Problem/Solution—Our Team Members Don't Trust Each Other

Problem: Our team members don’t trust each other. The difficulties of managing a proposal team are compounded when these conditions exist: large team, virtual team, part-time members, members from different organizations, untrained or inexperienced members. While these factors don’t mean the team will fall apart, it can compound any issues that arise. Solution: Start with Daily Team Management. Daily proposal team management is focused on efficiently executing the proposal management plan. Agility in monitoring progress and identifying problems or challenges early minimizes the cost of corrective action and builds trust. Daily reviews and stand-up sessions allow for tasks to be reviewed in parallel while working toward more formal proposal reviews. Teams can build trust if they have a singular goal and a plan to meet it. The proposal manager’s primary objective is to prepare a winning document, on time and within budget. Establish a pattern of short, regular team and individual status checks that often include checking on solution development progress. If the whole team is focused on delivering a well-crafted, compliant, responsive proposal, trust can thrive. Daily team management can ensure that everyone is doing their part to meet that goal. Daily activities must be tailored by team conditions, size and complexity of the proposal, and available budget and resources. Follow these guidelines for better trust through daily team management:

• Prepare a Proposal Management Plan.
• Define and document your solution early.

• Confirm that all contributors understand their assignments.
• Conduct daily or regular stand-up meetings with the proposal contributors.
• Focus team members on their next, immediate task.
• Use content plans to track the progress of individual contributors.
• Review content progress each day and be accessible to your contributors.