Rob Prinzo's Blog

You need to enlist the help of with a vendor or a partner organization who can provide specific tools or services to your team. Maybe you need something built, designed, executed or performed and you require the help of an outside provider. As a government entity, you might draft a formal RFP (request for proposal) and publish your request where appropriate providers will see it. But private and non-profit organizations can—and often should—conduct a version of the same process in order to identify the most qualified provider at the most optimal price. Why Use an RFP? An RFP takes a large degree of guesswork, bias, and subjectivity out of the vendor selection process; that’s why government entities rely on this method so heavily. If you choose, you can instead conduct your own research, review provider websites, compare pricing structures, and look for testimonials on your own, the way you would if you were hiring a personal service or buying something for your own home. But publishing an RFP means: All qualified providers will have an equal opportunity to see the request and respond. Vendors and providers will contact you on your terms and by your specified methods, not theirs. Those who can’t meet your specific needs will self-select and opt not to respond, which simplifies the process on your end. You’ll receive proposals from both small and large providers who you may not have discovered on your own. RFPs are not just for the Public Sector The primary difference between private and public sector proposals deals with the format, rules and submission requirements for the document itself. While the mission and message of each proposal remain essentially the same (“Here is a proposal, as per your request. Please consider the terms/estimate and respond favorably”), the layout and execution will differ. This means that each proposal will be received, reviewed and compared differently in each of the two categories. Since proposals can be harder to review and compare when they’re structured differently-- just as apples are hard to compare to oranges—you’ll make your task easier if you follow the government model and ask recipients of your RFP to submit proposals according to very specific guidelines. For example, ask for a specific number of pages. Provide a specific list of questions that need to be answered by the proposal. Provide a template document for submitters to complete, and anticipate questions by setting clear rules about photos, file formats, and cost breakdowns. Do RFPs Come with Risks? Keep in mind that a certain risk exists in setting rigid rules: If you plan to reject all proposals that don’t follow your formatting instructions or abide by your guidelines, you may miss out on opportunities for excellent partnerships. Be ready to respond to nearly perfect proposal submission that falls short of your page limit or arrives as a Word document instead of a PDF. Will your team have clear, pre-set guidelines regarding which rules to enforce and which to ignore under appropriate circumstances? Will you be legally bound to justify your decision? Will your donors, patients, clients, recipients, other stakeholders be harmed by a seemingly arbitrary decision? Clear guidelines and fair adherence to those guidelines can help you avoid the appearance of a conflict. Need help creating an RFP with the appropriate format, instructions, and information targeted to your specific audience? Call the Prinzo Group and arrange a consultation with our experienced contracting team today!

When you wake up in the morning, the day stretches in front of you like an open road. You have a long list of things to do, but you don’t know how far you’ll get or what you might accomplish. You have 1,440 minutes ahead to fill with…whatever you want. And it seems like almost anything could happen. You believe that your only limits come from how you prioritize and how efficiently and quickly you move forward from each minute to the next.But before long, you may start to notice that most of your minutes are already accounted for, and they slip away quickly. Your steady focus is interrupted by a text message that you need to answer. You’re waylaid by a hallway conversation. You need to snack, answer the phone, attend a meeting, then another meeting, provide customer service, snack again, answer a question, and then follow up on a sales lead. At nine in the morning, you felt you had eight hours to fill with progress and accomplishments, but halfway through, you realize that only about half of those hours are truly driven by your own choices. Maybe far less than half.And as you scramble to pack eight hours of goals into four hours of available time, you realize that you’re left without any time at all to just sit and think and be present in the moment. And you’re not alone; this challenge has become a nearly universal reality of working life that seems to be taking a toll on our collective mental and physical health. Stress levels are up, focus and presence are down, and our quality of life is often exchanged for something else—some mysterious reward that isn’t well defined and doesn’t seem to be forthcoming.Where do we find that reward? The one that should be ours in exchange for our time and sacrifice?How can we slow things down, so we have the time to think carefully and implement meaningful plans that can take our organization to the next level?And most important: How can we get off this treadmill and start charting our own path through the days and years of our lives?As with almost all of life’s biggest hurdles, the first step is identifying the question and recognizing that we have a problem that needs to be solved.Here are a few ways to regain control. Hit Pause. Even Better: Hit Stop.Unplug the treadmill, literally. Turn off your phone and computer and leave the demanding environment of your office for just one hour, or even fifteen minutes. Recognize that you own that time, and use it to purposefully pause, collect yourself, and do nothing.Turn off the noise (or at least turn it down for a few minutes)Mindful meditation means deliberately blocking off a period of time in which you focus on being present in the moment and observing events and feelings without reacting to them. On the outside, meditation looks like a person sitting quietly. But on the inside, the person is sitting beside the events of the world, including the rise and fall of his or her own feelings. The person is breathing, being, and not reacting. Meditation in any form is helpful, but some guidance and a conducive environment can provide the training you need to make the most of your session. A few minutes of exercise each day can also help, no matter how or when you fit them in. Exercise provides a new venue and some fresh air for your thoughts, and it also improves your circulation, which means more nourishing oxygen delivered to the cells of your body and brain. Think about how you spend your time.Think consciously about how you divide and spend each minute of your day. Divide your day into a grid made of ten-minute blocks, then identify and account for the contents of each block. Review how you actually spend each block. Then think about how you’d like to spend that specific block instead. Here’s a concrete exercise provided by Tim Urban from Wait but Why: https://waitbutwhy.com/2016/10/100-blocks-day.htmlMake Change GraduallyBuilding new habits into your routine—and getting rid of old ones—can be much harder than you might expect at first. But you can do it. You just need to consciously schedule and add (or delete) the new (or old) habit again and again until the habit has been solidified into the day and you can take your hands off the wheel. This make take ten conscious repetitions, but it may also take five hundred. Or even a thousand. Be patient with yourself. Start with small changes. Don’t feel guilty if you miss a repetition; just shake it off and start again the next day.Rinse and RepeatAfter you spend a couple of weeks consciously reforming a habit, revisit your 1000 Blocks to see what has changed. Some small changes or small improvements may give you the confidence boost you need to tackle bigger ones. What aspects of the change do you find easiest? Which ones are harder? Which changes are most satisfying? Which make the most difference to the overall quality of your life? Target those ones for further and closer attention. Repeat this process periodically. Our lives are constantly changing and maintaining balance can be tricky. Reward YourselfSome new habit patterns provide their own reward. For example, 30 minutes of exercise each day can lead to fewer aches and pains, more energy and better fitting clothes. These are fun and pleasant results that are easy to enjoy. But if your new habits mean you’re spending more time building client relationships or adding more money to your retirement account, you may not feel those pleasant effects directly. So give yourself a treat! Try a few minutes of you-time, an internal high-five, a night out, a brownie sundae, or whatever seems to fit the moment and re-enforce the message that your efforts are worth it. Celebrate your achievements! A healthier, happier and more meaningful life are waiting.

Government employees always face a climate of anxiety and uncertainty surrounding election cycles, and changes in administration. Prior to an election and during the transition, teams may not know how to proceed with projects that are currently underway. Here are a few moves that can support a general sense of stability and order, even when the future is uncertain. Remain calm. Leaders set the tone and establish standards for behavior and mood. Stay cool and composed, and don’t visibly worry about the future of your job, projects, or department. Your steady demeanor will set an example and help your teams maintain their perspective.Reassure your teams—both collectively and individually—of their value. Make sure they know that their overall efforts and their individual contributions have been and remain meaningful. Be honest about future events and decisions that fall outside of your control. Remind your staff that leadership changes are a fact of life. and have happened before and will happen again. Point out opportunities that may become available under the new leadership. Document your accomplishments under the previous leadership to demonstrate how you and your team have improved operations and moved the organization forward. Careful documentation can protect current projects and areas of investment that may otherwise be swept away with the currents of the arriving leadership. If you’re asked to present an overview of your team and projects, focus on your most important accomplishments and emphasize areas in which you see promising developments and efforts that you’d like to see continued. Prepare your overview in advance so you aren’t scrambling at the last minute and likely to forget important details. Unless specifically directed, keep working on existing projects. Capitalize as much as possible on current momentum and the valuable work that your team has already accomplished. If you need a decision from leadership during the transition, consider developing a presentation that explains the background and overview of your project, why you need a decision, and the pros and cons of all available options. Offer clear recommendations and make it easy for the new leadership to support your project and keep providing the resources you need. Develop a three-to-five-year plan. Use your plan to provide input during the initial strategy meetings the new leadership will hold once they are onboard. Be patient. Help the new leadership assemble a list of priorities and plans that respect your existing teams and their current projects. Give the new leadership time to understand the environment and time to recognize the value of your plans, presentations, and recommendations. At the same time, listen carefully and try hard to understand what their priorities may be and how they envision the future of the department and its goals. If you maintain an open mind, an engaged and optimistic team, and a clearly communicated set of interests, you’ll find it easier to align those interests with the interests of the new leadership, and you’ll find a place for yourself and your team within the new operational structure. Does your team hold the core competencies necessary to execute change? More than 50% of new projects fail to meet expectations, but strong leadership skills can carry your team over the gap and put your organization on the path to growth. Learn how to build these competencies through our signature leadership development workshop, Leading Change through Projects.Click here for more information and a course overview.

When you occupy the role of a leader, you are responsible for leading your team through the creation of the work that drives the enterprise forward. But to complete this work, your team will need guidance, clear instructions and an overall understanding of long-term goals that they may not be well-positioned to see. This effort depends on building trust and credibility.How can you assure your team that you have their backs and that you make decisions with their best interests in mind? How can you convince them to share and act on your vision without second-guessing your methods or motivations? Here are a few ways to build trust and credibility with your team.Trust them first.To get respect, give respect. The same rule applies to trust. You hired your teams because of their education, training, and experience have prepared them for their specific responsibilities and areas of influence. Don’t hover, micromanage, or insist on signing off on every move, instead give them the space they need to be successful while guiding them through the process. You’re paying for their knowledge and hard-earned lessons; don’t let it go to waste. Step back and let them use the tools they wield to accomplish what nobody else can.Oil the gears. Your teams don’t just depend on you; they depend on each other. So when something goes wrong, or conflict arises, step in and resolve the issue. Don’t ignore the tough issues. Misunderstandings and miscommunications are like sand in a well-oiled machine. Step in and have difficult the conversations necessary to address the problem and get it worked out as soon as possible.Explain decisions when necessary.As a leader, you have a better understanding of long-term organizational goals and what’s required to meet them. There will be unpopular decisions along the way, and you’re not obligated to justify every decision, but a little explanation goes a long way. It’s your responsibility to communicate with your team so that they understand why key decisions so that they can support the decisions even if they disagree with it.Take the lead in times of crisis.Nothing builds employee credibility like action during a crisis. When a crisis occurs, lean into it. Roll-up your sleeves and work with your team to determine the cause of the problem, brainstorm on a possible solution and develop an action plan. Take the lead and bring issues to a higher level when necessary and keep the team focused on solving the problem. Interested in more information on government leadership training and enterprise consulting? Contact the experts at the Prinzo Group.

The Prinzo Group is excited to launch a new service for organizations implementing enterprise business applications with accelerated project timelines or limited budgets. Using our new Deliverable.Pro service, organizations can add valuable subject matter expertise to their project at a fraction of the cost of traditional on-site consulting servicesOvertime, we have found that most projects benefit from outside subject matter experts. However, access to expert resources can be limited based on budget restrictions, project timelines, travel costs and onsite consulting fees. To address this issue, we created Deliverable.Pro.Our Deliverable.Proservice provide a fixed fee review of the structure and content of one or more project deliverables against best practices. Upon completion of the review, we document our finding and provide: additional content, proposed verbiage and overall recommendations to improve the deliverable and subsequently the project. The results are provided via a final report and reviewed via web conference with the project team.Our Deliverable.Pro services are perfect for the following project deliverables: Project PlansRequest for Proposal (RFPs)Needs AssessmentsBusiness CasesStatements of WorksChange Management Plansand other key project documents.For more information, please visit Deliverable.Pro

A lot of us work on projects. Projects are how organizations implement change. You may feel like you spend a lot of time working on projects. You may be an executive responsible for the implementation of a new program, business process or IT system for your company, division or department. You may be a team member who contributes to the project because you have a specific subject matter expertise or you are a power user of a core business system. You may be required to lead a procurement for a new product or service or are involved in training and communications. The bottom line is that you may spend a lot of time working on projects, but you are not a project manager.With the technology revolution, we have seen the evolution of project management as a specific discipline with different methodologies and certifications. Project managers build core competencies in the skills required to define, plan and implement projects. Project team members operate in their respective disciplines (finance, human resources, IT, procurement, customer service) with different competencies and certifications. However, when it comes to working on projects, there is a standard set of core ‘project’ competencies that all project team members should have, but are often ignored because they are considered part of ‘project management.'Activities such as requirements definition, developing a business case or evaluating organizational impacts are core business competencies and not specific to project management. These actions follow a structured framework and require particular subject matter expertise. Although these activities may be part of a more significant project and led by a project manager, the majority of the input comes from functional stakeholders.However, in many cases, these activities occur early in a project’s lifecycle before the initiative may be a considered a project. The project manager may not even be involved in these activities and is assigned to the project after these events occur. And that is where the gap is: we are not developing the core competencies required of project team members because we consider them part of ‘project management.’These competencies include the ability to:Conduct an evaluation of the current state and define the desired future stateDefine the requirements for a new business process or systemIdentify and evaluate solution alternativesAssess the impact of change on the business and its customersDefine a high-level implementation timelineProject success is dependent on the strength of the project team. Without building 'project' competencies in the team, projects will continue to struggle due to lack of the project team's foundational knowledge. The stronger the team's understanding and ability to participate in critical project activities such as defining requirements, evaluating alternatives and identifying organization impacts; the higher the probability that the project will meet its objectives.

Something has gone wrong. It may be an increase in employee turnover, a stalled IT project or decreased customer satisfaction. Whatever the specific situation may be, your organization has a problem and your manager has asked you to step in to resolve the issue. But where do you begin? Obviously, this situation did not happen overnight and the resolution may be complicated. Jump in too quickly and you risk missing key information or alienating the people you may need to resolve the problem. Wait too long and the train may come off the tracks completely.What you need is a process to set expectations, quickly get up to speed on the issues and assess the organizational / political environment. Based on my years of experience consulting with large, complex organizations, the following is a simple seven step process that I developed for assessing business problems and building consensus for solution implementation.Set Expectations: Every assessment should begin with setting expectations. This is best accomplished in a meeting with key stakeholders. At this meeting, the expectations for the assessment are discussed and agreed upon with all parties present. In addition, you should discuss the time line for the assessment, documents that are to be reviewed, the people that are to be interviewed and the final review process. Set the tone for the assessment by obtaining agreement on all of these points.Review Documentation: After the expectations meeting has been conducted, your next step is to collect the relevant documentation related to the problem. Based on the situation, the documentation may vary. However, your purpose in reviewing the documentation is to gain an understanding of the situation before talking with key participant. By being prepared, you will gain credibility.Cross-reference documentation: After the documentation has been reviewed, the next step is to cross-reference the documentation to ensure that there is consistency between the documents. Depending on the situation, there are often multiple documents some of which are developed by different team members or departments. Because there are multiple parties involved, it is always a good idea to go back and cross-reference documents to make sure that there are no gaps.Interview Stakeholders and Participants: After conducting a thorough review and cross-referencing of documents, it is a good idea to interview the people involved in the situation. By interviewing key participants, you can determine if the requirements have been successfully translated execution. In addition, interviewing key participants helps identify potential roadblocks, political concerns or other constraints that would not be apparent by just reading the documentation. Information gained in these interviews is critical to understanding the complexities of the relationships among the parties involved. Interviews are also a great tool you can use to uncover people's fears and concerns and gain an understanding of what the real issues are.Determine Areas of Concern and Recommendations: After all documentation has been reviewed and cross-referenced and all key participants interviewed, you should now have the information you need to determine areas of concern. After the issues have been identified, use the information from the assessment and your experience to recommended solutions.Review Findings with Key Participants: After you have developed a list of concerns or recommendations, it is time to review the findings with the key project participants. This process is actually done twice. First, the findings should be reviewed during informal discussions held individually with the key participants to ensure that nothing has been misinterpreted in the assessment and to make sure that the key stakeholders and participants are briefed on the findings prior to a meeting of all stakeholders. By having an informal discussion with the key participants prior to the formal meeting, you can gauge each person’s reaction to the findings as well as preliminarily discuss solutions. This also provides the key participants with time to research findings that they may not have been aware of or brainstorm solutions prior to the formal meeting.The second time the findings are reviewed with key stakeholders and participants everyone should be informed and aware of all of the issues and be prepared to discuss solutions. By being prepared in the first discussion, the participants have already bought into the recommendations and solutions. If they disagree, you can be prepared to defend the concerns and recommendations.Develop a Final Report: As a final step in the process, document the assessment by summarizing the process for the assessment, the findings and recommendations into a final report. This document marks the completion of the assessment.

The purpose of a bidders’ conference is to provide an open exchange between purchasers and vendors, to communicate the Request for Proposal (RFP) process to vendors, answer questions about the RFP and ultimately ensure that prospective vendors have a clear understanding of requirements. Bidders’ conferences are more prevalent in the Public Sector, but they can be part of the procurement process in the Private Sector as well.How to make the most of the Bidders’ ConferenceThe purpose of the bidders’ conference is valuable in the procurement process as it is a discovery event for both the purchaser and the vendor. It provides a forum for open dialog and clarification of the RFP, as well as bringing to light any missing elements that should be considered in the evaluation process. An in-depth and enlightening exchange in a bidders’ conference bodes well for the project’s overall success.Based on my observations of several bidders’ conferences gone awry, here are a few suggestions to make the most of a bidder’s conference.Vendors:Be prepared. Read the RFP before you attend, nothing makes you look worse than asking obvious questions that are addressed on the first page of the RFP. Write it down. The client will likely ask you to submit your question in writing for clarification and to provide a written response.Control yourself. A bidders’ conference is not a marketing event or platform for you to demonstrate your consulting skills by trying to solve the client’s (or other vendor’s) issues.Don’t argue. Don’t tell the client in public that their project approach is wrong. Remember, that you ultimately want them to hire you for a project. Subtle insults are not usually a good idea. If the project is not right for your firm, simply do not submit a proposal.Project TeamsDon’t read the RFP to the vendors. RFP’s are painful enough to read on your own.Provide structure to the conference. If you are going to answer questions by referring vendors to sections of the RFP, provide a verbal explanation of the answer. RFP’s can be interpreted differently.Provide structure to your solution request. Don’t ask for vendor open-ended solutions as you will likely have a hard time comparing responses.Avoid antagonism. Using phrases like “you are the experts, you tell us the best way that we should be doing this project” will not help you in evaluating the best acquisition fit.In summary, understanding the bidders’ conference for what it is – an opportunity for open exchange and clarification about your requirements for a major technology purchase – exponentially increases the value it provides to your decision-making process.

[image error]The Prinzo Group is excited to launch two new service offerings for organizations with large scale business technology and transformation projects. These services are a great way for organizations that want to manage their own strategic initiatives to accelerate and add best practices to their projects by leveraging The Prinzo Group's expertise and proven methodologies.Project JumpStart WorkshopsThe first new service offering is our interactive Project Jumpstart Workshop. The Project Jumpstart Workshops are for organizational leaders who are tasked with the implementation of annual strategic goals. During the workshop, participants, are guided through our project assurance methodology which adds rigor to the project planning process by addressing the common project failure points.During the workshops, participants will use a project that they are planning or currently working on to define the project’s scope; conduct a needs assessment; develop the organization change management plan and determine the implementation timeline.  As part of the hands-on workshop, participants will validate and enhance their project plans through instructor feedback and peer review.Click here for more information about our Project Jumpstart Workshops.Deliverables ValidationThe second new service offering is our Deliverables Validation Services. Over time, we have found that most projects benefit from outside subject matter experts. However, access to expert resources can be limited based on budget restrictions, travel costs and onsite consulting fees. To address this issue, we are now providing deliverable validation services that add valuable subject matter expertise to your project at a fraction of the cost of traditional on-site consulting services.Our Deliverable Validation Services provide a fixed fee review of the structure and content of your project deliverables against best practices. Upon completion of our review, we document our finding and provide additional content, proposed verbiage and overall recommendations to improve your project. The results are provided via a final report and reviewed via a web conference with you and your project team.Our Deliverable Validation Services are perfect for the following project deliverables:  Project Plans, Request for Proposal (RFPs), Needs Assessments, Business Cases, Statements of Works, Change Management Plans, and other key project documents.Click here for more information our Deliverables Validation Services.

Most organizations do not anticipate project failure. Instead, they plan for success, governed by budget, next step deliverables, executive expectations, and go-live deadlines. Heads-down to the task at hand, project teams often plan for and address risks and issues that are anticipated to occur over the course of the project. But how do you address hidden risks, such as poor requirements definition that may have occurred before the project officially began or the larger project team was in place?Preempting project failure begins with understanding that there is a preventative approach that can provide planned project assurance at critical points in the project’s evolution. It begins with clear understanding of expectations – from the executives, to the business and IT management, to the software vendors and end users.Why? Because clarity in expectations translates to clarity in both system requirements and business analysis. Consider these key findings from the report, The Impact of Business Requirements on the Success of Technology Projects from IAG Consulting:Companies with poor business analysis capability will have three times as many project failures as successes68% of companies are more likely to have a marginal project or outright failure than a success due to the way they approach business analysisCompanies pay a premium of as much as 60% on time and budget when they use poor requirements practices on their projectsOver 41% of the IT development budget for software, staff and external professional services will be consumed by poor requirements at the average company using average analysts versus the optimal organization.To preempt project failure, beginning at requirements definition, The Prinzo Group has developed a project assurance methodology known as collaborative intervention. Collaborative intervention is a project assurance methodology designed to align project expectations, resources and scope with the goal of increasing the project’s probability of success.  Collaborative intervention is different from other project assurance methodologies in that it addresses key project failure points before they occur by creating a collaborative environment comprised of key project stakeholders to discuss and resolve project issues and roadblocks before they arise.To learn more about preempting project failure through collaborative intervention, download the free white paper from The Prinzo Group: Preempting ERP Project Failure: Project Assurance through Collaborative Intervention.