The Importance of Debriefs
One of the hardest things to do is to analyse your own work and see where you have gone right or wrong. This is the same with bidding, where results and feedback are regularly ignored, regardless of the result. If you want to keep continuously improving though, you must look back at what you have done, objectively looking at what works and can be built upon, and what did not work and has to change. This is why Tender Alchemy recommend post-bid debriefs, both pre and post result.
Pre-result debriefs are the most important debriefs you can do. They are not influenced by the result, meaning you can have a more honest assessment of how the bid went. Our suggestion for a pre-result debrief would be a one-two hour meeting, including all those significantly involved in the bid. A suggested agenda would be:
Overview of what happened
Person-by-person thoughts
Summarisation of key points – good and bad.
Ensure you keep the information from the above for the next debrief stage
Once you get the final result, positive or negative, ensure that you receive/request detailed feedback from the commissioners (where possible). Use this feedback to have a post-result debrief. Where possible have one member of the bid team and an independent person analyse the feedback versus the bid in an open and honest manner. The two individuals should then come together, compare notes, and develop a unified analysis with recommendations to the relevant people – e.g. the bid team, executives, etc.
If possible, a further debrief should happen to discuss the analysis and recommendations, and how continuous improvement can be made, with clear timelines and responsibilities.
The above is best practice and may not always be possible to implement, but never underestimate the power of analysing how you have done things previously and how you can improve going forward.
If you want to know any further information on debriefs or would like Tender Alchemy to support you through them, please contact us or check out our Consultancy Services.