In every bid we write we’re aiming to persuade the customer to make a change: change product or service, change provider or supplier, change solution – to our organisation, product or service. If you’re not asking the customer to change something, what exactly are you bidding for?
But as bidders, do we really understand change, and the core principles and processes of delivering successful change as well as we could?
There’s a whole industry focused on change management, with a long history.
There’s research on change, change processes, studies on the impact of change. There are change experts, change books (many more than there are on bidding), libraries of case studies and statistics on successful (and unsuccessful) organisational change programmes.
You can get Degrees, Masters or even PhDs in Change Management.
As I’m writing this article, I’ve checked Totaljob’s recruitment website – today it’s advertising 2,439 Change Manager jobs (compared to 187 Bid Manager jobs).
So, there’s plenty of Change Management knowledge and best practice available to build on. But are we using that knowledge – in our bid teams, or in our bids?
As bid leaders and bidders we’re experiencing (or managing) plenty of change. Remote working was a change (being asked to go back to the office might be a change too!). Introducing an AI bidding software system is a change. When you were recruited or promoted to your job managing your bid team, that was a change (not just for you- for the whole team).
As a manager you’re now expected to understand and be able to successfully implement change in your area of responsibility. But over 50% of organisational change programmes fail to meet their aims.
There are well established processes for delivering successful change that we can apply to any changes in our bid team, bid function, or even if we’re part of a wider organisation wide change. The change process includes preparing for change, building a coalition for the change, identifying early wins, and embedding the change (amongst other things). It’s a process you can use for any change in your bid team, large or small to make it smoother and more likely to succeed.
But change best practice also shows us that change is really about people. People’s different attitudes to a change, how people’s emotions evolve during a change process (known as the Change Curve). Understanding, anticipating and helping people through their own journeys as change happens is one of the vital tasks for a manager in delivering successful change. How were all these aspects applied (or how did you apply them) in the last change made in your bid team?
And once you understand the principles, processes and management of change in more depth, how might that influence what you write in your bids?
Most bids or proposals include a section on implementation. How might your understanding of best practice change management processes, how change impacts different stakeholders, and what you can do to help people through the process, make what you write more convincing for the customer? And help you win more bids?
Leading and Managing Change in Bidding is just one of the modules in our Management and Leadership Skills for Bidders online course. Because the course was created by bidders, for bidders, we link what you do every day in bidding to how you can become a better manager and leader of your bid team. To find out more, and sign up for our newsletter, go to www.mybidcareer.co.uk
