This incident made me proactive and compelled me to design a formula for completing any Project or Task prior to the deadline!

I was employed by one of the organisations during the course of my career. The Tender was something we intended to submit. The entire office staff was occupied with compiling and gathering the necessary paperwork. I had just started working here. I had never worked on a tender submission before. I was merely assisting my colleagues in creating specific paperwork.

We had been working on the tender's specifications continuously for approximately ten days. The Boss had faith in our team's capacity to submit the Tender without his help because we already had experienced professionals in our Team. Finally, due to the non-availability of certain documents and clarification on certain points, we failed to submit the Tender on Time.

As a consequence, My Boss immediately called a meeting in the conference room, He was totally upset. He explained to us:

1)???Why that tender was important to the organisation

2)???What was the cost of losing that opportunity /non-submission in spite of having the organisation’s expertise to execute that tender

3)???How the organisation's growth was linked to that opportunity

He also instructed us not to repeat such a failure again in the future?

I came to my workstation, felt very bad for failure as I could see frustration & sadness in the eyes of my boss. I started thinking for the reasons for our failure. What we ought to do to prevent a repetition of this failure. I had the sudden thought, "Why don't I ask my boss directly?" He is better able to direct me. I went straight to his cabin and asked him for advice on how to avoid making the same mistake twice.?He answered straight away:

a)???Please study thoroughly Tender Proposal documents once gain

b)??Review last 10 days Team activity in alignment of the requirement. You will get the answer

I expressed my gratitude to him for his response.

He smiled and said:

Try to also become proactive!

I quickly went to my colleague's desk and took the Tender Proposal documents and started studying the list of requirements of the tender, including eligibility criteria. I also discussed with other colleagues the problem areas identified while preparing for the tender and noted down certain points of challenges that we faced during the last 10 days of our journey and identified the reasons:

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1)???Some documents were not ready and needed to be arranged from vendors /consultants

– (Failure – Documents not received on time from vendors/consultants since their timeline of sending the documents did not match our requirements, but the team was still trying.)

2)???There was no clarity on some points to technical team since certain points were also new to them

(Failure – Technical team was not confident on their working and submission and also failed to consult in time with Experts)

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3)???There was no delegation of work to lower levels

?(Failure- Supervisors time was spent on solving routine issues and not able to concentrate fully on the preparation of documents).

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4)???There was a communication gap since the team never consulted with the boss or intimated him regarding problem areas that they were facing and that were beyond their control.

?(Failure: The Boss was not able to guide or help the team in solving problem areas as he was not aware of the problems that the team was facing)

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The last word that I heard from my Boss ("Try to also become proactive") reminded me to take action and finally compelled me to design steps on:

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"How to complete a particular proposal, project, or activity successfully in Time"

Based on what I understand

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Steps:?

1)???Study the objectives and requirements of any Proposal/Task/Project

2)???List down the steps required to complete the Proposal/Task/Project

3)???List down the sub-steps required to complete the main steps.

4)???Find out the independent and Interdependent steps - to find out the critical step or steps.

5)???Identify expected problem areas at each step and sub step and note down solutions to those problem areas. If you don’t know the solution, consult your seniors and experts.

6)???Calculate the total time required to complete the project and match it with the particular due date of Proposal/Project/Activity

a)???If the total time required is beyond the allotted time line -

?Ask more time from management.

b)???If a time extension is not possible -

i)?????Do reverse working and allocate available time effectively to each step. Try to reduce the time required at each step. Also consult with concerned experts, seniors, and colleagues on how to do particular time-consuming steps or sub-steps in less time.

ii) If still not possible, inform management immediately regarding the shortage of time.

7)???Examine total resource requirements including experts after taking into consideration each steps to complete the projects on Time.

i)???If more resources are needed than what have been allocated

- Ask Management for them

ii)???If allocating more resources is?not?possible?or resources are?limited?:

-?Review resource requirement and allocate available resources effectively to each step. Try to reduce requirements at each step. Also consult with concerned experts, seniors and colleagues on how to do certain steps with limited resources.

iii)????If still not possible – inform to the management immediately regarding shortage of resources

8)???Inform the team about the objective of the proposal, timeline and resources allocated to each activity before starting the project.

9)????Be ready with backup solutions if proposed solutions fail.

10)???Review progress report constantly to identify hidden gaps

After 3 months, the organization got another opportunity. This time we applied for a tender successfully, as my action plan was ready for every step.

Since then, I have always succeeded in completing any project, task, or activity by using the method (steps) described above.

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