U--VISN 12 Educational Products & Services

THIS IS A SOURCES SOUGHT ANNOUNCEMENT ONLY. This is not a solicitation for proposals, proposal abstracts, bids, or quotations. The purpose of this notice is to obtain information regarding the availability and capability of all qualified sources to perform a potential requirement. Responses to the information requested will assist the Government in determining the appropriate acquisition method. The Great Lakes Acquisition Center (GLAC) is soliciting businesses to provide a variety of leadership and personal development courses both in its programs and as stand-alone learning for employees at VISN 12, Great Lakes Acquisition Center, with locations in Illinois and Wisconsin. It is understood that all Contractors submitting a response to this Sources Sought will have an established business with three (3) years of consecutive experience in performing these types of services at healthcare facilities. The Contractor must also be licensed and authorized to perform services on all the

equipment listed. The Contractor shall furnish all courses and its necessary materials for unlimited access for 200 employees and up to 20 instructors. Included should be a menu or catalog of courses for a set price during a 12-month subscription period. VISN 12 desires that each student be assigned a slot that would allow them to take any of the catalog courses for a set-per person price. See attached statement of work. The following NAICS Code has been identified for this requirement: 611430 Professional and Management Development Training. Interested parties shall provide a brief overview of their firm s capabilities and past experience with projects similar in size and scope of this project. Capability statements shall also include: DUNS number Organization Name and Assumed Name/dba (if applicable) Organization Address Point of Contact (including name, title, addresses, telephone number, fax number and Email address) Business size (small business or other than small business) Socio-economic status (If SDVOSB or VOSB provide SDVOSB or VOSB CVE verification) Organization experience in performing these types of services Copies of applicable certifications and/or accreditations (All information shall be submitted in Word or PDF format, not to exceed 10 pages, including all attachments.) Firms shall identify whether they are a small business or other than small business in accordance with the size standard for NAICS code 61430. If another NAICS code may be applicable, please identify the NAICS in your capability statement along with your corresponding socio-economic status. All information must be received no later than Thursday, February 14, 2019 at 12PM (NOON) (CST). Email all information to Deborah Fassl, Contract Specialist at deborah.fassl@va.gov. The Government will evaluate market information to ascertain potential market capacity to provide services consistent in scope and scale with those described in this notice and otherwise anticipated. Telephone inquiries will not be accepted or returned. BASED ON THE RESPONSES TO THIS SOURCES SOUGHT NOTICE/MARKET RESEARCH, THIS REQUIREMENT MAY BE SET-ASIDE FOR SMALL BUSINESSES, SOLE SOURCED, OR PROCURED THROUGH FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION. Disclaimer and Important Notes: This notice does not obligate the Government to award a contract or otherwise pay for the information provided in response. The Government reserves the right to use information provided by respondents for any purpose deemed necessary and legally appropriate. Any organization responding to this notice should ensure that its response is complete and sufficiently detailed to allow the Government to determine the organization's qualifications to perform the work. Respondents are advised that the Government is under no Confidentiality: No proprietary, classified, confidential, or sensitive information should be included in your response. The Government reserves the right to use any non-proprietary technical information in any resultant solicitation(s). Interested parties may register at http://www.fedbizopps.gov to receive notification when the solicitation and any amendments are issued and available for downloading. Please note that the General Services Administration provides the notification service as a convenience and does not guarantee that notifications will be received by all persons on the mailing list. Therefore, we recommend that you monitor the FBO website for all information relevant to desired acquisitions. 2/7/19 10 Page 10 of 10 Statement of Work for Educational Products and Services Glossary: In this document the following terms are used interchangeably: Students and participants Facilitators and instructors. General Description of Need VISN 12 (V12) uses a variety of leadership and personal development courses in it programs and as stand-alone learning for employees. V12 requires products and services to teach a variety of courses to multiple VA staff in both in-person and virtual formats that are instructor-led and self-directed, on-demand. Rather than having to purchase each course and its necessary materials separately, V12 requires unlimited access for 200 employees and up to 20 instructors to a provide to a menu or catalog of courses for a set price during a 12-month subscription period. V12 desires that each student be assigned a slot that would allow them to take any of the catalog courses for a set-per person price. This is similar to having an unlimited access pass at an amusement park, the person can ride unlimited rides for on one ticket. The instructor-led courses will be taught by VA staff who need to be prepared and certified by the vendor as instructors. General Requirements Must be able to offer each enrolled student all the course content at one basic per student fee. For example, once a student is enrolled in the vendor s program, they must be able to use all the educational modalities in the program for one per student fee. Instructor-led courses will be taught by VA staff. Vendor must prepare instructors to teach courses and certify them to use the product. Certified instructors must have to option to purchase course materials as independent purchases after this 12-month subscription ends. Online, self-directed courses must be on-demand for 24 hours and 7 days a week during the contract period. The vendor must provide an online tracking and reporting system that provides reports on what online courses have been completed by each learner. V12 must have the ability to enroll students into the vendor s program directly to allow them access to material. Courses must be sorted by the competencies they teach so that instructors can determine which courses address which competencies. Vendor must provide suggested curricula of courses that can be taught together for students to learn a specific competency. For instance, a curriculum for a competency might include developmental assessments, on-demand online courses, instructor-led virtual courses, and instructor-led in-person courses that work together to teach a competency. This will allow instructors to use ready-made curriculum of different learning products without having to research what courses work together for a competency. Vendor must provide consulting services on how to use the educational products and technical support for problems that may arise for administrators, instructors, and students, at no additional cost. Courses must be based on adult learning principles, with heavy emphasis on student participation and active learning exercises. Course must include real-life examples to illustrate points. Videos must teach principles, give real-life examples of concepts at work, and demonstrate how to implement the skills. The vendor must allow the students and instructors to print their own handouts, workbooks, guides, and other materials required for the class. Vendor must provide an option to purchase discounted copies of ready-made handouts, workbooks, guides, and other materials required for the class when those are more feasible than printing our own. The vendor must provide a comprehensive instructor guide and lesson plans that explain how to teach the course, gives timings for durations, provides an instructor script, and offers pictures of the slides that follow along with what is being taught in the lesson plan. Videos for instructor-led courses should have at least 3 ways to access them: Embedded videos in course PowerPoint slides Online access to video files. One set of DVD s for instructors to share when the other methods are not feasible. Vendors are required to provide samples for review. Requirements for Course Modalities and Features On Demand, Online Courses These must be hosted on the vendor site and be online, asynchronous, and on demand for self-directed, independent learning by the student. Must include a wide-variety of courses for leadership and personal development with various durations, including a substantial number that are less than 30 minutes in duration and some that are less than 60 minutes in duration. This is required to promote micro-learning for busy students and will allow us to tie self-directed learning to instructor-led courses. Students must have unlimited access to these course during the contract period, at no additional cost. The vendor s system must provide reports on course completions. Student must have the ability to print job aids or handouts related to the concepts taught. Instructor-led, Virtual Courses (Web-based) Vendor must include all the materials, PowerPoint slides, handouts, workbooks, videos, polls, chat rooms, white boards, lesson plans, and any other instructional items required by the course on a pre-loaded virtual, online, instructor-led learning platform hosted on the vendor s web site. An example would be a pre-loaded class on Adobe Connect that the virtual instructor would use to teach the course to virtual students. Must include courses facilitation features that allow instructor to move from each section of the course seamlessly, with slides, videos, and interactive activities, etc. moving automatically with each section. Each virtual course must use good adult-learning principles, including interactive activities and exercises that keep the student engaged with the instructor during the course and reduce distractions and student multi-tasking on non-course tasks. For most class activities, the instructor must be able to determine who has submitted an activity during class so that they call on the student by name. Vendor must host the virtual classrooms and provide a web link that the student and instructor can use to access it. VA will provide phone numbers for the audio portion of the course. Must include versions that run from 2 8 hours in duration. In-person, Instructor-led Courses Vendor must provide all the materials, slides, handouts, workbooks, videos, polls, chat rooms, white boards, instructor guides, lesson plans, and any other instructional items required by the course to be taught in-person. Must include optional durations for courses with fully functioning lesson plans for each length. The greatest need is for 1-day versions. Each course must use good adult-learning principles, including interactive activities and exercises. Certification for Instructors (facilitators) Must provide on demand, asynchronous online certification for instructors on all the courses offered by vendor. Online certification should include videos examples of instructors teaching the course. Instructors must be able to teach all the courses offered by the vendor on which they are certified on an unlimited basis during the contract period, at no additional cost. Developmental Assessments Vendor must provide online, on demand, developmental assessments that allow student to assess how well they are applying the course concepts. These must be available to take before and after the courses to measure progress and allow instructors to use the results during class. Information Technology (IT) requirements Software must be hosted on a non-VA external site. Examples include but are not limited to: online courses, record-keeping, reports, instructor and student materials, videos, etc. Software cannot require use of social security numbers as an identifier. Must be compatible with VA firewall. Must be compatible: Internet Explorer 11.x or Chrome 71.x 64-bit version Flash Player 32 JAVA 8 Windows 7 enterprise version Windows 10 enterprise version Courses Required The vendor must have additional courses available, but at a minimum they need to have the following courses and corresponding content. Some of these courses are part of the curriculum for designated leadership, supervisory, and personal development programs, while others are offered as stand-alone learning. Must include the following courses and corresponding topics. Vendors that can provide a substantial number of additional leadership and personal development courses beyond these will be considered more favorable. Basics of Project Management Format required: 2-hour, instructor-led, virtual course (web-based) How to visualize, plan, implement, and close a project How to identify stakeholder needs and create a project vision statement. How to conduct a stakeholder interview including questions to pose. How to use a project agreement with a stakeholder to establish the project purpose, description, desired results, priority, and SMART goals (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-dimensioned). Steps to a planning phase including tools for creating timelines, task dependencies, durations, etc. How to prioritize performance factors of quality, time, and cost. How to use a tool to identify hot spots and risks to successful projects and measure both impact and probability of the risks. How to use a tool to plan effective project meetings. How to modify the project agreement for a change request. Steps for closing a project and how to use a tool for evaluating it. Building and Maintain Trust in Organizations Format required: 1-day, in-person, instructor-led. How to apply 4 cores of credibility: 1) integrity, 2) intent, 3) capabilities, and 4) results. How to assess and apply key behaviors of high-trust leaders under each of the 4 cores of credibility. The difference and need for distinct types of trust: self-trust, relationship trust, and organizational trust. Tools and exercises for identifying actions the learner needs to take for self-trust, relationship trust, and organizational trust. Coaching Work Teams Format required: 1-day, in-person, instructor-led. Understanding feedback vs coaching How to prepare for and use coaching steps of 1) clarify, 2) learn, 3), explore, and 4) commit. How to use the coaching skills of listening, acknowledging, and questioning. Understand key steps to listening and a listening continuum. How to use effective questioning for listening, including clarifying, open-ended, and insight questions. Providing instructive and positive feedback How to provide feedback and coaching in the digital age. How to conduct a voice finder interview to determine the person s need, talent, passion, and conscience. Practice key coaching skills, such as asking insightful questions, practicing active and mindful listening, and acknowledging existing resources to build areas of development. Tools to create an implementation plan for coaching. Crucial Leadership Roles Format required: 1-day, in-person, instructor-led. Understand chronic issues that lead to poor results: 1) low or no trust, no clear vision, inability to execute priorities, and underused potential. Understand how crucial roles of leadership (inspire trust, create vision, execute strategy, and coach potential) interact with the principal drivers for employee engagement (environment of trust, meaningful work, winning team, and valued member). How to use a tool to assess self on the crucial roles of leadership. Includes: identifying gaps, plans, barriers, resources needed to improve, what could I learn, who could coach me, and how can I gain the necessary experience? How to use a tool to assess self on potential to coach others. Includes identifying gaps, plans, barriers, resources needed to improve, what could I learn, who could coach me, and how can I gain the necessary experience? How to use tools to create an implementation plan to live out the crucial roles. Developing a Common Team Vision and Strategy Format required: 1-day, in-person, instructor-led. How to develop a team vision statement and strategy. How to practice a strategic narrative. Key components to a team vision that inspires. How to use tools to incorporate customers, context, bottom line, and capabilities into a team strategy. How to create an effective team strategic narrative that is clear, concise, compelling, and confident. How to develop an implementation plan for a team vision statement, strategy, and strategic narrative. How to use team collaboration methods, e.g. carousel brainstorming, anonymous group, and mix-pair share. Fundamental Model for Leadership Format required: 1-day, in-person, instructor-led. The importance of using a whole person paradigm for leading people: body, mind, heart, and spirit. The need to shift a leadership approach from an industrial age to a knowledge worker age. How to apply 4 imperatives of great leaders:Â 1) inspire trust, 2) clarify purpose, 3) align systems, and 4) unleash talent. How the relationship between character and competence overlap to create credibility and trust. Assess the participant s level of use of the behaviors of high-trust leaders. Understanding the effect of the continuum of employee engagement. How to use a clarify purpose tool to determine the team s purpose by defining the job to be done and creating a strategic link to what the organization has hired the unit to do. How to conduct 3 leadership conversations on voice, performance, and clearing the path. How to use win-win agreements for accountability. How to use the disciplines of execution: 1) focus on the wildly important, 2) act on lead measures, 3), keep a compelling scoreboard, and 4) create a cadence of accountability. Leading Effective Meetings: Format required: 1-day, in-person, instructor-led. Understand the standards to conduct high focus meetings. Steps for implementing the standards, including a tool for using them How to prepare, conduct, and follow-through for high focus meetings. How to use a tool to analyze if a meeting is justified, including calculating the cost. How to select meeting methods to achieve objectives and plan for equipment, supplies, locations, room set-up, duration, and other logistics. How to establish a code of conduct and handle unproductive behaviors. How to match meeting objectives to meeting methods, e.g. discussing, presenting, relaying, dialogue, prototyping, focus voting, problem-solving, etc. How to use those meeting methods. How to use a tool to time-activate follow-through after a meeting. Exercise to apply the practices learned by conducting a simulated meeting. Tips for teleconferencing. Making Effective Presentations Format required: 1-day, in-person, instructor-led. How to prepare and deliver high-quality presentations. How to define the purpose of your message. How to develop a strong introduction, key points, and conclusion. Tools for applying this knowledge in preparing a presentation. Exercises and practice for students to enhance their presentations and oral communication using a model focused on connecting with their message, themselves, and the needs of their audience. Types of attention getters. How to develop and present good visuals. How to provide virtual presentations. Elements of providing excellent delivery, e.g. appearance, eye contact, gestures, etc. How to manage presenter s stress and how to handle questions and group dynamics. Skills for Millennials at Work Format required: 1-day, in-person, instructor-led. Defining generations and typical characteristics. Understanding common motivation for each generation. Understanding strengths, weaknesses, and challenges for millennials working with other generations. How to apply workplace skills to overcome perceived weaknesses: Build relationships Ask for details Big picture When to focus Feedback Accountability Your value Seven Habit of Highly Effective People Formats required: 2-day, in-person, instructor-led. Virtual, instructor-led sessions in multiple 2-3 hours segments. Note: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is an essential model for the V12 Leadership Development Program that underpins other learning. Importance and characteristics of principles and paradigms. The role of character and personality. How the stages of maturity interact: dependence, independence, and interdependence. The principles and paradigms that are the foundation for 7 key habits: Be proactive Begin with the end in mind Put first things first Think win-win Seek first to understand then to be understood Synergize Sharpen the saw How to implement highly effective practices for living the 7 habits. How to view the 7 habits in a maturity continuum. How to use the see, do, get model for shifting paradigms. The stimulus-response model and reactive versus proactive behavior. Skills practice on using proactive language. The circle of concern and circle of influence model. The role of a transition person in helping others grow and develop. The role of mental and physical creation for beginning with the end in mind. Tools for developing a personal mission statement e.g. creating tribute statements for key roles, identifying long-term goals, assessing self-awareness of preferences, talents, joys, imagination, and conscience. How to apply a 4 quadrant, time matrix for determining highest priorities based on urgency and importance. How to apply the concept of an emotional bank account. The importance of key paradigms of human interaction: 1) win-lose, 2) lose-win, 3), lose-lose, 4) win, 5) win-win, and 6) win-win or no deal. How to balance courage and consideration in interactions. How to apply win-win in demanding situations and to use a tool for creating win-win agreements. How to avoid autobiographical listening and responses (probing, evaluating, advising, and interpreting). The importance of empathic listening and a script for using it. How seek to be understood. How to understand and be understood via email, phone and text. How to implement a path to synergy: be willing, seek first to understand, then be understood, clarify the end in mind, value differences, and explore alternatives. How to implement four dimensions of renewal: 1) body, 2) heart, 3) spirit, and 4) mind. As pre-course and post-course self-assessment of how the student is living the 7 habits. Successfully Executing Teams Strategies and Goals Format required: 1-day, in-person, instructor-led. How to move from a strategy approach to a system approach. How to align key elements for systems: people, structure, rewards, resources, decisions, and processes. How to use a tool to identify what is working and what needs to change for the key element for systems for my team. How to use the disciplines of execution in your team s current practices: 1) focus on the wildly important, 2) act on lead measures, 3), keep a compelling scoreboard, and 4) create a cadence of accountability. How leaders should implement their plan for improving systems. How to use team collaboration methods, e.g. carousel brainstorming, anonymous group, and mix-pair share. Writing for Effectiveness Formats required: 1-day, in-person, instructor-led. 2-hour, instructor-led, virtual course (web-based) How to write business communication using clear and concise language. Techniques for enticing busy readers to want to read your messages. Model and method for breaking messages into distinct blocks that allow busy readers to quickly understand what the sender wants them to know and do. Opportunities to apply learning to a real-time document that participants are working on in their live work settings. Treating skillful writing as good customer service. How to use quality writing standards. How to review and revise documents to be clear, concise, and correct. Understand common errors in spelling, grammar, and punctuation.