This is the next installment of this post: Navigating the Fog of GovCon
GovCon, and government in general, are moving faster lately. It can be hard to clearly communicate our intent when we are moving fast. With all that movement, it’s harder to take the time to explain the logic behind what we’re doing. To others, our actions, decisions, and behavior may seem rash, misguided, incorrect, or worse. How do we find the logic in others’ decisions?
One way is to take a deep breath and look at a situation through the Reverse Lens. The Reverse Lens allows us to see a situation from the other side’s point of view…and consider in what ways their decision makes sense.
For example, why would a contracting officer issue a “Logical Follow on” task order to another contractor under a multiple-award IDIQ contract? As a contractor, one may think it’s unfair. That’s our point of view…that our assumptions are correct.
Now let’s use the Reverse Lens. Does the contracting officer’s use of a Logical Follow on make sense given…
1) there is a sense of uncertainty in around government in general
2) the current GovCon environment (under which getting nearly anything done seems harder than usual) and
2) the FAR allows for Logical Follow on award when it is “…in the interest of economy and efficiency…” and as long as the task order was originally competed (See 16.505(b)(2)(C) or Contracting Officer Podcast episode 229 for the details).
Which makes more sense? To fire up a new task order competition, which means asking contract holders for proposals, then evaluate those proposals, then awarding the contract? That could take weeks.
Or…does it make more sense to make the judgement call of awarding a Logical Follow on in the “interest of economy and efficiency” and move out with a new task order tomorrow morning?
Things tend to make more sense when we use the Reverse Lens to look for the reasons behind decisions. To be fair, without context on what our counterpart COULD do, we are just guessing. However, when you do have context, the Reverse Lens can be a useful way to grasp a situation, see the logic in our counterpart’s actions, and to better decide what’s worth fighting over.
The other option is to assume our point of view is always right…and what are the odds on that?
NOTE: Skyway Acquisition’s mission is to bring context to both sides of GovCon – so if you need that “context”, check out the links within this article.
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