There are many moving parts here in the Fog of GovCon. Contracts are being canceled. Contracts are being descoped. Contract options are being exercised. Contracts are being terminated for convenience or for lack of funds, or both. Stop work order are being issued. Employees are being moved, or transferred, or let go. Then there are all the emails being sent back and forth. The allegations. The potential for frustration. The potential for miscommunication. It’s a lot. It can also feel like we’re cats watching laser light…thinking we can keep up with it all. We may be taking lots of action, making lots of decisions, and stressing over which ones are good, better or best.
So, what to do?
Be keenly aware of which actions we take that are Type 1 decision vs Type 2 decisions. A type 1 is like a one way door. Once we take that action, we cannot undue it (or at least not without a lot of effort). A Type 2 Decision is like a 2-way door. We decide, realize the situation is different than we thought, then we can reverse our decision and go back through the door.
The challenge right now is that there are a lot of Type 1 decisions built into government contracts. Here are two examples from the government side of GovCon.
Example 1: Terminating a contract is a Type 1 decision. What if the work needs to be turned back on, or a part of it does. Restarting a contract after termination is like putting the toothpaste back in the tube.
Instead: issue a Stop Work Order. While a SWO has a limited timeframe (they cannot be indefinite) and they are likely not without challenges, at least you can lift the SWO if that’s what called for.
Example 2: De-obligating expired funds from a contract. Depending the Stage of the Money, the funds will not be available to put back on the contract (not even as toothpaste in the tube). Expired funds cannot be re-obligated. The funds go back to Congress. That of course may be the right action…but beware that it’s a Type 1 action.
Instead: use the Stop Work Order (see #1 above) to stop the contractor from spending the money. This buys you time until you know the work will not be needed. Or, in some cases, you may be able to reallocate the funds WITHIN THE EXISTING CONTRACT (this is a key point). This also gives you time to confirm with the government customer that the funds will not be needed, ever. The worst case is that the government customer does not realize what “de-obligate” means and they end up not having funds they thought they had for later. Think of this like the “measure twice, cut once” adage.
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