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Challenges and Solutions for Team Proposal Writing

Challenges and Solutions for Team Proposal Writing. Ryan Weber Rocket City Technical Communication Conference. Team Proposal Writing. Complex, sustained proposal efforts often require huge teams for completion

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Challenges and Solutions for Team Proposal Writing

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  1. Challenges and Solutions for Team Proposal Writing Ryan Weber Rocket City Technical Communication Conference

  2. Team Proposal Writing • Complex, sustained proposal efforts often require huge teams for completion • These teams can be a strength and weakness, as coordinating members of interdisciplinary, cross-functional teams can prove challenging • Presentation covers challenges and solutions offered by two professional writing ethnographies

  3. Aerospace Company • “Bridging Boundaries, Negotiating Differences: The Nature of Leadership in Cross-Functional Proposal Writing Teams.” Roxanne Kent-Drury. Technical Communication. 2000. • Ethnography examines 10 years of proposal writing strategies at an aerospace company

  4. Aerospace Company • Challenges • Proposal teams change frequently • Proposal writers are temporary loans from other departments, and team members “maintain their line affiliations outside the proposal group and so occupy ‘boundary-spanning’ positions in the company” (91) • Proposal managers are often inexperienced managers who lack authority • Writers can go unsupervised and produce proposals that don’t match corporate or audience expectations

  5. Aerospace Company • Solutions • Reliable, prominent schedule tracking system • Proposal libraries containing drafts of all sections • Proposal scheduling devices that chart progress • Negotiating responsibility and accountability • Proposal managers must negotiate because they lack authority • Proposal manager circulates frequently • Officially designated, neutral space • Proposal “bullpen” where writers can work

  6. Atherton Jordan, Inc • “Proposal Writing at Atherton Jordan, Inc.” Claudia MonPereMcIssac and Mary Ann Aschauer. Management Communication Quarterly. 1990. • Atherton Jordan is a pseudonym for large Silicon Valley engineering firm heavily reliant on proposals • Ethnography follows seven engineers for eight months

  7. Atherton Jordan, Inc • Challenges • Contracts are high stakes, involving investments of $500,000 to $1,000,000 • Proposal environment involves 40-100 people following 52-step process that writers describe as “pressure-cooker” • Writers have trouble anticipating audience needs, questions • Engineers dislike writing and follow writing advice too rigidly

  8. Atherton Jordan, Inc • Solutions • “Corporate consensus about corporate writing standards” • Proposal Operations Center • Provides management, instructional materials, scheduling help • Storyboarding • Collaborative brainstorming technique • Red Team • Independent review team that serves as simulated review audience for first drafts of proposals

  9. Team Proposal Writing Strategies • Provide neutral location that legitimizes team • Make the writing process visible and public • Establish strong leadership that can coordinate groups and maintain an overall vision of the project • Generate consensus about document standards and vocabulary • Provide mechanisms for offering an audience perspective on the document

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