One of the gravest misconceptions of work winning is that a busy team is a better team. Bid management is often seen as a task-based process. Yes, there is a significant element of project management and process, but I’d argue that the activity of producing a bid is actually a strategic function. In order to be strategic we need the time and space to reflect, and the capacity to absorb new knowledge in order to turn it into competitive advantage.
As a Decision Maker for a Day, I would drop the ‘outside chance’ and ‘have a punt’ opportunities that have scored poorly under triage (but are in the bid room because the team are not over capacity). I would let the team complete admin tasks, update the bid library, manage knowledge, take a training or CPD course, or have a team building day. I would set them off to start researching, capture planning, and value propositioning for upcoming opportunities in the pipeline. I would (Heaven forbid!) let them take a mental break against the tidal wave of bidding, the constant upstream swimming, and the load of continual looming deadlines. Time to regroup, refresh, and decompress is important when your career necessitates years of continual short-term deadlines.
This time between bids, which might be a couple of days or a week or two, can be used to add a huge amount of value. ‘Absorbative capacity’ should be measured to determine an individual’s or team’s ability to recognise the value of new information, assimilate it, and apply it to competitive advantage. But if we have no time between bids, no brain capacity, no thinking time, then it’s hard to recognise the value of new information. If you can’t develop your bid team, you won’t have the competitive advantage you need to win.
So while I’ve called the article, ‘Give a Team a Break’, it’s not actually a break. It’s time well-spent on value adding activities outside of working on a bid. What if we could put a ratio to bidding and non-bidding time? It’s something to think about. Are you 95% bidding, 5% absorbative capacity? I’d imagine most bid teams are. When we’re building our teams and considering budgets, we need to start closing the gap. Could this look like 70:30? After all, the point in making this change is increasing competitive advantage and winning more. It’s making us more productive and giving us the edge on our competition.
If I had to articulate Decision Maker for a Day in a single sentence it would be this: Busy isn’t a measure of success; where we’re spending our time is more important.
Alana McCarthy
Alana is Head of Bids and Marketing for a tier one construction company. She has 20 years’ experience in public sector bidding within the construction, facilities management, and transactional banking industries. With a passion for lifelong learning, Alana recently completed a Level 7 Apprenticeship in Senior Leadership and has embarked on a MSc with a focus on the bidding function to drive research into our profession.
