Don’t Drop That Ball!

Your Red Team review is in two days, the final proposed staffing mix is behind schedule, the second pricing review is tomorrow, you have a doctor’s appointment tomorrow, and you have only two hours of sleep under your belt. This is the true definition of juggling.

Trying to keep track of all of this with just a notepad, email, and a smartphone isn’t enough. That’s why I use one of the most effective tracking tools, a Rolling Action Items List (RAIL)—in Excel spreadsheet form—in conjunction with a shared Microsoft Outlook calendar that includes all of my writers and stakeholders.

A RAIL is a list of all action items that are due, including their current status and the name of the individual(s) responsible for each item. This document should be reviewed with the team at a high level during the stand-up/status meetings, which will ensure that everyone involved with the writing and review processes is aware of what’s going on and when things are due.

Without tracking and sharing action items, your proposal development process and all of its products will be confusing and likely to get out of control.

Without tracking and sharing action items, your proposal development process and all of its products will be confusing and likely to get out of control. Much like juggling, proposal management requires the left hand to know what the right hand is doing, and the eyes need to keep both hands coordinated.

So, if the left hand represents your solution architects, the right hand represents your proposal writers. The eyes represent your stakeholders (i.e., managers, executives, or owners), and you are the brain. Just like a juggler’s brain, you must track, coordinate, and verify that every action is executed correctly, or else the whole activity may fall apart.

As a proposal manager, you need to keep track of a lot of action items that are “in the air” all the time. You cannot leave any room for ambiguity; otherwise, your team could miss a critical action item.

As a proposal manager, you need to keep track of a lot of action items that are “in the air” all the time. You cannot leave any room for ambiguity; otherwise, your team could miss a critical action item. The key is to make effective use of task and calendar reminders through Outlook or similar applications and also share your RAIL with everyone involved and treat it like a daily to-do list.

The following is an example of an effective RAIL:

It is a good idea to use color coding to help identify the urgency and/or status of each action item. With simple formatting, you can share a lot of information quickly with your team members. They will know what everyone is doing, when they must complete their tasks, and each action item’s present status. This will go a long way to prevent major catastrophes and duplicated work, and it will communicate the status of the proposal writing process to stakeholders.

This simple tool can save you a lot of stress, and it will go a long way to coordinating your team’s work products and efforts.

Ben Bartunek, CF APMP, is a proposal management specialist for AOC Key Solutions Inc., a government proposal consultancy in the Washington, D.C., metro area. He can be reached at [email protected].