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RFP Insanity - BC's Public Service Agency

More on the insanity of Government RFPs ...

Many moons ago, I registered my company with BC Bid - the government site announcing bid opportunities. I’ve written before about the flaws in the procurement process when it comes to soliciting bids to deal with performance issues, and I thought I’d seen it all, until this one came to my attention:


The Public Service Agency of British Columbia is seeking a qualified contractor to provide ‘very focused training’ to government senior IT managers and CIOs. The RFP summary then goes on to specify that: the Agency is interested only in course materials targeted to developing more effective and business-driven CIOs and senior IT managers. The Agency will not consider proposals that address general management principles and practices.

So far, so good. Already I’m thinking about how to shape such a ‘very focused training’. How to identify the individual challenges of the IT managers and CIOs, what might be included in the course, how the material could be designed and tailored to individual needs ... And as I read on, the following sentence just made me laugh out loud:

The Agency is seeking an “off-the-shelf” solution, where the Course has already been developed by the Proponent.

As if. Am I the only one that finds this statement to be so ludicrous that it defies belief? Good heavens.
That’s right; spot on! Every one of the (estimated 250?) government IT managers and CIOs has the exact same, identical problems. All of them are lacking skills or understanding in the exact same areas. So, of course, an “off-the-shelf” (read: cookie-cutter) solution is going to fit perfectly. And get the improved performance results so eagerly sought in this “very focused training”.

Two possibilities:

1) An internal resource (or a long-standing vendor) has already developed a training course - and the Agency is not interested in anyone else getting the contract - hence the insistence on an “off-the-shelf” solution;
2) The Agency doesn’t have a clue what may be involved in improving the performance of knowledge workers.

My money is on option #2. May I suggest the Agency staffers read Tom Davenport’s excellent book ‘Thinking for a Living: How to Get Better Performances and Results from Knowledge Workers’.

Needless to say - I won’t be bidding on this RFP. Frankly, no consulting or training company that values its reputation should bid on this, either.

Last updated on Mar 31, 2009 at 05:45 AM
Category: Training and Instructional Design Human Performance Improvement
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