“We’re All in This Together”, High School Musical

This article first appeared in Bid Solutions’ Bidding Quarterly periodical in November 2024.

Bid teams work hard to create proposals set on the stage of logical reasons why theirs is the best show in town, often recruiting freelance team members who bring a firm grasp of how to integrate seamlessly. I ask myself key questions before joining bid teams to ensure I work effectively from day one in civil infrastructure and building bids.
Here are my top three questions:
What’s the big picture? Engineers are naturally drawn to the ‘weeds’ (technical details). This is usually essential, but only with sound understanding of higher levels such as the procuring client’s required business outcomes and overall project delivery strategy. Useful early information for me includes the:

• Procuring client’s vision, mission, and values
• Design and Access Statement (a report accompanying the planning application)
• Logistics Plan including the site layout and traffic management routes
• List of key stakeholders and constraints imposed by their requirements.
These give me a ‘feel’ for the project environment before I delve with subject matter experts into the detail of engineering design, construction strategy, social value, environmental mitigation, and numerous other topics. Armed with the ‘big picture’, I have a better idea of why the bid questions are being asked and what matters to the end client. We contribute more effectively to projects when we see them in the mind’s eye, rather like having an image of your home in mind if someone were to ask for a description. The capture plan is obviously also a great place to start (if one is available) in the bid context.

What’s happened before? I spend much of my working time writing bid responses, including planning them with the team. Before leading planning workshops and related meetings, I ask what’s already been done in this regard so I understand existing collateral and avoid rework. It’s also useful to recap lessons learned from past sessions; I ask others for theirs and share mine, in both cases to run more effective planning meetings. This matters because successfully integrating into teams relies heavily on using team members’ usually limited time efficiently.

What’s the team’s workflow? Best practice in any topic needs adapting for implementation within an organisation’s management system. One such aspect is the types and timings of bid reviews. When I’m not required to propose them, I need to understand how the team structures its reviews and proposal development in general. This is essential for delivering on team and individual performance expectations and keeping to programme. Clear understanding of deliverables deadlines is central to effective integration into a team. The point applies even at topic level such as deadlines for actions from meetings.
This all boils down to most effectively applying our respective time and capabilities so we achieve great things. After all, we’re all in this together.