Passing the baton

Working on any major report or bid can be daunting, no matter how experienced you might be. ‘Passing the baton’ is a way of breaking this process down with colleagues and co-workers so that the final work is co-owned and co-produced, and the tasks are shared.

How?

1.?????Planning stage: agree who is going to contribute, their role, the knowledge they will bring to the bid, eg audience development, finance and fund-raising, operational management. Discuss what the bid requires in information or advance planning.

2.?????Gather the documentation or reference materials likely to help with the bid – sections like your vision or broad goals can often be repurposed.

3.?????Agree who is going to start the outline and filling in the body of different sections and when it will be passed to the next person in the relay team – then get started!

The idea is that each person runs through the bid and adds, edits, comments or writes relevant sections, so the bid is layered up and edited/improved live.

I’ve worked in this way with one, two or three other people – like a relay team, it’s probably best to limit it to four people. We’ve produced data dives, overarching evaluation reports, designed evaluation frameworks and supported major funding bids with this technique. Why not try it out?