How to Foster Teamwork: Rule #2
Under extreme time pressure, hard-charging proposal teams can go negative, become paralysed by fear of failing, and forget to laugh. Flipping all of these is key to fostering effective teamwork.
Staff proposal teams for on-time delivery of compliant and high-scoring bids. Use a considered and sustainable effort for superior proposal teamwork and better bids.
Under extreme time pressure, hard-charging proposal teams can go negative, become paralysed by fear of failing, and forget to laugh. Flipping all of these is key to fostering effective teamwork.
Greeting others on the proposal team at the start of the workday reminds everyone that they’re not working on their own. It reminds them that they can both give and receive help on numerous challenges. Saying goodnight also reinforces teamwork and gives others the courtesy of a chance to ask you that one burning question before you leave.
It’s an old truism of supervision that you can’t do something and supervise it at the same time: The doing pulls time and focus from the supervising. Yet folks keep trying to combine doing and supervising functions on proposals, with dire results.
Conforming to the technical requirement and responding well to the questions is the third-most important thing in RFP responses. To meet both targets, take deliberate action in training, supervising, and reviewing.
Writing strong RFP responses requires a rare combination of domain knowledge, and skills in writing, teamwork, and time management. Managers must assign proposal team members carefully.