Why Your Team Needs a ‘War Room’
Are you about to respond to a tender? Then bring your team together in a war-room!
Having a bid team working in 5 different states and expecting to create a compelling bid is going to be impossible. This is why your team needs a centralised war room to work from.
It is imperative to get the message of your bid correct and that the message is carried throughout the entire proposal. The only way to do this is to ensure your ENTIRE bid team understands the business in hand as well as the stated requirements.
The simplest way to do this is to have a dedicated space with walls and plenty of desk space to allow your team's creativity to extend. The walls of your war room can actually help your team's creativity to expand, especially when you have access to whiteboards that can act as a canvas for collaborative note-taking and idea sharing.
In all bids I have successfully managed and won, we bought the entire team into a room to prepare the bid. Here are some reasons why having a war room will work for you:
• You can share everyone's thoughts
• You can whiteboard creative ideas
• The storyboard is always available
• You can get immediate answers without delay
• You can freely debate ideas to come up with the best solution
Nurturing Shared Understanding
Your war room will enable your team to work well together. When each and every idea is shared and put on the war room walls, everyone can clearly see what each other is thinking, and how the best ideas can be brought together so that everyone is on the same page.
Your company will save so much time by having a separate and dedicated war room in operation, because your staff will spend less time revisiting ideas that have already been discussed.
You can also leave your war room intact at the end of the day, so your long-term projects can continue without the risk of being cleared away because the room is needed for another function.
Next time you are preparing for a bid, ensure your Bid Manager sets you up in a WAR ROM so you can create the winning atmosphere from day one.
