The benefits of tender wellness meetings
Chelsea Steele, Senior Tender Specialist (Brisbane)
Embedding regular wellness meetings into your already full workday on a tender may seem like an overkill, but I’m here to wave the flag. Speaking from personal experience, when the going inevitably tips over into the challenging stage, a weekly wellness meeting can feel like sipping an ice-filled fruity mocktail on a humid Brisbane day. Overlooking the river.
If you’re not familiar with tender wellness meetings these are a chance to look back on the week and share lessons learned with the bid team. Think of them like micro debriefs. The objective of the meeting is primarily to uncover things that have worked or are working well during the tender phase so the team can do more of those and share the information with other teams.
It’s also a chance to talk about what didn’t go well and open discussions on why. Check-in meetings like this will be more informal and conversational as they’re not task orientated, nor agenda driven. And their objective which is to share and reflect, also means they’re more fluid.
On a personal level for me, it’s an opportunity to regroup, seek reassurance, ask for advice, gain clarity and refocus on the tasks ahead. Looking at it from a wider bid team perspective, wellness meetings can have all sorts of benefits that contribute to fostering an authentic and positive atmosphere within the team, five of which I’ve included below.
A wellness check-in is an opportunity for collaboration, communication and alignment all within a sincere and uplifting team setting. These meetings offer respite from deadline- and results-driven tender meetings and can really boost team morale and improve productivity.
It helps team members get to know each other better and build stronger connections. Taking time to reflect and look more closely on lessons learned can be a bonding experience for a team and lay the foundation for building trust among team members.
Sharing a highlight from their week. This practice fosters positivity and allows team members to celebrate small wins together and share a sense of belonging. Having a sense of belonging on a team encourages a sense of unity and a shared purpose.
A regular wellness meeting helps to reduce stress and enhance wellbeing. As we know, the tendering world is fast-paced and pressurised so investing time into wellness meetings not only shows your team you care about their mental health it is directly beneficial to the psychological wellbeing of individuals within that team.
Recognising what is or isn’t working well can inform your current response and your future tender strategies. Having regular discussions on your bidding processes throughout the tender phase are super insightful to develop a clearer picture and understanding of what your best practices look like or may not look like.
Even when the pressure is on when working on a tender, your working style may default to getting swept up into what feels like a cyclone of deadlines, meetings and deliverables. Taking and investing the time to step back and step into wellness meetings have benefits that are two-fold. From a strategic mindset these will help you to identify along the way opportunities for process and performance improvement so you can incorporate lessons learned into your future tender practices. And from an holistic tender team mindset, adding regular wellness meetings to the team’s calendar will serve up the opportunity for them to feel more connected, de-stressed and motivated and enhancing the overall engagement and collaboration of your team. Win win.
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