The Shoe is on the Other Foot
If your firm works for government contractors, you may have heard complaints from the government about problems with contractors. Sometimes we presume those problems must be of personality or technical approach. But most of the time I suspect complaints stem from lack of understanding.
The Shoe is on the Other Foot
For instance, I hired a contractor to update my website to the latest version of software. The site is large, with over 200 pages. And I’m not technically competent with these CMS platforms (that’s why I hired them to do it for me!)
In the meantime, I’m busy with other work.
Problems Creep In
The contractor is quite competent at what they do. I’ve worked with them before, so I’m not worried that they aren’t doing the right stuff. However, they’ve fallen into the trap of thinking that this project is my main focus, and are treating it like the center of my universe as well as theirs. I’ve been on their side.
Who among us doesn’t feel the proposal in front of us is of paramount concern and should trump anything else on the desk of the Subject Matter Expert we are calling upon for a resume update?
This morning I check in to see what progress is being made and I get a message assigning me work! To complicate matters, the message is in a foreign language: “Additionally, be sure to use JCE advance link for the internal links so that all links will be the Joomla’s default, not the SEF ones as it will cause problems when turning off SEF.”
Take a Deep Breath
So, now I have new work I hadn’t anticipated (1st problem) and instructions that presume more knowledge than I have (2nd problem) and no alternative offered to solve either (3rd “opportunity”).
How to Make it Win Win
The beginning of the project is key to ending with a successful project.
Ever notice that some proposals go smoothly and others are knock down, drag out, battles? When I think back on these proposals, I usually find that we tried to skip or give short shrift to a methodical kick-off meeting, and/or new players joined in but were not given a full briefing before taking on tasks.
Problem 1 could have been solved if the contractor had gone over the process and explained in the beginning that there would be some work I would have to do to rename files once he got close to the end of the project. I would have been ready and willing.
How often do we get push back when we send a request for information or a write up we need to respond to a specific section of the RFP? Is it possible we could do a better job prepping folks so they know these types of needs will crop up and need to be responded to promptly? Were any examples offered so that they had a clear picture of what your requests might look like? Did you tell them a story about prior proposals so it was easy to remember and easy to imagine themselves in the role they have for your proposal?
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