And since we all apparently agree that it’s urgent,
which is why we have the office in the first place,
it would be good to see some urgency
in not just getting the MPO running,
but in making it obsolete.
– Matt Gurney, The Line
For any American readers (and for any Canadian readers not obsessively up-to-date on Canadian political/governance dysfunction), some background.
Prime Minister Carney, elected in April in part on a campaign promise to build things on a scale and at a speed never before seen in Canada, created a new agency called the Major Projects Office (the MPO in the quote, above). Its purpose? To select “major” projects deemed (by him, apparently) to be in the “national interest” and to expedite said projects through Canada’s admittedly dysfunctional maze of regulations and reviews which, collectively, make it almost impossible to get anything with even a hint of controversy built in this country. To fast-track a lucky-few selected projects.
My immediate thought was “OK – but why not announce a parallel process to reform/reduce/simplify the approvals process for ALL projects?” Others are also asking this question, and not getting anything that looks like an answer.
We’re not going to get an answer and that sucks. But I can’t fix government and neither can you. Indeed, even if you and I pulled in the same direction, we wouldn’t likely have much effect. But here’s the thing: We can fix proposals.
We’ve all been there in the late stages of a proposal – forced to do some ugly workaround, to make some obnoxious compromise on quality or risk, to meet schedule. OK. No problem. It happens. Even more than once.
But it doesn’t have to happen indefinitely, world-without-end-amen, dagnab it.
If you’re an executive, assign the proposal manager the task of identifying these ugly bits–places where the process is letting you down–and reporting them to you at the end so you can task someone with figuring out how to fix them.
If you’re being asked to be a proposal manager, before you accept the tasking ask the executive for the list of process improvements already made, and how you are expected to submit your recommendations.
If you’re being voluntold that you’ll be a proposal-team member, ask the proposal manager how you are expected to contribute to the ongoing task of improving corporate proposal processes.
It’s not about getting through just this one proposal. It’s about the work culture:
This time,
we do what we have to do.
Next time,
we do better.