SOCIAL SYSTEMS PROFESSIONAL SERVICES

1. Advance Contract Award Notice (ACAN)

An ACAN is a public notice indicating to the supplier community that a department or agency intends to award a contract for goods, services or construction to a pre-identified supplier, thereby allowing other suppliers to signal their interest in bidding, by submitting a statement of capabilities. If no supplier submits a statement of capabilities that meets the requirements set out in the ACAN, on or before the closing date stated in the ACAN, the contracting officer may then proceed with the award to the pre-identified supplier.

2. Definition of the requirement

The Department of National Defence (DND) and the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) is undergoing an enterprise wide audit, led by the Chief Professional Conduct and Culture (CPCC), of its culture and supporting infrastructure as they relate to understanding and addressing systemic misconduct. Systemic misconduct includes all aspects of abuse of power in the workplace including sexual misconduct, hateful conduct, systemic barriers, harassment, violence, discrimination, employment inequity and unconscious bias. The Canadian Special Operations Forces Command (CANSOFCOM), as a Level 1 organization within the CAF, is conducting its own internal assessment of its organizational health as it pertains to systemic misconduct, with the goal of undertaking a more holistic self-reflection and leading the efforts of DND as a whole.

To support this assessment, CANSOFCOM is seeking a third-party subject matter expert to provide expertise, advice and analytics that will permit the Command to develop concrete recommendations for organizational health improvements. More specifically, CANSOFCOM is seeking an external advisor with advanced knowledge and experience in complex human systems combined with advanced and innovative data analytics for solving complex organizational challenges. The Contracted individual(s) must provide the following capabilities:

• The ability to conduct an unbiased assessment of CANSOFCOM culture
• The ability to facilitate engagements with multiple stakeholders
• The ability to understand special operations forces' missions, roles, tasks and challenges within the context of exposing individuals to systemic influences
• The ability to access a diverse network of innovative specialists to advise on identified challenges
• The ability to conduct and guide primary and secondary qualitative research in support of human-centric analysis and design
• The ability to review and assess culture-specific training in a military context
• The ability to provide sound and timely advice on human-centric, sensitive cultural matters

1.1 Objectives

The objective of this work is to provide Contractor subject-matter expertise to the Command cultural assessment and input to the Command Culture Health Assessment final report on the findings from the assessment and any additional research that supports the assessment with the following objectives:

• Reinforcement of existing healthy culture within the Command
• Find and fix any and all unhealthy cultural issues that put CANSOFCOM personnel at risk
• Set CANSOFCOM up for long term cultural health by ensuring a build-up and sustainment of cultural health awareness within the command at a genetic level

1.2 Tasks

The provision of work under the contract will be task-based, with each task specifying the work and deliverables required. The specific tasks required by the contractor include, but are not limited to, the following:

1.2.1 Command Cultural Advisory Board (CCAB)

The Contractor must provide the following in support of the CCAB:

• Provision of subject-matter expertise and input to the production of CCAB reports
• Familiarization and integration with members of the CCAB
• Participation in CCAB meetings as an advisor
• Respond to CCAB members’ queries and concerns
• Provision of expertise on organizational culture/social systems

1.2.2 Unit Culture Advisory Team (UCAT)

The Contractor must provide the following in support of the UCAT engagements:

• Participation and facilitation of UCAT engagements
• Provision of guidance on engagement format in order to identify challenges / sentiments / narratives
• Facilitation of multi-stakeholder, diverse, complex, sensitive engagements to discover underlying root causes of challenges

1.2.3 Modeling/Assessments

The Contractor must:

• Provide models/methodologies for cultural assessments, based upon proven data analytics algorithms to address complex social challenges, as a basis for collaboration with other board members to select the best way forward
• Conduct human-centric design analysis of complex systemic challenges and successes within the organization
• Access network of educators, researchers, social scientists, entrepreneurs and business experts to provide innovative and diverse solutions to complex problems
• Review relevant documentation and reports including secondary research of related industry reports, academic papers, developing problem hypothesis
• Perform a human-centric assessment of the unclassified portions of the Command Cultural Environment Training course, a pan-Command cultural-integration course

1.3 Reporting and Communications

The Contractor must:

• Respond to CANSOFCOM queries and concerns
• Provide written reports or other documents as detailed in each task authorization including:
  • Monthly informal reports detailing progress to date and any challenges, obstacles or requirements to future progress
  • Presentations and project related documentation including agenda and minutes for meetings and conferences, and travel visit reports
• Provide administrative services to support contract management and task authorizations including:
  • Task cost estimation
  • Tracking and reporting on expenditures in relation to the contract and each individual task authorization
  • Close out action items as it relates to the work conducted under each task

1.4 Constraints

The Contractor must perform the work within the following constraints.

1.4.1 Location of Work

Work must be conducted depending on the task to be completed and as agreed between the Contractor and DND as follows:

• DND on-site locations in Ottawa, Petawawa, Trenton, and Richmond, Ontario
• Contractor's facility as required

1.4.2 Travel

Travel, at DND expense, will be required for meetings and/or presentations as specified in each Task Authorization.

1.4.3 Language

All work, including written correspondence and reports, must be performed in English.

1.4.4 Security

There are no security requirements associated with this work; however, the Contractor must be escorted at all times when on-site at a DND location.

3. Criteria for assessment of the statement of capabilities (Minimum Essential Requirements)

Any interested supplier must demonstrate by way of a statement of capabilities that it meets the following requirements:

The supplier must provide:

• One (1) Team Lead who will act as the main point of contact between DND and the contractor and who will oversee the administrative processes of the entire contract
• One (1) technical specialist lead with expertise in human-centric systems analysis and design that must:
  • Have a post-secondary degree at the Masters or Doctoral level in a relevant field including (but not limited to) applied mathematics, organizational behavior, social and engineering systems, or design thinking
  • Have experience in the application of social systems analysis and human-centered design to address complex organizational challenges in Special Operations Forces organizations

• Additional technical specialists on an as-required basis to support the lead

The supplier must have previous experience in conducting similar reviews in allied (5-Eyes) Special Operations Forces (SOF) elements in order to understand the associated cultural challenges of special forces.

The supplier must NOT have any previous employment within the Canadian Armed Forces in order to hold contextual awareness without internal bias and provide an external, non-biased perspective on CANSOFCOM's military culture.

The supplier must have data analytic tools for analyzing human systems dynamics including leading edge methodologies for unpacking complex organizational problems within dynamic social environments.

4. Applicability of the trade agreement(s) to the procurement

This procurement is subject to the following trade agreement(s):

• Canada-Chile Free Trade Agreement (CCFTA)
• Canada Free Trade Agreement (CFTA)
• Canada-Columbia Free Trade Agreement (CColFTA)
• Canada-Panama Free Trade Agreement (CPanFTA)
• Canada-Honduras Free Trade Agreement (CHFTA)
• Canada-Korea Free Trade Agreement (CKFTA)
• Canada-Peru Free Trade Agreement (CPFTA)

5. Justification for the Pre-Identified Supplier

Medical and Related Sciences (MaRS) is uniquely specialized in complex human-centric systems design and analysis from within North America’s largest Innovation Hub, with access to a network of cross-functional specialists and resources to include social scientists, educators, researchers, entrepreneurs and business experts. MaRS, a not-for-profit organization, has experience relevant to this requirement and has supported similar reviews within the 5-Eyes SOF community to explore, assess, and contemplate systemic barriers and complex organizational dilemmas. Furthermore, MaRS has co-ownership of the "Systemic Design Toolkit", which provides a practical set of analytic methods for addressing extremely complex and systemic challenges such as that being addressed in the CANSOFCOM cultural review. 

Civilian experts with the MaRS organization have worked with the American and Australian Special Operations Forces at the strategic and operational levels that gives them unique understanding of the challenges that Special Operations Forces members face, while also being far-removed from the bias that comes from employment in the CAF. This combination of credentials exclusively positions MaRS to assist CANSOFCOM by providing a fulsome engagement, assessment and analysis of the organization’s social health and any systemic barriers within it.

6. Government Contracts Regulations Exception(s)

The following exception to the Government Contracts Regulations is invoked for this procurement under subsection:

• 6(d) - "only one person is capable of performing the work")

7. Exclusions and/or Limited Tendering Reasons

The following exclusion(s) and/or limited tendering reasons are invoked under the:

• Canadian Free Trade Agreement (CFTA) – Article(s) Article 513 1(b)iii
• Canada-Chile Free Trade Agreement (CCFTA) – Article(s) Kbis-09 (b), Article Kbis-09 (c)
• Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement – Article(s) 1409 (b) (iii)
• Canada-Honduras Free Trade Agreement – Article(s) 17.11 2 (b) (iii)
• Canada-Korea Free Trade Agreement – Article 14.3, Under the Revised GPA – Article XIII, 1 (b) (iii);
• Canada-Panama Free Trade Agreement – Article(s) 16.10 (b) (iii)
• Canada-Peru Free Trade Agreement (CPFTA) – Article(s) 1409 (b) (iii)

  8. Period of the proposed contract or delivery date

  The proposed contract is for a period of 6 months from Contract Award, tentatively January 31, 2022 to July 31, 2022.

  9. Name and address of the pre-identified supplier

  MaRS Discovery District

  101 College Street

  Toronto, ON M5G 1L7

  10. Suppliers' right to submit a statement of capabilities

  Suppliers who consider themselves fully qualified and available to provide the goods, services or construction services described in the ACAN may submit a statement of capabilities in writing to the contact person identified in this notice on or before the closing date of this notice. The statement of capabilities must clearly demonstrate how the supplier meets the advertised requirements.

  11. Closing date for a submission of a statement of capabilities

  The closing date and time for accepting statements of capabilities is January 20, 2022 at 2:00 p.m. EDT.

  12. Inquiries and submission of statements of capabilities

  Inquiries and statements of capabilities are to be directed to:

  William Hafner

  Senior Procurement Officer DLP 8-1-2, Directorate Land Procurement

  Department of National Defence / Government of Canada

  William.Hafner@forces.gc.ca / Tel: 613-949-4941/ Cell: 343-551-1709

  Agent supérieur de l'approvisionnement DAAT 8-1-2 , Direction des Acquisitions pour l'Armée de Terre

  Ministère de la Défense nationale / Gouvernement du Canada

  William.Hafner@forces.gc.ca / Tél: 613-949-4941/ Cell : 343-551-1709