SOURCES SOUGHT
R -- Sources Sought notice only. No solicitation is available at this time.
- Notice Date
- 7/30/2008
- Notice Type
- Sources Sought
- NAICS
- 541690
— Other Scientific and Technical Consulting Services
- Contracting Office
- Department of the Army, Army Contracting Agency, North Region, ACA, Fort Leavenworth, ACA, NRCC, Fort Leavenworth, 600 Thomas Avenue, Unit 3, Fort Leavenworth, KS 66027-1417
- ZIP Code
- 66027-1417
- Solicitation Number
- W91QF4-08-R-0019
- Response Due
- 8/7/2008
- Archive Date
- 10/6/2008
- Point of Contact
- David Westall, 913-684-1635
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- This is not a Presolicitation or Solicitation announcement. This is a sources sought notice only. The purpose of this sources sought notice is to gain market knowledge of potential small business sources and their size classifications; HUBZone, 8(a), Small Disadvantage Business, Woman Owned Business, Veteran Owned Business, Service Disabled Veteran Owned Business relative to NAICS Code 541690, Other Scientific and Technical Consulting Services, with a small business size standard not to exceed $6,500,000.00 gross annual receipts. In the event that a solicitation is issued on or after 18 August 2008 the size standard will change to $7,000,000.00. Responses to this sources sought synopsis will be used by the Government to make appropriate determinations about potential sources only. No solicitation is currently available at this time. After review of the responses to this sources sought announcement a synopsis and/or solicitation announcement may be published at a later time. Responses to this notice shall include company name, address, point of contact, size of business pursuant to North American Industrial Classification Code (NAICS) and must respond to the following questions: 1) Is your business a small business under NAICS code 541690? 2) Does your firm qualify as a small disadvantaged business? 3) If disadvantaged specify if your firm is certified under Section 8(a) of the Small Business Act? 4) Are you a certified HUBZone firm? 5) Are you a woman-owned or operated business? 6) Are you a certified Service-Disabled Veteran Owned or Veteran Owned business? This Sources Sought Notice does not pertain to Competitive Outsourcing under A-76. This is not request for proposal and in no way obligates the Government to award any contract. No solicitation is currently available at this time. Please provide responses to this notice to: david.westall@conus.army.mil Telephone responses will not be accepted. Please provide responses in writing no later than 7 August 2008. Responses to this sources sought announcement will not be considered as a response to any solicitation, a request to be added to a prospective offerors list, or to receive a copy of any solicitation. Please provide a capability statement addressing your organizations ability to perform as a prime contractor the work described in the draft PWS below: Tools for Demonstrating Leadership Actions and Training Support Task 1. Develop, produce and deliver a library of leadership exemplars Leadership is a multi-dimensional construct that is often hard to articulate precisely. Good leadership is paramount for successful operations in the armed forces. Young and old leaders alike need to develop and sustain the skills to lead small and large forces in the uncertain, changing situations of todays complex security environment. Leadership is defined by the Army as a process of influence. As a process, behaviors are central to the concept of leadership, but character, other attributes and experience contribute to leadership outcomes as well. This combination of attributes, behavior and experience is best understood in context of specific situations. One way to convey what leadership should look like is to portray a leaders actions, his personal attributes and experience in the context of a situation. Together these elements can be combined into an exemplar that can be produced for successful leader situations. The task is to create a library of exemplars which convey the lessons of Army leadership as outlined in the components and actions described in Appendix A of FM 6-22 Army Leadership. For inclusion into the library, the stories must meet the basic criteria of a good story. These criteria will be developed by the contractor based on a review of the storytelling and behavioral science literature. Requirements of the exemplars and stories. The stories will be a diverse group of varying medium (i.e, written, graphical pictures, video, film). The intent is for the stories to be concise and clear examples of the varying components of the 56 leadership doctrinal competencies. The most effective stories will be those in which the evaluation of the moral or lesson is the least explicit, and still would be reliably interpreted. Complete coverage of every component of leadership doctrine is required. Some stories may cover more than one component, at least three exemplars for each component should be created. The contractor will create three to four intriguing questions that would generate good discussion about the story. The questions should tie the story to Army leadership doctrine and elicit reflection and discussion from the users. Additionally, the contractor will develop, conduct and analysis of and report on an empirical evaluation of the leadership exemplars. The empirical evaluation shall support the assessment of how readily the teaching points are understood; whether the teaching points can be recalled; whether particular teaching points are particularly salient. If exemplars do not appear to reliably convey the teaching points, they must be refined or replaced. Task 2. Combat Training Center Leadership Feedback Tools. The mission of the Army Combat Training Center (CTC) Program is to provide realistic and stressful Joint and combined arms collective training for Soldiers, leaders, staffs, and units according to Army and Joint doctrine. A major purpose behind the start of the CTC is to provide a realistic, challenging environment to train leaders. Army leaders rate the training value and experience of a CTC training rotation very highly, and they have done this on a consistent basis since at least 2000 when the Army Training and Leader Development Panel started to measure and record reactions to the set of Army leader development practices. When asked about the development of leadership abilities during a CTC rotation, the ratings are not as universally high. When asked how effective were your CTC experiences for improving your leadership skills, 30% of the active component responses of those who had been to a CTC rotation were either neutral (21%) or ineffective (9%). In the 1980s a tool was provided to NTC observer/controllers, called the Shaler card, that provided a framework for observing and recording leadership behaviors of key leaders in a unit rotation. The task shall determine the extent of current usage of the Shaler card or similar leadership observation tool. The contractor shall determine the extent that leadership observation is done in the NTC, JRTC and BCTP programs; gather evidence by examining training materials for observer controller/training and analyze the variety of ways that leadership has been and is currently trained and observed during a rotation to identify the opportunities and constraints of the CTC training program in which to integrate tools for leadership feedback. The contractor shall develop observation techniques for O/C/Ts to use to collect information on key leaders and their actions and to prepare and present individual feedback to each observed leader. The contractor shall take the prototype tools and conduct simulated experiments (similar to gedankenexperiment) to identify strengths and needed changes before transition to actual use by CTC O/C/Ts. A second round of testing of the tools shall be performed, obtaining feedback from CTC O/C/Ts and trained leaders. Task 3. Leadership Influence Behaviors and Guidelines. Influence is a central concept to the Armys definition of leadership. FM 6-22 identifies 10 techniques for conveying influence. Influence is the basic skill required in providing Soldiers direction and motivation, in negotiations with multinational parties, in interactions with joint interagency, intergovernmental and multinational (JIIM) players, and across organizations to secure support for the leaders unit. These doctrinal techniques are based on Yukls research related to commitment, compliance and resistance. Other theoretical and practical models of influence exist. French and Raven (1959) outline a model of interpersonal power that guided future empirical work in the area of influence. Raven (1992) develop the power/interaction model of interpersonal influence that shows the relation between power and influence (power is potential influence, influence is kinetic power). Kipnis (1976) extended the study of influence by incorporating consideration of setting when studying uses and types of influence. Carlson, Carlson and Wadsworth (2000) outlined several individual, group and task characteristics that may be related to the outcome of an influence attempt. Tactics used in organizational influence attempts have been categorized by Kipnis, Schmidt, and Wilkinson (1980) and refined by Yukl and Falbe (1990). Cialdini focused his influence model on methods that gain compliance. Knowles & Linn (2004) extend the literature on influence by investigating methods of influence that deal more directly with recognizing and understanding resistance. The contractor shall review the relevant literature to create a unifying theory of job influence. The contractor shall collect and analyze data on leader influence techniques that are used in their jobs. The contractor shall develop a concise handbook on issues and techniques involved in leader influence. Influence shall be treated as the basic function, with negotiation, conflict resolution, partnering, alliance-building, etc. as special cases of influence. Potential antecedents to the use of influence, factors (e.g, report and trust) that support the gaining of influence, should be considered in the handbook. Moderating conditions (such as power relationships, cultural differences, legitimate authority, character, scope, perceived expertise, and time horizon) will be addressed in the theory and in the guidelines provided in the handbook. The contractor shall give special consideration to how an Army leader determines how other parties are trying to influence him and how he should respond. The contractor shall perform an in-depth review of influence theories and develop a hybrid theory to guide data collection and training materials provided in a Handbook format. Plans for data collection shall be constructed to determine natural influence behaviors of Army leaders in multiple situations. A learning approach shall be developed from the theoretical and empirical research. The learning approach will be turned into practical guidelines for Army leaders to learn how to influence in a wide variety of situations. The guidelines should be consistent with a leader as a rational decision maker who weighs various costs and benefits of the different influence strategies before invoking one of them to influence the recipient. Guidelines should also encourage a consideration of possible consequences of an influence attempt. This is not request for proposal and in no way obligates the Government to award any contract. No solicitation is currently available at this time.
- Web Link
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- Place of Performance
- Address: ACA, NRCC, Fort Leavenworth 600 Thomas Avenue, Unit 3 Fort Leavenworth KS
- Zip Code: 66027-1417
- Zip Code: 66027-1417
- Record
- SN01626871-W 20080801/080730222130-8d365efbbd6403869e4bd496e18dd60a (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
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