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Blog Comments posted by Matthew Fleharty
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Don,
Not sure if you're a subscriber or can access the article in some other fashion (if not, message me and I'll get you a copy), but the newest issue of Harvard Business Review has an article I think you'll find interesting in light of this post titled Why Leadership Training Fails - and What to Do About It by Michael Beer, Magnus Finnstrom, and Derek Schrader (https://hbr.org/2016/10/why-leadership-training-fails-and-what-to-do-about-it).
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22 minutes ago, Vern Edwards said:
Matthew:
This was posted to Wifcon sometime today:
That's what "contracting" has come to. I'm sticking to my horror novel.
I wonder, could you kill two birds with one stone...the contracting textbook might also be the horror novel (after all, I do recall you mentioning FAR Part 15 was written by Satan...)?
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On 8/22/2016 at 5:18 AM, Vern Edwards said:
Perhaps the solution is for the government to fund some colleges to develop courses in government contracting and make them available online and to commission textbooks.
I couldn't agree more - one of my first (and still frequent) questions when I entered this career field was for books that I could read to learn about contracting and how to do it well. I was given the answer that most Government contracting professionals were likely given - "read the FAR;" however, the FAR is not very instructional, it's mainly just prescriptive/regulatory so reading it to learn "how to do X" is not terribly beneficial. Therefore, I think having a well-written textbook or two would go a long ways towards improving the way we can educate this workforce.
Vern, would you be interested in writing a contracting text instead of that horror novel I saw you mention?
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I need to think about your topic some more in regards to the training construct, but one thing I can say clearly and definitively - whatever portion of the DoD's DAU/training budget it takes would be better spent on providing the acquisition workforce access to quality publications/resources for continuous education (e.g. The Cibinic & Nash Report, Briefing Papers, etc.)
Acquisition Reform ― It’s Soylent Green!
in Emptor Cautus' Blog
A blog by Emptor Cautus in General
Posted
As someone who has provided inputs, particularly on the topic of simplifying and streamlining acquisitions, I was eager to read the panel's interim report; however, I was disappointed with the result. Let's take, for example, the focus on clauses for Simplified Acquisition - I think the panel walked right into a distraction from more impactful issues and then focused on the lowest hanging fruits ($1 Coins and Texting While Driving clauses...). Here are some brief thoughts in response and some that I've already provided through other means:
One final thought about the call to action - if we're serious about seeing change in the acquisition world, let's be bold - one recommendation for Simplified Acquisitions would be to (a) increase the SAT and/or (b) tie the synopsis and publicizing of contract actions requirements in FAR Part 5 to the SAT. I know those recommendations have been provided to the panel - maybe there is just so much input that they haven't had the opportunity to consider them yet, but I believe that time spent on substantive issues like those would be much more beneficial than discussions of $1 Coins and Texting While Driving.