Football games are beginning all over America every weekend at all levels. How could that possibly relate to Federal Government contracting?
Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Subpart 42.5 is titled “Postaward Orientation,” but while postaward accurately describes that an acquisition phase has ended, orientation at least indicates that a new acquisition phase is just beginning: performance of the work and delivery of the supplies an agency needs to meet its mission.
The focus of the FAR 42.5 provisions is the government contracting officer’s decision as to whether a new contract should provide for post-award orientation of contractors and subcontractors. While this FAR scope statement for the topic might seem to be one way — like a company orienting a new employee — FAR recognizes that there is a more mutually advantageous benefit, specifically that:
A postaward orientation aids both Government and contractor personnel to (1) achieve a clear and mutual understanding of all contract requirements, and (2) identify and resolve potential problems.
This mutual understanding and cooperation aligns well with provisions in the FAR 1-102-3 Guiding Principles, namely the provisions that define Federal Acquisition Team participants as:
beginning with the customer and ending with the contractor for the express purpose of encouraging teamwork, unity of purpose, and open communication among the members to share a vision of achieving the goal, which is successful contract performance to meet the customer’s needs.
In practice, post-award orientation takes the form of a virtual or in-person meeting or conference — or hybrid of these two if necessary to accommodate logistics or other challenges. FAR 42.5 also allows for a “letter” of post-award orientation — and for recognizing that post-award orientation may not be needed at all.
During my own federal career, skipping a post-award event was often the norm, when I was contracting for another production run of the exact same, mutually understood, well-defined item as was purchased two or three or five times before. Conversely, when I contracted for a major new development effort, a week-long kick-off, attended by more than 100 government/contractor team members was equally appropriate.
In general, holding no post-award event or sending a letter should be the selected alternative only in rare circumstances — never simply to save time or money (penny-wise and pound-foolish).
A post-award meeting is very commonly called a “kick-off,” which I think is an excellent, illustrative term. Even if you aren’t a football fan, you can hardly avoid being aware that this year’s football season has begun. This fact and the term kick-off remind me that a few years ago I failed trying to develop a writing built on a football team concept where the government was one team and the contractor personnel was the opposition. I failed because I was overlooking the wisdom built into the relevant FAR citations quoted above.
To continue the football kick-off analogy, consider the team’s pre-game practices and meetings in which the coaches and players prepare physically and mentally and ensure that team members understand their respective assignments, as well as how their efforts fit into the overall strategy for winning the game. The pre-game practicing and preparations lead up to, and culminate in, the game’s opening kick-off, which transitions the team from preparation to performance. Similarly, a contract post-award orientation/kick-off brings the government/contractor team members together and transitions to their performance in meeting the contract requirement.
All too often, my failed concept of two opposing football teams seems to illustrate the real-life government/contractor relationship, soured as it can be by the respective team members’ relationships, and contrary to the FAR Guiding Principles. Most importantly, such a situation introduces avoidable risk to successful contract performance. But an effective kick-off can — and should — be intentionally conducted to build on FAR’s concept of a single, government/contractor team focused on a shared vision of successful contract performance that will meet the customer’s needs.
As the Seventh Sense Consulting LLC (SSC) Director of Acquisition Practice, Mr. Patrick Shields has over 45 years of experience as an acquisition/contracting professional and innovative leader. As a Navy Department civilian, he was a major weapons systems contracting officer and manager. Since his civil service retirement, with 2 firms he has provided subject matter expertise support to numerous Federal civilian and DoD organizations, including acquisition strategy/documentation support for key acquisitions, policy development, and personnel training. He also managed a subscription “ask the expert” response team and authored numerous topical publications for over 25,000 professional employees of subscribing agencies.
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