Page 147 - Writing Winning Business Proposals

138 Writing Winning Business Proposals

potential actions, all called out and transcribed without any comment, discussion,
or evaluation (either good or bad) from Green Team participants, all during the
10-minute brainstorming session. Subsequently, the proposal team uses black-hat
thinking to evaluate the potential actions, but only after the Green Team has dis-
banded. During the brainstorming, there are, by definition, no bad ideas. In fact,
off-the-wall ideas are encouraged: They can lead someone else to identify what
later is judged as another good idea.

Step 5. Debrief

After the first four phases of 40 minutes of elapsed time, the Green Team
Review is officially over, and some members of the Green Team may have to
leave. They should be excused and thanked. Others should be invited to stay
for a quick 10-minute debriefing, since their initial feedback could be helpful.
All Green Team members should be encouraged to continue thinking about
the lead so that they can suggest other improvement actions that come to mind
over time.

The Green Team Review: What Happens Afterward

The Green Team is encouraged to be creative, to stretch its thinking to identify
linkages to other people, projects, and experiences that, if implemented, might
help the proposal team improve its offering. The key word is “might”: The pro-
cess identifies actions that the proposal team will subsequently consider and
potentially execute as it sees fit. There is no measurement system that evaluates
the value of specific ideas or suggestions. In fact, there is no requirement that the
proposal team use any of the Green Team’s suggestions.
After the Green Team Review, the proposal team’s assessment of the potential
actions might be something like this: Out of these 40 potential actions, these 10
we’ve already thought of (though they’ve now been reinforced), these 10 we don’t
have time to implement (though we might have, if we had held the Green Team
Review earlier), these 10 are the silliest ideas we’ve ever heard (though some of
them led to other, incredible ideas), and these 10, if we implement them, could
significantly improve our probability of winning.
In short, the proposal team retains accountability for the lead; it determines
how best to proceed, how best to win. But this determination is accomplished
with a much higher degree of confidence, with the knowledge that a wide variety
of colleagues with differing perspectives and points of view have reviewed the
logical and psychological aspects of the selling efforts to date.