RFP 47HAA023R0006 WHLDP SOW 2 Learning Structures_07 14 23.pdf

Office of the Government-wide Policy (OGP)

Office of Shared Services and Performance Improvement (OSSPI)

White House Leadership Development Program (WHLDP)

Statement of Work/Objectives: WHLDP Learning Structures

July 14, 2023

Background

OSSPI

The Office of Shared Solutions and Performance Improvement (OSSPI), residing in the Office of Government-wide Policy (OGP), leverages data, subject matter expertise and its authority to convene key stakeholder groups to improve the delivery of mission support services across the Federal Government. Specifically, but not limited to, the office:

● Partners with the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to shape, lead, and drive adoption of the President’s Management Agenda (PMA);

● Coordinates across the Federal community to define common business standards, establish governance structures, and facilitate access to modern IT solutions using a “buy-not-build” approach;

● Maintains and uses Government-wide benchmarking data, paired with leading performance practices and strategic engagements to help agency CXOs drive priorities and improve performance;

● Supports Federal CXO Council initiatives aimed at ensuring that mission-support services (Finance, HR, IT, Acquisition, etc.) are delivered efficiently and effectively across Government; and

● Convenes agencies via the CXO Councils to solve tough, cross-cutting problems.

OSSPI executes its mission in close collaboration with OMB, the Federal CXO Councils, and individual agency partners. The Office is engaged with these entities on multiple levels -- from the strategic (e.g., advising on the formulation of Government-wide policy, reviewing and analyzing Government-wide data sets, managing the Government’s shared services ecosystem) to the tactical (devising tools and templates to facilitate shared service migrations, offering performance improvement trainings and workshops, convening monthly meetings of the CXO Councils). Through all of its engagements, the OSSPI is seeking to transform the way Government does business internally, to drive agencies to share investments in people, business processes and technology; and to function more as one enterprise serving the American public.

White House Leadership Development Program (WHLDP)

The WHLDP, within OSSPI, aims to strengthen enterprise leadership across the government by providing senior-level federal employees with expanded perspectives and leadership capacities to address challenges facing the country. These increasingly complex challenges span agencies and jurisdictions, requiring senior leaders to work across agencies and organizational boundaries while leveraging networks to ensure the government continues to effectively deliver services to the American people.

Through the WHLDP, Federal leaders (GS-15 or equivalent) participate in a 1-year detail to the Executive Office of the President (EOP) where they work on the Federal government’s highest priority and highest impact challenges that require the coordination of multiple Federal agencies to succeed. The Fellows’ detail is augmented by a leadership development program to enable fellows to maximize their contributions to the EOP during their detail and beyond.

Program Facts

● Our stakeholder sponsor is the EOP/Office of Management and Budget.

● The WHLDP has been in place for 8 years.

● President Obama announced the WHLDP in 2014 - see the video posted on our

WHLDP LinkedIn page.

● Senior Career Federal Employees at the GS-15 or equivalent level apply to the program and go through a multi-stage vetting and interview process.

● The program is 1-year detail to the Executive Office of the President.

● The detail is augmented by a leadership development program.

● Number of Fellows per year: 12-20.

● WHLDP website with access to the Program Guide to learn more.

● Number of WHLDP alumni: 136 leaders, now in senior positions across government and beyond.

Vision: To serve our Nation by cultivating enterprise leadership, at the center of government, to improve lives everywhere.

Strategy: Customize and differentiate the program to the unique context of the center of government.

Strategy in Practice Customize the WHLDP by designing a program that is responsive to changing conditions, feedback loops, and the emergent needs of Fellows, White House supervisors, and home agencies.

Design Methods: Human-Centered Design and Action Learning

Over the last 8 years, we have implemented various designs of the WHLDP. Recently, we integrated the learning from those implementations efforts, along with recent feedback on emerging needs, to create the next evolution of WHLDP. Beginning October 2023, we will implement a new design or prototype (V. 3.0) of the WHLDP.

By using human-centered design and action learning approaches we will test out, iterate, and adjust the prototype based on continual feedback to ensure it is useful.

Table 1 outlines the timeline for testing, iterating, and adapting the prototype.

https://www.linkedin.com/company/whldp/ https://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/executive-office-of-the-president/ https://www.performance.gov/whldp/

Table 1. Timeline for testing, iterating,and adapting the WHLDP prototype.

Year Version Dates

1 3.0 Oct.2023-Sep. 2024

2 3.1 Oct.2024-Sep. 2025

3 3.2 Oct.2025-Sep. 2026

4 3.3 Oct.2026-Sep. 2027

5 3.4 Oct.2027-Sep. 2028

WHLDP Program - 3.0

The high-level design/framework of the WHLDP 3.0 is mostly complete and its implementation will begin in October 2023. The design consists of an orientation program, 11 monthly leadership labs, learning structures (including individual and small group coaching), and concludes with a celebratory graduation. Each lab introduces a key center of government policy skill needed at the EOP and the associated leadership development capacity that best enables the deployment of that policy skill in action. We have designed post learning support to enable Fellows to make meaning and integrate the learning.

Center of Government Policy Skills WHLDP 3.0 will be cultivating policy skills as outlined here: Brown, D., Kohli, J., & Mignotte, S. Tools at the Centre of Government: Research and Practitioners’ Insight.

Blavatnik School of Government. University of Oxford (July 2021). Depending on iterative feedback through the year-long cycle certain policy skills will be emphasized.

Leadership Development Capacities We will prioritize developing leadership capacities that enable the deployment of policy skills most useful at the center of government, as outlined in Table 1. Iterative https://www.bsg.ox.ac.uk/research/publications/tools-centre-government loops of feedback will help us understand what capacities to emphasize as the context changes.

Table 2. Leadership capacities (draft) cultivated in WHLDP 3.0 (Draft and subject to change).

Dimension Leadership Capacity

Self Self-awareness Integrity Wellbeing

Interpersonal Managing polarities Mitigating unconscious biases Influence

Systemic Systems thinking Thriving in complexity Experimentation

Roles

● The WHLDP Director and team will be holding the whole by ensuring that all of the elements are connected into a cohesive and integrated program.

● The vendors/partners for each of the SOWs will implement the work in coordination with the WHLDP Director and team.

● The leadership development and policy experts/partners will work closely with the WHLDP Director and team to customize their offering to the needs of the Fellows.

Project Scope: Learning Structures

An important aspect of leadership development is the learning support or structures that enable the authentic expansion of a leaders’ thinking, being, and feeling capacities. This expansion enables a leader to apprehend more of reality and therefore have more options available for skilful and wise action. This statement of work outlines three task areas intended to support the WHLDP Director in creating the learning scaffolding or structures to enable the expansion of WHLDP Fellows’ individual and collective leadership: (1) Leadership assessments, debriefs, tools, and other learning structures and (2) Leadership coaching - individual and small groups, and (3) Design, development, and facilitation support.

Please Note: Given that WHLDP 3.0 is a prototype that we expect to iterate and adapt, this SOW is not for a single assessment or tool. This SOW is for the capability to experiment and iterate with us AND make available, coordinate, and implement various assessments, tools, coaching approaches, and other learning structures in response to changing conditions, feedback loops, and emerging needs.

The Contractor shall furnish all of the necessary personnel, materials, services, facilities, (except as otherwise specified herein), and otherwise do all the things necessary for or incident to the performance of the work as set forth below:

Task Area 1: Leadership Assessments, debriefs, tools, and other learning structures.

Description: Assessments, debriefs, tools, and other learning structures can provide a leader with valuable learning support in expanding awareness and skilful action.

Inquiries we have are:

● What types of assessments and learning tools/learning structures are useful for WHLDP fellows, individually and as a cohort in their unique context - the Executive Office of the President (EOP)?

● How do we stay in tune with assessments, tools, and learning structure options, which change over time as a function of innovations in the field of vertical leadership development, adult development, and other relevant fields?

● How do we integrate assessments, tools, and other learning structures in a seamless way into the design of the leadership development program (LDP) for the benefit of the leadership development journey of Fellows?

This statement of work is not for a particular assessment, tool, or fixed type of learning structure. Rather, it is for the capability to go through an action learning cycle with the WHLDP Director to adapt the types of learning supports, such as assessments and tools, in a way that is most useful to the Fellows. The vendor is expected to go through the action learning cycles below with the WHLDP Director and team.

Action Learning Cycle 1:

● Reflect: Learn from program feedback provided by the WHLDP Director and team. Based on the feedback, make recommendations to the WHLDP Director for assessments, tools, learning approaches based on theoretical and practical rigor and relevance to the EOP context. WHLDP Director makes the final decision on the assessments and tools used for each action learning cycle.

● Plan: Plan the project management process to procure and implement the assessment or tool. Share and make updates to the plan based on WHLDP Director input.

● Action: Procure and implement the assessment, tool, or learning approach in coordination with the WHLDP Director and team

Action Learning Cycle 2:

● Reflect: Process feedback provided by the WHLDP Director and Fellows on the assessment, tool, or learning approach.

● Plan: Depending on the feedback, identify a new assessment, tool, or learning approach.

● Action: Procure or design and implement the assessment, tool, or learning approach in close coordination with the WHLDP Director.

Action Learning Cycle 3-5: Repeat Action Learning Cycle 2.

Capacities Needed:

● The willingness and capacity to engage in action learning - reflecting, planning, and acting together.

● To procure and implement leadership tools, assessments, and debriefs.

● To be open to feedback and make changes to the types of tools, assessments, and learning approaches used based on what is most useful to Fellows.

Deliverable:

● 21 assessments & debriefs/ tools total. One assessment & debrief/tool per Fellow and Program Staff (up to 21 people)

Please indicate in your response what assessment, tools, or learning approaches you propose in the first cycle to test out.

Timeline:

● Assessments must be procured, completed, and debriefed by the start of each cohort’s orientation (typically the first week of October each year). This enables us to integrate the tool or debrief in Orientation during the first week of October.

● Other tools/learning approaches can be tested and integrated throughout the year on a mutually agreed timeline that benefits the Fellow and their contributions to the EOP.

Place of Performance: Assessments and tools can be administered and debriefed remotely.

Task Area 2: Leadership Coaching (Individual and small group)

Description: Leadership coaching is a learning structure integrated into WHLDP 3.0 to enable Fellows and the WHLDP team to make sense of the complex reality they are faced with.

Program Staff are included in this task area as a client because we recognize that we cannot help others go where we have not been. As a team we must expand our own leadership capacity to innovate the WHLDP.

WHLDP 3.0 includes two types of coaching: Individual and small group coaching.

Individual coaching - Fellows and Program Staff

Individual coaching is for Fellows and Program Staff. Coaches are expected to be certified by the International Coaching Federation (ICF) and in the methodology relevant to the assessment tool being tested on a given cycle.

Coaching sessions can be done in-person or virtually.

Deliverable:

● 126 individual coaching sessions total. Six one-hour coaching sessions per Fellow and Program Staff (Up to 21 people). 6 x 21 = 126

Please include in your response the names and resumes of the proposed coaches.

Timeline: Coaches must reach out to Fellows and Program staff to begin scheduling coaching sessions by October 6, 2023.

Small Group Coaching - Fellows and Program Staff

WHLDP 3.0 also includes small group coaching for Fellows (approximately 5 people per group) and separately for Program Staff (Up to 5 per group) to enable the trust and safety of a small group to make meaning of and integrate the learning from the leadership labs each month (there are 11 labs).

To design the small group coaching topics and processes, the group of coaches facilitating the small group coaching sessions are required to participate in an action learning process with the WHLDP Director and team. Coaches are expected to be certified by the International Coaching Federation (ICF).

Small group coaching sessions can be done in-person or virtually.

Action Learning Cycle 1:

● Reflect: The WHLDP Director shares learning observations from the lab.

● Plan: The WHLDP Director and coaches plan how and what the small group coaching will focus on.

● Action: Small group coaches coordinate and implement the coaching session (1 small group coaching session per month after each Leadership Lab).

Action Learning Cycle 2:

● Reflect: Small group coaches share de-identified learning observations from the small group coaching to inform planning.

● Plan: The WHLDP Director and coaches plan how and what the small group coaching will focus on.

● Action: Small group coaches coordinate and implement the coaching session (1 small group coaching session per month after each Leadership Lab).

Action Learning Cycle 3-5: Repeat Action Learning Cycle 2.

Deliverables:

● 44 small group coaching sessions total. Eleven small group coaching sessions (1 per month, 11 total) x up to 4 groups (5 Fellows and separate group for Program Staff each) = 44

● 11 action learning meetings total. One Action Learning meeting between the coaches and the WHLDP Program Director as part of the action learning cycles outlined above (1 after each lab, 11 total).

Please include in your response the names and resumes of the proposed coaches.

Place of Performance: Individual coaching can be done remotely. Small group coaching once a month is preferred in person. Small group coaching can be done remotely, if the benefits of the overall proposal outweigh the in-person small group coaching engagement.

Task Area 3: Design, development, and facilitation support.

Description: This task refers to the collaborative and creative partnership with the WHLDP Director in supporting the design, development, and facilitation of the leadership development program as follows:

● Design: Provide input into the existing design of prototype 3.0 by bringing forth ideas from the field of vertical leadership development, adult development,and other relevant fields to strengthen the design of the program - 11 leadership labs, and the integrated learning support (individual and group coaching).

● Development: Develop or adapt existing materials such as 1-pagers, slides, and other learning materials to support the learning of each of the leadership development labs.

● Facilitation: Co-facilitate aspects of each of the leadership development labs.

● Iterative Feedback: Provide feedback and insights to strengthen the program.

Design and development can be done virtually. Facilitation support is in-person in Washington, DC.

Capacities Needed:

● Experience with the process of iterative co-design, co-development, and co-facilitation of leadership development programs in complex contexts.

● Experience facilitating and turning to what is arising in the room as a learning / teachable moment (Reference: Parks, S.D., Leadership Can Be Taught. A Bold Approach for a Complex World)

● Capacity to give and receive feedback.

● Knowledge of vertical leadership development and adult development theory.

● Experience with translating knowledge to action. Specifically, experience translating knowledge of vertical leadership development and adult development theory to the iterative design, development, and facilitation of leadership development programs for senior/executive leaders by bringing.

Deliverables:

Design and development support

● 15 instances of verbal and written feedback on the existing design of the 11 leadership labs with the intent to strengthen the design, development, and facilitation to meet program objectives. 11 labs + 4 other instances of learning = 15 learning distinct learning days.

● 15 instances of support with developing materials or adapting existing materials related to 4 other instances of learning and 11 leadership labs. 4 instances of learning + 11 labs = 15 learning distinct learning days.

In-person facilitation support

● 15 instances of in-person facilitation support during 4 instances of learning (4 days) and the 11 leadership labs (Please see timeline below for specific dates of in-person sessions in Washington, DC).

● 15 meetings total for at least 30 minutes after each leadership lab and 4 other instances of learning to make meaning of what occurred in the learning environment and make adaptations to subsequent design and implementation.

Timeline:

● Lab 1: 11/17/23

● Lab 2: 12/15/23

● Lab 3: 1/19/24

● Lab 4: 2/16/24

● Lab 5: 3/15/24

● Lab 6: 4/19/24

● Lab 7: 5/17/24

● Lab 8: 6/21/24

● Lab 9: 7/19/24

● Lap 10: 8/16/24

● Lab 11: 9/20/24

Place of Performance: Design and development work can be done remotely.

Facilitation support is in-person for the 11 leadership labs.

The SOW IS A MINIMUM. Every deliverable in the SOW is a minimum requirement.

The quoting contractor may propose to exceed any requirement.Place of Performance

The contractor’s performance may be required at the Government site located at GSA Headquarters, 1800 F Street, NW, Washington, DC 20405-0001. This will be on an as needed basis. When onsite performance is not necessary, performance may occur at the contractor’s location, or an alternate telework location. Please refer to each task area for details on place of performance.

Period of Performance

The performance period for this contract will be one (1) twelve (12) month option year and four (4) twelve (12) month option years.

Points of Contact

GOVERNMENT POINTS OF CONTACT - TASK ORDER SPECIFIC

GSA OGP Contracting Officer for Task Order: Bonnie Impastato GSA OGP Contracting Officer Representative (COR) for Task Order: David Morgan GSA OGP Project Manager (PM) for Task Order: Anyana Banerjee

Thank you for your interest in partnering with us, and if you choose to submit a proposal, we look forward to reviewing it. APPENDIX