Every sport has a rule book.
It’s hard to win if we don’t know the rules. The pro baseball rulebook is less than 200 pages. The pro football rulebook is less than 100 pages…and within both are an endless variety of potential plays.
A fitting Sun Tzu quote comes to mind:
“There are not more than five primary colors (blue, yellow, red, white, and black), yet in combination they produce more hues than can ever be seen.”
Teams who win are those who create, practice and perfect effective plays within the rule book. Then those plays combine into a playbook. And that playbook is unique to every team’s capability, capacity, unique skills, resources, available time, and so on. The playbooks can be simple or very complex…and unique to every team.
The key item is that the playbook must align to the rule book or the plays won’t work.
A football team could develop a masterful touchdown play that includes two consecutive forward passes. It would be a great way to get ahead of and around the defense to score…except for one small problem: that’s not within the rules of football.
Government contracting operates in much the same way. If we don’t know the rules, it’s really hard to get things done – including winning. For contracting officers, the plays are acquisition strategies. For contractors, the plays are the capture and win strategy. Both need to be developed within the Rule Book.
Sports vs GovCon
The key Rule Book for government contracting is the FAR. However, there are a few key differences in how the Rule Book to Play Book relationship works in GovCon vs how a sports rule book works.
- Size – the standard rulebook for the game of GovCon (the FAR) is over 2,000 pages, and that does not include the supplements, policies, procedures, and yes, Executive Orders. However, despite all that, team members who know how to navigate it despite the size will be more effective and successful.
- Changeability – The FAR has a lot of rules. With so many rules, it can be hard to keep up. It can seem almost fickle. Some rules become outdated but are not removed. Some rules are added then outdated. Some rules are much more complex than they need to be. Others just seem redundant. We talk about why and how that is in Episode 499 (Working with the FAR we have). Plus Congress adds laws constantly that find their way eventually in the FAR. However, despite all that, those team members who pay attention to how the changes impact the plays will be more effective and successful.
- Asymmetry – The FAR does not apply to all teams equally. In fact, the FAR applies to the government only (unless the clauses are in a contract). The FAR is a Rule Book for the government, not for the contractors. Though the contractors who understand it are more likely to thrive within it.
NOTE: there is a move afoot to rewrite the FAR. Fair enough. It’s over 40 years old so it could use a re-do. However, even with the changes that come, the FAR will still be the key Rule Book in GovCon. See Item #2.
If we’re going to play the game, we need to know the rules.
