The document (contractual, technical, management, and pricing sections) submitted by a bidder in response to an RFP.
With the simultaneous efficiency/ambiguity that make Proposal Land so delightful/irritating, also refers to the period of time involved in putting together said document.
For example, “How long is this proposal?” can mean the response period or the number of pages. Usually clear by context.
Well, boys and girls, what did we learn this week in Public Health Land?
Fussing about something over which you have little information and no control doesn’t help you or the situation. If the Federal Government did a bad job of arranging timely delivery of vaccines for Canadians, what will ranting about it now accomplish? Will the vaccines come sooner than if we just wait and see?
Nope.
⇒ In Proposal Land you might be frustrated by your company’s marketing strategy or teaming practices or late-to-need decision-making or review of documents. Ranting won’t fix it. If you can’t think of something that will, go ahead and have your little moment. Then get back to work, doing whatever you *can* do.
Some people should never be allowed to answer questions in a proposal. Never. Under any circumstances.
As soon as possible.
– Various ministers, prime and otherwise
The plan is simple:
Every Canadian will have access
to an effective and free vaccine
once it’s ready.
– Seamus O’Regan, Minister of Natural Resources
⇒ In Proposal Land, choose team members carefully.
In Proposal Land as in society, the temptation is to let it go when whatever “it” is, is over. A good idea?
Nope.
If, in the fullness of time, you decide that your initial, in-the-moment impressions were right (Dagnab it! The company’s strategy or proposal practices really do suck! That guy really is a dud on a team!) then do something about it:
As for the Government’s possible sins? If, in the fullness of time, you decide that they’re real, not imagined — if their performance really was sub-par — then you can deal with it at the next election.
A dyslexic walks into a bra.
This riff is offered as a fun reminder to add a few typical typos to your punch list. The typos that give us trouble are the ones that are easy to do and that are still words when they’re scrambled:
Yew May right you’re own list.
A list of things to check and correct in all proposal sections.
Derived (so I was told) from the tool of the same name used in construction quality control.
What kind of things? Well, the obvious:
The trickier ones are related to facts, not style choices. Check out the Consistency Checklist for things that can, do, and should not vary.
Are you a visual learner? Many people are. Almost all of us are to some extent, so it’s always worth thinking about how to play to that in a proposal. It’s always worth thinking about whether some information can be explained more clearly or presented more compellingly in a picture of some sort.
That’s it.
But to reinforce the message, take a look at these maps of the world’s watersheds and at the sample, below, for Europe’s river basins. And then think about the words that would be necessary to come close to communicating the same thing.
And besides, it just looks nicer on the page.
