| February TwentyTen
The Enlightened Manager Newsletter
A quick read for busy government, industry and association executives
GSA MOBIS schedule holder for management and risk consulting
King County facilitation and performance coaching contractor
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In this issue:
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 1. How to keep your career and attitude (and your staff's) on track
Quite a few years ago, in New Work Habits for a Radically Changing World, Price Pritchett shared 13 ways to maintain career momentum. Considering current economic and political pressures, I thought they were well worth revisiting.
1. Become a quick-change artist - get with the program
2. Commit fully to your job
3. Be like a new employee - speed up!
4. Accept ambiguity and uncertainty in the workplace
5. Behave like you're in business for yourself
6. Defend your career by continuing to learn
7. Alter your expectations away from entitlement
8. Hold yourself accountable for outcomes not just for
showing up
9. Add value - make a difference
10. See yourself as a service center both internally and
externally
11. Manage your own morale - adapt to change (mobility not
mourning)
12. Practice kaizen - continuous improvement
13. Be a fixer, not a finger-pointer - assume ownership of
problems
These factors can stimulate some very useful dialogue and self-reflection in staff meetings.
Mike Celerity Works
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2. Government contractors: Essential business development tracking
Companies that
neglect to regularly track and discuss their business development results rarely accomplish their
revenue targets. They are basically relying on luck. The number and dollar
value of the qualified leads and leads being captured in the company pipeline as
well as the number and dollar value of proposals submitted, won and lost can be
easily tracked in an Excel spreadsheet or even more effectively using a
business lead tracking system such as ones offered by www.salesforce.com, GovWin or Input.
Some of the
items that should be regularly tracked in a lead tracking system are:
- Opportunity title
- Agency
- Priority
- BD lead
- Capture manager
- Business unit
- BD process milestone
- Prime or Sub?
- Estimated RFP date
- Estimated award date
- Value to prime $
- Value to your company $
- Probability of win %
- Factored value $
- Contract duration in
years
- Close
to customer? (green/yellow/red)
- Technical strength?
(green/yellow/red)
- Cost? (green/yellow/red)
Learn more...
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3. Government managers: Key elements of a successful internal acquisition kick-off meeting
I've done quite a few 'lessons learned' project assessments for government agencies and one of the highest risk areas is the need for a well-thought out, proactive internal acquisition kick-off
meeting. The primary objective is to ensure the integrated Project Team
(technical, contracts, legal, end-user, etc.) knows exactly what support and outcomes are expected.
The
key elements of a successful acquisition project team kick-off meeting are: -
Distribute the
agenda and any relevant documentation before the meeting.
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Begin and end
on time. Stick to the meeting plan.
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Introduce the
project team and key project influencers. Make sure everyone is clear on roles
and responsibilities as well as expectations.
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Describe the
objective of the acquisition.
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Explain your
approach to accomplishing the acquisition including the schedule and critical
path. Review the work plan, major milestones and deliverables.
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Review the
change management process that will be followed to ensure schedule compliance
and document quality while allowing for sufficient reviews and industry comment (if relevant).
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Define success
criteria so the team is clear about the system and/or services user expectations.
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Identify any
risks, challenges and project constraints especially unique to this acquisition.
Also, identify risk mitigation actions for this most probable/highest impact
risks.
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Take the time to respond to everyone's
concerns about project success. Don't assume silence is concurrence. Now is the
time to encourage open discussion while there is still time to change the plan.
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Make sure
everyone understands the necessary project control and status requirements
including documentation standards and quality reviews. Also, clarify charging requirements for labor and other direct charges like travel
expenses.
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Go over any support
tools, documents and support needs.
-
Record
decisions and action assignments
My risk assessment consulting support is offered on Celerity Works GSA MOBIS
Schedule GS-10F-0380S at www.gsaadvantage. Learn more...
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| 4. |
Winning and Managing Government Business (click to read more or order)
"Winning and Managing Government Business is a concise,
easy-to-understand and to the point overview of securing and doing
business with the federal government. It provides step-by-step
instructions on approaches for penetrating government markets, how to
do your prep work prior to proposal time, and then how to respond and
win opportunities. It's a definite must read if you're new to the
government space. It's also very handy if you're a savvy veteran as
it's full of checklists, timelines and templates you can use in real
world situations. I've been involved with government contracting for
over 15 years and found this book to be very useful and practical."
- M. Cosgrave, VP, ManTech International
The Enlightened Manager (click to read more or order)"Whether you are new to a management role or a 25 year management
veteran, these 20 concise morsels of enlightenment are the heart of
being a successful leader. Worth reading every year !!"
- Business Confluence |
Both available in paperback at www.amazon.com
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5. 2010 Walk MS: We can make a difference
You might have heard that the FDA has approved a new drug that will improve walking for people with all types of MS. Also, other oral medicines are now in trials. But, the daily reality of MS is still impacting thousands of people including my wife, Trude. But, all of this just reinforces how important your support is if we are to cure this disease.
So, please give what you can and, if in town, join us on Saturday, April 10 at Bainbridge High School (30 minute ferry ride from downtown Seattle). We also appreciate everyone who joins our team as virtual walkers. That means you can register to be on Team Lisagor even though you can't be here in person!
All the information you need is on Trude's walk ms team web site. You can also create a personal web page as part of our team with your own individual goal. Let us know if you need any help doing this.
Or, if you prefer, you can donate by mail by sending a check (made out to the National MS Society) to:
Team Lisagor
120 Wood Ave. SW
Bainbridge Island, WA 98110
Thank you so much for supporting this important cause...a world free of MS!
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About Mike and Celerity Works
Michael Lisagor founded Celerity Works in 1999 to help government, industry and non-profit executives improve their performance and accelerate their organizational growth. He has performed over 450 organizational assessment interviews, facilitated 200+ meetings and workshops, and coached over 250 managers for 65 organizations.
Benefits and results:
- Government contractors - Win more government business
- Government agencies - Improve performance and manage program risk
- Commercial businesses - Become more efficient and accelerate growth
Consulting services:
- Action-oriented planning and retreat facilitation
- Management performance improvement coaching
- Improved decision making and focus
- Streamlined business growth planning
- Effective program risk management
Government management and risk consulting services available on GSA MOBIS schedule.
Facilitation and performance coaching services available on King County contract.
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