As we roll into the heart of hurricane season, it seems my mind is drawn to analogies between government contracting and hurricanes. You may remember the “Excusable Delays” and “Storm Surge” podcast episodes as other examples.
Excusable Delays:
Ep 152 https://www.contractingofficerpodcast.com/podcasts/152-excusable-delays/
Storm Surge:
Ep 253 https://www.contractingofficerpodcast.com/podcasts/253-storm-surge/
This time, it’s past performance and hurricane prep. Past performance documentation is important. We know that.
However, do we do enough of it? For example:
- Do we document our stories, our examples? Do we have the experience from the last year(s) documented? Do we have a process to document our performance so, for example, we can agree with, or refute, our CPARS rating?
- Do we have a library of documents, so we have ready access to them when we need them? Do we have to create these examples from memory? If we have examples, where are they? Can everyone who needs them find them?
- Do we document our lessons learned from what worked and what didn’t after the work is complete? How can we build on our success, or failure?
Likewise, these elements matter in preparing for hurricane season. Here they are in hurricane prep lingo…
- Do we have a list of what we’re going to need when we prep for evacuation…or prep to lose power? Do we have a list of needs for when we walk into the gauntlet of Publix (our main grocer down here in FLA), or do we just start buying stuff and risk ending up with a bag of potato chips and bottled water for sustenance once we actually have to hunker down? I once bought Jiffy Pop as hurricane prep thinking I was smart…turns out that you either need a stove or a fire to eat it. At the time, we had neither thanks to the storm. Jiffy Pop is now on the “do not buy” list. Lesson learned (see #3).
- Do we have a hurricane prep kit ready? Batteries, tarps, ponchos, water, etc. Is it in the house or in the wee top corner of the garage attic storage (i.e., good luck finding it in the dark!) Do we know what’s in the prep kit? Are those batteries actually going to work? Or do we have a kick butt flashlight that takes D batteries…but a prep kit full of AA and C batteries? (true story, unfortunately). In other words, can we actually FIND and USE what’s in the Prep Kit?
- Do we review and document what went well (evacuation routes, return routes, which gas stations have gas, etc.)? Did we review what did not go well (grouchy teenagers require more pillows for comfort because sitting in hours of traffic creeping out of the area is a likely reality). Are we going to better next time (note: hoping there is no next time…but knowing their likely will be)?
To be clear, I’m not saying that Hurricane Prep is a light matter (it sucks actually, especially when you come home a week later to a house with no power to find all manner of things have melted, thawed, etc.). I’m just sharing an odd connection I made between past performance planning and hurricane planning.
The analogy hit me because we don’t WANT to prep for hurricanes. We don’t want to take the time to prep only to not have the storm hit and feel like we wasted our time (we did that last month). However, that’s what makes preparing so elusive. By the time we realize we need it, we’re too late.
Related fact: the ability to buy property insurance is impacted by whether there is a named storm (i.e., potential hurricane) over the horizon.
In government contracting, documenting our performance stories and experience, as well as fighting for our ratings, may not be the most exciting part of GovCon. However, as the old adage goes “when opportunity arrives, it’s too late to prepare”. Hoping we can scramble to find (or create) the past performance documentation is just that – hoping. Changing a CPARS rating can be done (see Shelley), but getting it changed in time for the CURRENT opportunity is a tall order. Likely too tall.
Bottom line: preparing is easy. We just have to do it! Both past performance and hurricanes teach us this lesson.
