Attachment_A_SOW_10.18.16.pdf

UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY

Attachment A - Statement of Work

RFQ – SFSIAQ17Q4001

Political Training

F o r e i g n S e r v i c e I n s t i t u t e

STATEMENT OF WORK

For the

School of Professional and Area Studies (SPAS)

Political Training Division (POL)

Psychology of Interpersonal Persuasion Training Course

1.0 Introduction

The Foreign Service Institute (FSI) at the U.S. Department of State requires expert services, to deliver its course titled Psychology of Persuasion (PP529) up to two times per calendar year.

Course content provides mid-level to rising senior-level (FS-01 and 02; GS-14 and 15) foreign affairs practitioners – both Foreign and Civil Service –with the ability to assess unstated preferences, inclinations, and points of view and to use such insights to advocate, persuade, and convince other individuals. Psychology of Persuasion is not a negotiations or conflict management course, but rather a course focused on diagnosing the unstated cues of human behavior and interpreting body language and other non-verbal communication. The course is designed to provide knowledge, skills, and attitudes (KSAs) that may be used across cultures, but the focus of the course is not on specific cross-cultural behavior.

2.0 Background

FSI is the training bureau of the U.S. Department of State and is the federal government's primary training institution for Department personnel and other U.S. Government foreign affairs professionals. The mission of FSI is to develop the men and women our nation requires to fulfill our leadership role in world affairs and to advance and defend U.S. interests. At the George P.

Shultz National Foreign Affairs Training Center located in Arlington, VA, other locations in the

Washington metropolitan area, and at domestic and overseas regional training centers, FSI offers more than 700 classroom courses, including some 70 foreign languages, about 270 custom-developed distance learning products, and about 2,700 commercial distance learning courses available worldwide 24/7 through the Internet. Annual enrollments exceed 100,000 students.

3.0 General Scope

Psychology of Persuasion is intended to provide foreign affairs professionals with a framework for discerning points of view and detecting non-verbal reactions and behavior with the end goal of advocating, influencing, and convincing. FSI has designed and developed an experiential and blended learning course that emphasizes: 1) reading a situation, including non-verbal behavior;

2) determining the appropriate persuasion techniques to employ; and 3) applying those techniques to advocate, influence, and convince and is seeking a contractor to deliver this course.

The focus of Psychology of Persuasion is the introduction and application of techniques to advocate, influence, and convince individuals on an inter-personal level. The course will use a pre-established classroom design, but participants also will complete assigned readings, watch assigned videos, and interact with fellow participants in advance of the classroom or external sessions. In the classroom, experiential learning methodologies shall be used. Course participants will be invited to participate in an ongoing continuous learning environment that offers an array of resources relevant to the topics discussed and relies in large part on participant interaction.

FSI requires a subject matter expert or experts to deliver FSI’s Psychology of Persuasion course.

Successful delivery of the course will be assessed if, at the conclusion of the course, participants are able to:

Practice a range of interpersonal persuasion techniques.

Discern verbal and nonverbal messages to determine others’ level of agreement and/or genuineness.

Utilize own nonverbal communications to lead, mirror or contradict others.

Apply appropriate persuasion techniques to advocate, influence, and convince.

These course learning objectives are grounded in the following knowledge, skills and attitudes that the FSI course curriculum teaches:

Knowledge

1. Psychology and Decision-making

a. Unconscious drivers of choice

b. Internal reactions to external factors

c. False consensus bias

2. Non-verbal Language

a. Unintended/involuntary cues of intention and preference

b. Universal and individualized indicators

3. Persuasion Methodologies

a. Range of alternative techniques and approaches in the persuasion process

Skills

1. Ability to detect unconscious drivers of preference and choice

2. Capacity to read non-verbal cues

3. Ability to employ appropriate advocacy technique to achieve identified goals

4. Ability to be self-aware and confident

Attitudes

1. Creative: employ multiple approaches to achieve outcome

2. Flexible/Adaptive: reframe approach to various circumstances

3. Driven: focus toward objectives/desired outcomes

3.1 Performance Requirements

3.1.1 Period of Performance

The period of performance will be five (5) years.

3.1.2 Place of Performance

The primary place of performance will be at the U.S. Foreign Service Institute in

Arlington, VA.

3.2 Personnel Qualifications

Key personnel shall have the following qualifications:

A doctorate in psychology, behavioral science, or other academic field directly related to the psychology of persuasion and at least ten years working in this field.

Demonstrated expertise in developing and delivering adult education programs – particularly those experiential in nature.

Proven ability to deliver classroom training materials that include, but are not limited to, instructor lesson plans and classroom guides, media-rich presentations, handouts and other takeaways for learners, and other supporting materials as necessary.

Demonstrated expertise in the use of continuous learning.

Demonstrated expertise, experience, and ability to incorporate the following into an experiential classroom:

o psychological drivers and behavior as they pertain to persuasive interactions;

o the behavioral science of persuasion; and o interpersonal communication techniques used to influence outcomes.

Evidence of successful collaboration with diverse stakeholders in the foreign affairs and/or government environment in mentoring and/or design and development of training programs.

The contractor will utilize key person or persons identified in its proposal submitted to the government. No substitution shall be made without prior notification to and concurrence of the Contracting Officer through a BPA modification. All proposed substitutes shall meet or exceed the qualifications of the person to be replaced. The

Contracting Officer shall be notified in writing of any proposed substitution at least forty-five days in advance of the proposed substitution. Such notification shall include:

(1) an explanation of the circumstances necessitating the substitution;

(2) a complete resume of the proposed substitute; and

(3) any other information requested by the Contracting Officer to enable the government to judge whether or not the contractor is maintaining the same high quality of personnel that provided the partial basis for award.

3.3 Security Clearance Requirements

None.

3.4 Contractor Description of Services

3.4.1 Overview: The contractor will provide services to deliver a five-day course at FSI in Arlington using the pre-established design and other materials prepared for the

Psychology of Persuasion course.

3.4.2 Classroom Instruction: The approach for course delivery includes a continuous learning element that will require engagement with the learner before, during, and after the five-day classroom training program. The contractor will:

Review participants pre-course assignment, consisting of electronically submitted reflective writing assignments and comments posted to the course e-learning platform

(e-homeroom).

Deliver the five-day classroom-based course, eight hours per day during normal FSI class hours for a class size of between 15-20 students.

Participate virtually in a 90-minute Adobe Connect post-course session 4-6 weeks after completion of the classroom-based course.

3.4.3 Course Structure: The contractor will deliver the course according to the established design working collaboratively with the FSI SMEs; this may include co-facilitation of certain sessions with diplomats of FSI’s choosing. The contractor is to provide an innovative, dynamic approach to pre- and post-course activities. These activities are as follows:

3.4.3.1 Pre-work: Two to three weeks in advance of the course, the contractor will begin to engage with participants through pre-course assignments, including readings, videos, and reflective writing assignments covering topics related to content.

3.4.3.2 Course delivery: The contractor will deliver a course lasting five classroom days (eight hours each day, including time for independent work – including but not limited to reading and reviewing videos) using one or more facilitators, one of whom shall hold a doctorate in psychology, behavioral science, or other academic field directly related to the psychology of persuasion and at least ten years working in this field.

3.4.3.3 Post-course: Approximately four to six weeks after the classroom course concludes, the contractor will reengage participants by participating in a live-virtual 90 minute class session via Adobe Connect (facilitated by FSI) during which time the contractor will review: participants’ execution of a post-course persuasive activity (to which participants commit during the classroom session) and participants’ reflective self-assessments posted to the e-homeroom online platform.

4.0 Deliverables and Milestones

The contractor must prepare and deliver all deliverables/reports by the dates specified in

Table 1, Delivery Schedule listed on the following page. The government reserves the right to modify the deliverable requirements during the performance of the order.

Table 1: Delivery Schedule

Deliverables Delivery Schedule

3.4.3.1 Due four weeks prior to

course delivery.

3.4.3.2

FSI will coordinate with contractor to determine dates upon award.

3.4.3.3 Six weeks after course

delivery.

5.0 Quality Assurance

Performance Metrics:

Delivery of Psychology of Persuasion (PP529)

All BPA Calls issued from this BPA Setup will be closely monitored by the Contracting

Officer’s Representative (COR) and/or Government Technical Monitor (GTM) throughout the

BPA Setup base/option year and will be reported upon at a minimum one time annually at the conclusion of each base/option year period. This evaluation will be considered in determining if an option year will be exercised.

Listed below are the performance metrics by which the contractor will be evaluated in addition to the contractor’s adherence to SOW requirements.

The contractor must be considered successful in fulfilling the BPA Setup requirements in order to continue to be considered for future opportunities. To be considered successful the contractor will score a minimum of four (4) in all categories listed below. The contractor will be evaluated using a scale (Poor 1- Superior 5).

5 - Superior:

Contractor routinely demonstrates outstanding understanding of SOW requirements for the awarded course segments and significantly exceeds performance standards. Contractor has exceptional strengths that significantly benefit the Government.

4 - Excellent:

Contractor demonstrates excellent understanding of SOW requirements for the awarded course segments and exceeds performance standards. Contractor has one or more strengths that significantly benefit the Government.

3 - Acceptable:

Contractor demonstrates acceptable understanding of SOW requirements for the awarded course segments and has an approach that meets performance standards. Contractor is an acceptable solution and has few or no strengths that provide significant or exceptional benefit to the

Government.

2 - Fair:

Contractor routinely demonstrates shallow understanding of SOW requirements for the awarded course segments and approach.

1 - Poor:

Contractor routinely fails to demonstrate understanding of SOW requirements and approach.

Quality:

The contractor must adhere to the requirements outlined in the SOW and facilitate a high-quality, coherent, appropriate adult educational program, specific to the course design the contractor is awarded to deliver. Multiple measurements will be used to formulate a rating between 1-5 including student feedback, review of teaching materials and delivery by course chair(s), and observations by both the Political Training Division leadership and the COR/GTM.

Timeliness of Performance:

The contractor must adhere to the deadlines specified by the COR/GTM with regard to providing training materials, delivering training, and/or participating in debriefs with the course chair as outlined in the Task Order. The rating from 1 to 5 will be formulated by the COR/GTM based on his/her observation and input from the Political Training Division leadership.

Business Relations/Customer Satisfaction:

The contractor must provide effective customer service to the internal FSI clients of this BPA

Setup – COR/GTM, and Political Training Division staff and students – per contractor duties in the SOW. The COR/GTM will use individual expertise and general observance of interactions and customer service with FSI staff, and students. A rating from 1 to 5 will be tabulated for this evaluation based on student feedback, FSI staff feedback, and COR/GTM observations. The

COR/GTM’s observations will include timeliness of responses to inquiries and requests within the scope of the contract and delivery of training.

6.0 Government Furnished Equipment (GFE)/Government Furnished Information

(GFI)

None.

7.0 Contractor Travel

All contractor travel costs shall be incorporated into the contractor’s daily rate.

8.0 Other Pertinent Information or Special Considerations

8.1 Roles and Responsibilities

Listed in Table 2 on the following page are the primary roles and responsibilities for the personnel who will be supporting contractual requirements, both from the government and the contractor’s perspective.

Table 2: Roles and Responsibilities Chart

Role Responsibility Contracting Officer (CO) A Contracting Officer is an individual who has the authority to enter into, administer, or terminate contracts and make related acquisition determinations and findings. As a warranted government professional, the CO is the only person who can make awards and changes/modifications to the contract, and legally bind the government.

Contracting Officer Representative (COR) This individual is assigned as the liaison to the CO for the contract. The COR performs day-to-day management of the program, ensuring that performance is done in conformance with the schedule and quality requirements within the scope of the contract. The COR’s responsibility is limited to technical direction, acceptance of deliverables, surveillance, monitoring, and recommending proposed changes in scope or provisions to the contract to the CO.

Project Lead (PL) This individual interfaces with the government

COR. The PL’s primary job is to ensure that contractor personnel provide quality and timely performance within the scope of the contract. The

PL will have responsibility for ensuring that all contractor personnel issues are addressed in a timely fashion to ensure minimal operational disruptions to the contract.

8.2 FSI will provide the following:

8.2.1 FSI will work in conjunction with the contractor by providing internal Subject

Matter

Experts (SMEs) to consult with contractor in preparation for course delivery.

8.2.2 FSI will maintain final approval of course content and materials.

8.2.3 FSI will provide the classroom facilities.

8.2.4 FSI will provide access to instructor computer and Internet in accordance with

Department and Diplomatic Security regulations.

8.2.5 FSI will provide technology support for in-classroom AV technology (tablet computers, DVD players, screens, projectors, and computers).

8.2.6 FSI will administer all continuous learning elements included in the course design.

8.3 The contractor shall not perform the following duties related to this work:

Evaluation Design and Development - FSI will design, develop, and implement

Kirkpatrick evaluations. No vendor action is required.

Course participant selection – FSI will manage selection process for course participants.

Delivery of pre-course and continuous learning assignments.

Development and administration of digital platforms in support of the course (e-

Homeroom and Adobe Connect).

8.4 Methodologies:

Psychology of Persuasion is designed as a classroom course with continuous learning elements in which participants develop new knowledge, skills, and attitudes through independent or group activities that occur in advance of and after the instructor-led classroom session. The utilization of concluding follow-up activities furthers the learning process, allowing for reinforcement, application, and supporting increased retention of new knowledge and skills. Finally, the continuous learning environment serves as a resource to participants in their professional assignments.

8.5 Materials:

The contractor will deliver the course using course materials already developed and belonging to FSI to meet the course learning objectives. These include:

Course design for pre-work, delivery, and concluding follow-on virtual session.

Design specifications for continuous learning elements that will include:

Instructional purpose for each continuous learning element;

Course content.

Course materials and/or resources to be provided to the audience.

Instructor Guide with delivery timetable and rubric to assess participants’ performance in experiential learning activities.