Posted by Jon on 28 February, 2007 under Musings | 
My two train-journey-neighbours have just departed – senior managers en route to a bid presentation, amazingly indiscreet, as people so often are on public transport. I’ve been entertained for the past two hours with a full account of their proposed solution, as they’ve polished up their PowerPoints and fortified themselves with free coffee.
Just before they left, the older of the two confided in his colleague: “Have I mentioned that the chair of the evaluation committee is my brother-in-law’s girlfriend’s dad?”
As grounds for optimism, it’s not the strongest win strategy I’ve ever heard, but I’m guessing that the bid plan might feature him taking his wife over to see her brother for a family reunion this coming weekend!
Posted by Jon on under Musings |
I clipped a story from the papers recently about grandee 1960s prime minister Harold Macmillan. His grandson recalled a meeting at the family home.
Cabinet colleague ‘Rab’ Butler produced a pile of papers.
“What are those?” asked Macmillan.
“Policies,” said Butler.
“Oh, I beg you, not policies,” the prime minister retorted. “They come back to haunt you. Give them broad sunlit uplands, dear boy.”
I smiled at the similarity between political spin and the challenge of securing sponsorship from “on high” for programmes to deliver improvements to proposal capabilities. As proposal folks, we may be absolutely fascinated by the detail of how we’re going to improve our processes, our structures, our documents. Yet when talking to the CEO or Sales Director, we need to remind ourselves that the key to success is to paint a picture of the “broad sunlit uplands” if we want to capture their imagination and support. And budget and headcount!
Posted by BJ on 26 February, 2007 under Word play & writing |
A recent article from the Scripps Howard News Service highlighted some overused/misused words. Here’s a few of them for your amusement.
- Armed robbery (or such) gone bad. This implies that most of them are all well and good.
- Now playing in theaters. Oh, so that’s where the movies are shown.
- Undocumented alien. This is like calling a drug dealer an “unlicensed pharmacist”.
- Healthy food. If chicken is good for you, then it’s healthful. If it’s healthy, it’s still running around.
Jon and I see a fair number of misused words within responses we’ve reviewed (as you might have seen in previous posts.). This list should be a reminder for us all to make sure we’re not misusing words and phrases within our responses.
Posted by Jon on 22 February, 2007 under Musings |
To Tate Modern, the art gallery on the south bank of the Thames built within the former Bankside power station. The cavernous internal space has been filled with a collection of near-vertical slides, catapulting visitors – who should presumably be concentrating on the Picassos – from the upper floors to ground-level at great speed.
Quite what do the slides have to do with art, I wondered? I saw something of an analogy with the design of some bid centres. Not, I hasten to point out, that these spaces include slides to eject disruptive account managers into the car park outside at high velocity.
No, more that a good environment for a proposal organisation includes plenty of space, brightly-painted walls, toys. relaxaton areas, long wall-to-ceiling whiteboards for no defined purpose other than for team members to scribble up whatever’s sparking their imaginations that day…
In other words, the physical design of the centre breaks with the conventions of the office in which it’s located. Content contributors joining bid teams are surprised: slightly disorientated, perhaps. They’re forced to accept that this is a different type of space, where a different type of work will be called for.
Rather than the bid centre being a dispiriting area to be avoided at all costs (”they lock you in until late at night with only cold pizza to eat, you know”), by being more playful, the very design draws contributors in and allows, encourages them to approach the work at hand in a more positive manner.
Rather like the Tate’s slides and the gallery’s artwork, perhaps.
Posted by BJ on 20 February, 2007 under Musings |
I’ve finally succumbed to the constant nagging of Jon and my colleagues to get a real time e-mail devise such as a Blackberry. Those of you who know me well know that I’ve been very reluctant to have constant and instant access to my mail for fear of it being to intrusive and distracting.
Coincidentally, my niece (11) recently asked that the computer be removed from her room as she finds the constant barrage of e-mails, IM’s and friends hoping to chat with her too distracting and getting in the way of her getting her schoolwork done.
Wise beyond her years me thinks.
Posted by Jon on 16 February, 2007 under Musings |
The 12 February edition of ‘The New Yorker’ describes a profession thus:
“men and women with proficiency in sales, spin, propaganda, language and personal relationships.”
Sadly, friends, our esteemed career path as proposal experts hasn’t quite made the pages of my favourite magazine, depsite the uncannily accurate role profile.
Rather, they were discussing the public relations trade. And I’m not altogether sure I’m flattered by the comparison!
Posted by BJ on 14 February, 2007 under Word play & writing |
The American Dialect Society recently chose ‘Plutoed’ as its 2006 Word of the Year*. The word is defined as, v. to demote or devalue someone or something. (You may recall that last year the General Assembly of International Astronomical Union determined that what had up until then been the planet Pluto did not meet its definite of a planet.)
I wonder if this can be applied to some of the people presented within a proposal to the customer as the team who will be responsible for implementation but who are quite mysteriously unavailable when the contract is awarded. I guess now we can just say that these individuals were “Plutoed” :)
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*The runner-up word was “climate canary”, defined as “an organism or species whose poor health or declining numbers hint at a larger environmental catastrophe on the horizon. I think term applies to those individuals whose position within the proposal function is the first one eliminated when an organizations is faced with the need to cut costs. I think these individuals are definitely “climate canaries” as the elimination of their position is a sure indicator of larger problems within the organization.
