Tag Archives: Teaming

My partner and I are quite excited about the progress we have made with our Biomedical Informatics Think Tank (BITT[TM]). We are in a teaming agreement on an CIO-SP3 Unrestricted team and also a CIO-SP3 SB (Restricted) team. In actuality, this is the easy part. Turning awards into real task orders for the BITT will be much more challenging. More likely for us is that an effort to develop specific opportunities with our contacts in government.

We’re talking with potential partners who would assist us in developing opportunities if we have the relationships. We’re putting BITT participants on advisory boards where they can gain insight into problems we could be pursuing. We’re building awareness of BITT in the government by networking and meeting with our government contacts, and doing little things, like having questions and making comments at every event we attend which we can precede with “I’m _____ building a Biomedical Informatics Think Tank”. You can imagine what type of seeds this statement might create, especially when they hear about BITT again and again over the next year. We also have activity on Twitter and LinkedIn, to increase our visibility. Furthermore, I’ve changed my business cards with the tag “managing think tanks in health, biomedical and Pharma IT.”

We’re also planning our first all hands teleconference. To plan this, I first had a phone call with two of the participants who seem most interested in helping with the governance and organization of BITT. As a result of this conversation, I have a “straw man” agenda and we’ve schedule a teleconference with four of my closest associates to help finalize the agenda. Scheduling this meeting has not been easy. The “straw man” agenda includes three components:

1. A general discussion about what participants think that they will get from their efforts personally, and as a group. This information would be useful for an eventual proposal about the vision and mission of BITT.
2. A discussion about the type of work that BITT participants want, as well as the size and timeframes of projects that BITT might be able to deliver, considering the availability of participants and their interest in participating in BITT. How should we structure a proposal? What’s in it for us personally? And as a group?
3. Finally, brainstorm among alternative problem contexts of specific projects that BITT could be pursuing, hoping that contacts could also be identified who we would be pursuing with the help of our partners.

Watch for my Consultant’s Column in the HIMSS National Capital Area Newsletter. I’m also expecting to write something soon about project management methodologies using Sharepoint as the basis for a PMIS.