Go / No Go meetings

You can find the Guide to "Go / No Go" meetings below, which should be read in conjunction with the Go / No Go checklist here

Guide purpose: The purpose of this checklist is to guide any Go / No Go meeting. It was compiled by the Partnership and Growth team in May 2024.

1. When to hold a Go / No Go meeting

(i) When there is a specific business development opportunity i.e. a donor has contacted us and invited us to submit a Concept Note; or an opportunity has been publicly advertised, and

(ii) The Manager - Partnerships and Growth has:

• Looked into the opportunity and seen potential

• Summarised the opportunity and existing information for other internal Catalpa stakeholders to assist with the discernment process (or delegated to another member of the Partnerships and Growth team to do so) including the Partnership and Growth team doing the initial review of the basic BD Selection Opportunity Criteria.

2. What information needs to be shared by the Partnership & Growth Team with participants in the "Go / No Go" Meeting prior to the Meeting taking place

(i) Must have information:

• Donor priorities

• Summary of the opportunity

• Budget envelope

• The result of the Partnership and Growth team doing the initial review of the basic BD Selection Opportunity Criteria and also share the whole Criteria template so people can have a read-through of the criteria before the meeting.

(ii) Good to have information (i.e. highly desirable if the Manager - Partnerships and Growth can obtain / request it prior to the meeting but if impossible to obtain at this point the Go / No Go meeting should still be held in its absence):

• Template or structure of the submission (to get a sense of the workload needed)

• External information to request from donor:

  • Start date of the project

  • Budget window

• Internal information to request from Catalpa stakeholders, to bring to the meeting:

  • Availability (or otherwise) of key personnel who would be involved in the project

  • Availability (or otherwise) of key personnel who would be involved in the bid / tender process

• Other:

  • Potential partner organisation or consultants to work with us

  • Any recent networking with this donor and/or other inside information we have

  • Any other information that is pertinent

The information outlined above should be shared three business days in advance wherever possible so that people can read it prior to the meeting and the meeting time can be focused on discussing and arriving at a decision.

This information should be shared prior to the Go / No Go meeting via a Slack chat set up by a member of the Partnership and Growth team after having been delegated to do so by the Manager - Partnerships and Growth. The Slack chat should have a wider group of stakeholders than those in the Go / No Go meeting, including a representative from the Finance team who would be working on the budget.

3. Who should be in a "Go / No Go" meeting

(i) Manager - Partnership and Growth:

• Responsible for delegating to a member of the Partnership + Growth team to administer the meeting and share info prior to the meeting and providing that member of the team with the names of who should be invited to the meeting

(ii) Member of Partnership and Growth team (i.e. Ona, Nicole, Rebekah)

• Responsible for finding a time that suits everyone setting up a meeting time and setting up a Slack chat with bookmarked link to a Google folder with any information about the opportunity (RFT if available, or info about donor / upcoming opportunity) and a document in which to take notes from

(iii) Senior sponsor of relevant work area (David - Health, infrastructure &/or anything in PNG; Anders - health, social protection, governance & /or anything in Timor; Kara - Education)

(iv) Wherever possible i.e. if enough is known about the opportunity to establish what technical expertise may be needed and/or where schedules do not preclude their participation:

• Relevant technical expertise (e.g. Juliana / Peter / Pedro)

• Representative from Programs team (i.e. Kate or Sharon)

4. Go / No Go meeting

(i) The Go / No Go Meeting should be chaired by the Manager - Partnerships and Growth.

(ii) The agenda should be:

• 5-10 mins: Introduction to the discussion:

  • Summarise the opportunity

  • Time for any clarifying questions

• 30 mins: Go through the BD Opportunity criteria - see Minimum Criteria

• 5 mins: Quickly review the scores and feedback for the Minimum Criteria (this is the initial assessment undertaken by the Partnership and Growth team before the meeting). If any criteria result in a “no,” discuss and decide if the opportunity should be dropped.

• 25 mins: For opportunities that pass the Minimum Criteria, discuss the Detailed criteria. Each participant shares their scores and insights.

  The Six hats activity is a concept used during the Go/NoGo meetings to discuss various aspects of an opportunity. Each hat represents a different phase of thinking:

  • White Hat: Focuses on objective data and facts.

  • Red Hat: Centres on intuitive and emotional response

  • Black Hat: Considers negative aspects and potential problems.

  • Yellow Hat: Looks at positive aspects and benefits.

  • Green Hat: Encourages creative thinking and new ideas.

  • Blue Hat: Manages the thinking process and organisation

• 10-15 mins: Decision. Options are:

  • Go

  • Go for now but reconvene once more information has been found for a final decision (this is relevant if we have insufficient information at the time of the meeting or expect information to change)

  • No Go

• 5 - 10 mins: Action items and Next steps:

  Next steps:

  • If the decision is a ‘No Go’, then archive the Slack channel three working days after sharing the meeting notes in the Slack channel

  • If the decision is a ‘Go for now but more info is needed before final decision’ then ask the Catalpians involved how quickly they can get that extra information (from donor, potential partner, government stakeholders etc.) and set another meeting in line with the timeframe for getting that info and also the timeframe for submission.

  • If the decision is a ‘Go’, move to the Tender Preparation stage - refer to the Checklist for tender planning and preparation; set up a time for the next meeting to discuss the tender planning (ahead of that meeting set up a Tender Planning + Preparation checklist and a Team Charter for the development of the bid to discuss in the meeting)

This decision can be revisited in future if more information arises to change the scoring / likelihood

of success with this bid.

Action items:

• Decide who will communicate the decision to any external stakeholders (i.e. potential partners and / or consultants we had contacted or the donor if they contacted us to ask us to submit a Concept Note)

• Notes from the Go / No Go Meeting should be shared on the Slack channel by a member of the Partnership and Growth team so that all Catalpian stakeholders are aware.

• Partnership and Growth Team to update status in coda.