Everyone starts early and works late.
There are no weekends.
Red Team is a disaster.
There’s always a hot mess at the deadline.
These are not “just the way things work” in Proposal Land: They’re choices.
If this is your status quo, and you wish it were not, then Seth’s Blog is for you today. Maybe you are the someone who cares enough to make things better.
The future isn’t the same as the past.
Technology develops, systems change and most of all,
someone cares enough to make things better.
Changing how you do proposals is work. It takes sustained effort.
Systems are built to resist short-term hurried effort.
But patient, persistent and focused effort can pay off.
Don’t try to do it by yourself. Find at least one like-minded person, preferably two, and do a proposal differently. Do it better.
Solo quests make good Westerns or legends,
but almost all systems change is the result of teams of people,
organized and connected in service of the longer goal.
If it’s a large proposal and you’re not in charge of the Whole Thing, that’s OK: Do your part better. Model the change you want to see.
To start, convert/subvert one proposal team by showing them better processes and better working conditions; convert one executive member by showing them better business results.
Change begins with the smallest viable audience,
not the largest possible one.
And then do it again. Eventually, your new way of doing things will become the default, the expected, the status quo. And someone else will build on that.
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