April 12, 2023
12 Noon to 1:00 PM EST
VIA ZOOM, FREE but must register
AGENDA
11:45 AM - Access event
12:00 PM - 1 PM - Training Topic Presentation
1 PM - 1:15 PM – Announcements
Certificate of Attendance (COA) will be provided to Attendees.
PRESENTER
Dr. Gleb Tsipursky, CEO, Disaster Avoidance Experts
DESCRIPTION
In this engaging, interactive, and enlightening presentation, you will dramatically improve your ability to protect contract awards from claims of bias, and thus bid protests. Behavioral science research shows that human reasoning is inherently flawed, vulnerable to explicit and implicit bias – what the research literature calls “cognitive biases.” For example, one well-known bias relevant to contract awards is anchoring: the initial piece of evidence someone learns about a topic is much more impactful than subsequent evidence, because this subsequent evidence is assessed through the lens of the first thing someone learns. Another is the halo and horns effects, where our minds are predisposed to trust and like those who are similar to us, while distrusting and disliking those who are different from us. If contracting officials don’t take the steps to learn about and protect their contract awards from these and other cognitive biases, they leave themselves vulnerable to bid protests and lawsuits.
Bid protests against a contract often center around claims of bias that result in flawed selection decisions. This is why it’s critically important to protect contracting from bias. Yet efforts to do so often fall short, leaving contract awards vulnerable to bid protests. Fortunately, contracting officials can follow recent research-based findings that have been proven to protect against bias in court cases.
Fortunately, the behavioral science field of debiasing has provided us with critically-important, peer-reviewed tools for addressing biases in contract awards. This training offers case studies and best practices based on both legal experience and peer-reviewed research. The presenter has over 22 years of experience helping address bias in contract awards, including serving as an expert witness for a $23 billion Medicaid contract award bid protest. By adopting the methods from this training, you will be much better equipped to address bias in contract awards.
Learning Objectives
- Learn about prominent cognitive biases that can cause problems in contract awards
- Assess where bias, whether explicit or implicit, might be a problem in your own contract awards
- Understand peer-reviewed best practices for addressing bias in contract awards
- Develop a plan to integrate your understanding of cognitive biases and how to address them into your contract awards
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