Agency MN State Retirement System

Contractor Key Performance Consulting

SWIFT Contract Number Not available

Project Name How to Talk to a Porcupine workshop

Project Number (if applicable) {Empty}

Summarize purpose of the contract, including why it was necessary: To help communicators defuse potentially disastrous conversations. This workshop will introduce techniques to help staff change the way people react to them in difficult situations.

Project Duration

Start Date Tue, 03/14/2017 - 00:00

Original end date Thu, 03/16/2017 - 00:00

Actual end date Thu, 03/16/2017 - 00:00

Did project finish on time? Yes

Total billable hours utilized (if applicable) {Empty}

Contract Amounts

Original contract: $5000.00

Amendments $0.00

Contract total $5000.00

Did project finish within budget? Yes

What was the funding source? Not available

Is this a sole source contract? No

If this was a single source contract, explain why the agency determined there was only a single source for the services (if applicable) {Empty}

Evaluator Name Daniel McLean

Evaluator Email Address daniel.mclean@msrs.us

Evaluate the contractor's timeliness The instructor also ran out of time at the end of the four hour presentation for his final few paired-activities and informational slides. This was not an effective use of time and caused him to haphazardly skip over the final activities.

Evaluate the contractor's quality Participant said: “Several times throughout our four-hour training, the instructor made comments related to drinking, alcohol, and stereotypes about men and women. For example, the instructor commented that he believed men were better at "tuning people out" and expected the group to agree with the comment because of a stereotype about men's relationship to women. I was also unimpressed with the instructor's opening comments. He asked the group to introduce themselves by name and role in the office. Several times prior to and throughout the introduction, the instructor reminded us that he was not going to remember his names. This created the feeling that we were just one of many people to whom he presented and that he did not care enough to try to learn who we were as audience members.
“I was also unimpressed with the lack of substance and definition within the presentation. The opening activity with dominos was a great way to get the conversation started about how communication can be challenging when people are not using the same language or rhetoric. Unfortunately, the opening activity is where learning seemed to halt. The instructor did not define what he meant by "porcupine," did not seem to outline any objectives for the day, and began to go through a power point slide show that included words, definitions, and acronyms without any real meaning. The instructor was also prone to walking back statements or points listed on the power point slide when a question was asked about the point or challenged the point. If you are presenting a point of view to a group, then you should believe in and defend your point of view while also understanding the other's perspective instead of just walking back to placate the questioner. I was also very frustrated to see several statistics were included in the presentation without a citation to the original source. For example, one slide listed the percentage of importance that verbal and non-verbal communication has in any conversation - these statistics were lifted from another resource and must be cited. I did not see a citation on the slide or at the end of the presentation.
“The presentation did not provide any new information or perspectives for understanding communication and felt more like it was a high school presentation than a professional development opportunity. We are an office that provides customer service on a daily basis and we have learned how to interact with some of our more difficult customers or conversations as a result. This training did not even touch on some of the strategies that we already use. I was very disappointed and I found this training to be disrespectful of my time and experience.”

Evaluate the contractor's cost The fee was the amount agreed to by the parties.

Evaluate the contractor's overall performance Participant said: “I was unimpressed with the How to talk to porcupines training for several reasons including the instructor's lack of professionalism, the presentation's lack of substance, plagiarism, and overall lack of nuanced approaches to communication.”

Would you engage the contractor's services again? No

Describe any negative action taken during the duration of this contract (i.e., termination, pursuit of suspension, etc.): None

Please rate the overall experience with the contractor 2 - dissatisfied