to changes in schedules and priorities. Our next Roundtable will be an opportunity to listen to a lively discussion about the automation tools that are changing the way we do our jobs. As RFPs change and include a larger emphasis on oral presentations, as state RFPs require more stringent past performance guidelines, as more emphasis is placed on the capture process, we need to understand requirements, processes and how to win. These Roundtables are the best place for you to hear what's new and changing in the world of business development and proposals. (Tools, trends and effective processes for winning proposals are part of the discussion at every table, every event). This year’s APMP 16th Annual Conference in Phoenix, Arizona is focused on personal renewal. Winning and Living: Achieving the Balance will look at ways we can achieve balance, while still focusing on winning work. Several of our Chapter members will be presenting. Patty Nunn will talk to communicating under pressure, Carl Dickson will do a presentation on doing a proposal the wrong (and the right) way and Dennis Berg and Michelle Petty will discuss business development as a team. This will be a good time to get to know more proposal professionals from across the country and take in new information about where we’re headed. If Arizona is too far away, or you can’t spare the time, make this the year to network within our own community at meetings and on committees. We can renew our own skills through our chapter, and the best way to start is to get involved. Russell Smith is the NCA Chapter President for 2005.
|
|
|
Presenter: John Bender "Are you working smarter . . . or harder? It is amazing how many companies still do everything the hard way when computer tools can now do many things for you better, faster and cheaper. What is your life, weekend or evening worth? How Business Automation Tools Changed My Department Real Users Talk about Real Experiences Join us at the May Roundtable to hear John Bender from Advantage Consulting lead a panel discussion based on his experience with automation tools for business development and proposals. No sales pitches, these will be real users talking about real experiences. With 10 years of reviewing off-the-shelf tools, John will describe the capabilities now available and the challenges using them. A panel of users from local companies will describe their experiences implementing and using a variety of tools. One company will talk about building their own. We hope to hear lots of questions and experiences from the audience too. Don't miss what could be the most informative and valuable program you see all year. You don’t have to be a member to attend a Roundtable; this event is open to everyone. The next Roundtable will be held at Marriott Fairview Park 5:50 Networking Tickets: Until May 13: $44.00; at the door after May 13: $55.00 Register and pay by credit card now or mail check to: If you have special dietary needs, click here, and let us know what your needs are for the dinner before May 13.
|
|
|
How Do Reviewers Really Evaluate Your Proposals?
According to research on decision-making, there are three interconnected aspects of thinking that people use to make decisions:
Reviewers make their decision in six minutes From the perspective of proposal development, perhaps the most important conclusion about these studies is that people make decisions fast, frugally, and by using small amounts of information. This is especially true when individuals have limited time, incomplete information, and often cannot calculate the consequences of their decisions. This description of typical decision-making seems to fit the proposal review process perfectly. Most reviewers do not spend inordinate amounts of time evaluating an individual proposal, they often do not have enough information to evaluate it thoroughly, and they are unsure of the long-term consequences in choosing one proposal over another. Reviewers don’t have enough information to really evaluate proposals Because reviewers rely on fast and frugal decision-making, proposal professionals should design the structure and content of their proposals so that reviewers can gather and process information as effortlessly as possible. There are three obvious approaches that we can take to help them. First, we can provide reviewers with a comprehensive compliance matrix to demonstrate that the proposal is compliant with the Request for Proposals (RFP) and to help them find information easily. Second, we can use the principles of sound informational design to organize our proposals to make it easy for evaluators to quickly understand the information that interests them. And third, we can depict quantitative evidence, processes, and cause and effect with compelling visual explanations. Like the rest of us, reviewers rely on immediate recognition Beyond these three approaches, proposal professionals should recognize that the most common form of thinking that reviewers use is recognition, which divides the world into unrecognized objects, ideas, people, or other topics, and everything else. It works quickly and with limited knowledge, and thus it is an extremely straightforward form of decision-making. Recognition is a powerful form of thinking because a search that relies on recognizing information makes fewer demands on memory and computational skills than a search for alternatives. This is especially true under time pressure, when individuals are apt to use simple strategies to solve problems and make decisions. Nothing is simpler and more direct than recognizing and recalling relevant information. Because recognition is so widely used to make decisions, you should organize the structure and content of your proposals to help reviewers quickly recognize that you have fully responded to the evaluation criteria. To accomplish this, consider doing the following:
Reviewers have limited time and resources. They must rely on a mental toolbox of fast and frugal techniques to make decisions. Consequently, reviewers use as little of the available information in proposals as possible to make judgments, which enables them to work in ways that are satisfactory to themselves and their superiors. Our challenge as proposal professionals is to create proposals that encourage reviewers to use simple kinds of thinking, such as recognition. Although this may appear obvious, it may be hard to accomplish because our proposals tend to be very detailed and complex, probably needlessly so, and thus they often are difficult to understand. Perhaps the most important conclusion that proposal professionals can draw from the study of decision-making is this: good proposals that are easy to evaluate are more likely to be scored higher than great proposals that are difficult to evaluate. Proposals should be designed so that reviewers can evaluate them fast, frugally, and with as little mental effort as possible. Sometimes, less is more. Jayme A. Sokolow, Ph.D. can be reached at JSoko12481@aol.com or 301/933-3989. This presentation was made to a sellout audience at our new meeting location at the Fairview Park Marriott in February. If you decided to buy your car, pet or condo in two seconds, you’ll find that you are a heuristic thinker.
| |
 |
At our March meeting, Eric Gregory and Patty Nunn teamed up to talk with us about leadership styles, our careers and effective communications. Patty got all the tables talking when she asked us to explain a concept to high schools kids. There was some serious discussion as each table tried to strategize ways to make a solution resonate with teenagers.
Leadership Styles and Your Career
What is leadership in a proposal environment? There are many solid and fascinating definitions of leadership, but here’s one I specifically developed for the environment we confront daily on proposals: “The art of getting people to do what they really don’t want to do and don’t feel equipped to do against a timeline they don’t believe in, with risks that scare them, to achieve an objective they believe at the beginning to be impossible.” You really don’t have to worry about what definition you use, you just need to worry about getting people to do the right things on time to achieve a specific result. But that, of course, has its own challenges where leadership skills become important. Leadership in our world involves a few key concepts: responsibility, accountability, acceptance of risk, and rewards for performance. Recognition of these few basic concepts enables us to focus as leaders on the essential elements that can make a difference in getting a team of people to move where we need them to go. Although some content that leaders are born (trait theory) or are created through crisis (great events theory), most leaders actually decide that’s what they want to be and begin working on their behavior so they can become effective leaders (transformation theory). Regardless of the method of getting to a leadership role, there are a few traits that are essential for leadership success.
These attributes are characteristic of all effective leaders and you need to recognize the value of distributing them among the three focus areas related to individual behavior—emotional, rational, and ethical. You really can’t be an effective leader in a proposal environment without these attributes. Style is important as well when considering leadership and leadership skills. There are numerous depictions of leadership style, but here are a few from the Blake & Mouton Managerial Guide,” by Don Clark on his website about leadership. These depictions are accurate but have a light side to them as well.
The more successful proposal teams generally have a Team-oriented leader in charge. However, as you can see, there are times when even the Team leader must adopt some more Authoritarian characteristics just to get things done. I know I sometimes tell my proposal teams “A proposal is not a democracy!”
They key, of course, is to get your team to be successful. To do that, you will have to overcome the Five Dysfunctions of a Team. Your job as leader is to make sure that happens by using the leadership attributes and styles we have already noted.
Frequently, people will ask, “How do I become a leader in a proposal environment?” The answer is not easy. Generally, you will have to take some time learning to be an effective leader. Often, we want to rush our career progression before we are really ready o assume additional responsibilities or leadership roles. Each step along the way needs to be viewed as an excellent training ground to assume leadership responsibilities. Don’t rush; this can take a decade or more to really hone the skills you will need to be effective.
Also, you need to be aware of specific steps you can take to enhance the probability that you will develop into an effective proposal leader if that’s what you choose to do. Here are some simple steps you can take along the path to effective leadership.
But there is probably one step or rule that will trump all others if you use it right and that is—Lead by Example. This is probably the best way to get people to do what you need them to do...show them by ensuring that you are doing the things you need to do to make the team successful. Give your team the model and combine that will effective communications to provide the kind of high performance environment we all like.
One of the ideas that people find hard to accept is that not all people can or should be leaders. It’s kind of hard to get a proposal done if you have a group of people who all want to lead and nobody wants to follow! But if you really want to be that leader of the proposal team who can really make a difference in the outcome, here are a couple of things to remember
If you do these things, you will have an excellent chance of developing into a proposal leader your company will recognize, respect, and reward. Eric Gregory can be reached at egregory@caci.com
| |
|
||
design:schererMedia |
||
