Part Three of the Federal Sales Hot Wash Series. Be sure to check out Part One: Why Do a Hot Wash? and Part Two: How To Do One That Works!
How facilitation, rhythm, and trust turn one-time lessons into lasting Federal sales performance.
From Event to Habit
If you’ve followed along with Parts 1 and 2, you’ve already built a strong foundation. You understand why a Federal Sales Hot Wash matters and how to run one that delivers insight and accountability.
Now comes the real transformation: turning that one-time review into an organizational habit — a rhythm of reflection that fuels performance all year long.
Many GovCon teams finish a successful Hot Wash with great intentions and a fresh list of action items… and then watch those lessons disappear into inboxes. What separates the companies that learn once from the companies that learn always is cadence — the discipline of coming back to the table, again and again, to learn faster than the market changes.
This final part of the series is about institutionalizing that discipline. It’s how you make reflection part of your Federal sales culture and keep the trust, energy, and learning alive through the year ahead.
Build a Repeatable System
The best Hot Wash sessions don’t happen by accident — they’re designed for repeatability.
Start by documenting your process. Create an internal guide that covers:
- Timing: When the Hot Wash occurs (e.g., two weeks after fiscal year end, quarterly mini-sessions).
- Who: Core participants by role, not by name — BD, capture, proposal, finance, delivery, and leadership.
- Inputs: Data sources you’ll always review — pipeline, win/loss, marketing spend, CPARS, buyer feedback.
- Outputs: A one-page summary of insights, action items, and owners.
A written process does more than create consistency. It frees your team from reinventing logistics every time, allowing you to focus on content instead of coordination.
Keep templates simple — the fewer clicks between idea and insight, the better. Store agendas, checklists, and notes in your shared workspace or CRM so they’re easy to reuse.
And don’t underestimate the power of automation. Tools like GovDash or customized CRM dashboards can display key Hot Wash data automatically — eliminating the scramble for last-minute spreadsheets and ensuring everyone’s working from the same source of truth.
From Brainstorm to Brain Trust
Our session leader has a big job ahead of them at this point.
Experienced facilitators can easily sort through the inputs, group related ideas together into topics, and recommend a session agenda.
What might those topics be?
Does your team include the right person to lead the session? How can you tell whether it’s worth the investment to bring in a facilitator?
I’ve got your back. Here are some considerations as you decide.
Facilitators: Lead From Within, or Hire Help? How To Decide
Rather than basing your decision purely on “Do we have budget to hire an outsider?”, remember this: your Federal Sales Hot Wash represents an investment of your key team members’ time, at the very least.
When I first started my business, I thought I’d do three different things at once: facilitation, conflict resolution, and government contract consulting. I didn’t know much about the first two, but figured it would be easy to come up to speed fast.
Whoops.
The more training I took, and books I read, about facilitation, the more respect I had for professional facilitators. Then I had the honor of watching organizational development professionals like Joan Wangler, President of EDIN Associates. I concluded that reading about it is waaay different from doing it well. If I wanted to be a professional facilitator, I’d need to make a considerable investment in study and practice.
If you or your team feel uneasy about the prospect of running your own Federal Sales Hot Wash, and aren’t sure whether you need help… you’re not alone.
MORE >> Part One: What’s A Federal Sales Hot Wash, And Why Do One?
Your answer should center on finding the person with the skills you need for the job. Is that person on your team today, or, if not, what should you look for? Here’s eight things your hot wash facilitator should have the experience to do easily.
Leading Your Hot Wash: Eight Essential Skills For Success
Whether you choose someone from inside your team, or engage an outside professional, make sure your session leader can…
1. Create a custom agenda and process that works for you
Your leader must be able to touch base with participants in advance, get their input, and then sort out the topics into a compelling agenda that will focus discussion on the highest-impact issues for your company and your team. MORE >> Federal Sales Hot Wash: How To Make Sure You Do Yours (Part Two)
2. Engage ALL participants
Ensure that everyone can have their voices heard and take part regardless of the range of their speaking and communication style and to feel they can do so safely and with confidence your introverts in your extroverts all have different ways of taking part and a great facilitator can draw that out and make sure everyone’s voice is heard
3. Minimize / avoid corporate leadership bias
Allows C-suite to participate without dominating or predetermining the outcome. If you’re the CEO, and you’re not also a trained facilitator with recent practice, it’s challenging to lead a session in a way that doesn’t skew the outcome toward your own views. If you want fresh intelligence and want to hear fresh voices, you may be wise to take a fresh approach, too. Your session leader needs to bring authority, a neutral position on the issues at hand, and positive energy.
4. Use varied approaches to discussion
Unusual approaches let you discover fresh perspectives, hear the quieter voices, and inspire innovative ideas. A great leader has a deep toolkit of processes, media, and modalities that can fully engage all your participants. Some of your technical subject matter experts don’t easily contribute to “let’s go around the table, starting with Cheryl this time…” but might share their brilliance in a group drawing, or skit! (“Oh, I’ll just research a few of those online…” I hear you say… Wanna see my shelf of books with stickies in them, marking techniques I’ve meant to use some day?)
Image: Visual facilitation in action with Brian Tarallo of Lizard Brain Solutions.
When Visual Facilitation Could Strengthen Your Hot Wash
This is a super-cool and dynamic approach to ramps up engagement in the moment! It’s also an example of pattern interrupt: doing something that people don’t expect, and which intensifies learning.
A visual facilitator captures ideas as they happen — sketching concepts, connections, and insights in real time. Instead of leaving with a wall of typed notes, your team finishes the session with a map of its collective thinking.
That image, emerging directly from the flow of discussion, helps participants see relationships that words alone can’t reveal. It keeps energy high in long or hybrid sessions and becomes a touchstone for the whole team moving forward — a unique shared artifact people can literally point to in follow-on implementation meetings.
For example: a team’s visual record might show capture steps branching into buyer engagement themes, or highlight where decisions and actions interlock across departments. These visual “aha” moments often spark the next wave of innovation.
DIY Lesson Learned: I once aspired to lead client sessions this way, and took a course to learn how. I ended up with two things: the deliciously expensive indulgence of buying a drawerful of high-quality art markers and supplies…and the appreciation that visual facilitation is a powerful use-or-lose skill that requires dedication and practice to master.
Find certified professionals — which I’m not! — through the Mid-Atlantic Facilitators Network (MAFN).
5. Adapt the process mid session as need be
Whether your session is in person or online, a thoughtful discussion with your facilitator ahead of time will let you draw on their experience and develop options that are likely to work well for your group. An experienced facilitator notices the signs that folks need to take a break, and can improvise or adjust the approach based on what’s happening at any point in the session.
6. Gain everyone’s trust and confidence quickly
Research shows that high-trust teams are also high-performing teams! In your hot wash, your team needs to feel they’re in safe space for candid conversations. The first element of Brene Brown’s model of the Anatomy of Trust is Boundaries. Your leader must define, declare, and defend, the rules for the engagement for the session: what’s on, what’s off; what we’re doing, what we’re not doing.
MORE >> Tap Brene Brown’s resources and guides on Daring Leadership
7. Sense and manage conflict constructively
Your facilitator needs to be aware of sensitive topics that you’ve agreed to tackle. They also need to be able to notice and address issues that come up, and experiences of interaction, that cause discomfort to one or more people. How will your leader make people feel safe to challenge traditional assumptions and speak their minds in ways that are respectful to others?
8. Record and report to ensure action
Your return on investment comes from capturing the decisions you make, and the commitments for who’s responsible to get things done and by when. A great session needs someone — whether it’s your facilitator or a support person or scribe — to record those things, share a draft for review, finalize the notes, and turn those into an action plan.
Why Engaging a Professional Facilitator Makes a Difference
When you’re planning your Federal Sales Hot Wash, you’ll ask many of the right questions: who to invite, what data to bring, how to follow up. One question that’s often overlooked is: Should we bring in a professional facilitator? The answer is “yes” — when done thoughtfully, bringing in a qualified facilitator amplifies the value of your Hot Wash in three critical ways.
1. Neutrality and Trust
A skilled external facilitator brings neutrality to the table. They don’t represent a single department or agenda; their job is to guide the conversation so every voice matters, bias is minimized, and deeper insight emerges. That neutrality matters especially when the very goal of the Hot Wash is truth-telling and open learning. The facilitator ensures the safe space you create actually stays safe for candor.
2. Focus and Efficiency
Facilitation isn’t just running the meeting — it’s designing the flow, calling time on tangents, guiding transitions, and ensuring the pace is right. According to MAFN, “a professional facilitator can help a group accomplish more in less time.” In a Hot Wash where data, discussion, and decisions must converge, that efficiency becomes a game-changer. You avoid drift, stay anchored in your purpose, and leave with clear actions, not loose intentions.
3. Enhanced Follow-Through and Systems Thinking
What often gets lost in a review meeting is the connection between insight and system change. A skilled facilitator helps make those links explicit: What this means → What we need to change → How we’ll revise our systems (capture, pipeline, marketing) accordingly. Because they’ve done it before, they bring frameworks, tools, and discipline that help your Hot Wash become an ongoing process, not just a once-a-year event. Many professional facilitators hold certifications (for example, through MAFN and the International Association of Facilitators) which signal their mastery of process, group dynamics, and high-stakes conversations.
When It’s Worth Bringing One In
Here are a few scenarios where hiring a facilitator is especially beneficial:
- If your Hot Wash includes many stakeholders across BD, capture, delivery, marketing, and finance — the more voices, the more need for coordination.
- If your organization is large or matrixed and you’ve experienced review fatigue, siloed discussions, or lack of follow-through in the past.
- If you want to use the Hot Wash as more than a review — as a cultural reset, a trust-building moment, and a foundation for next-year execution.
- If you anticipate complex topics, high emotions, or diverse viewpoints that need careful navigation (e.g., loss reviews, performance shortfalls, portfolio shifts).
How to Choose a Good Facilitator
- Look for someone with group facilitation experience, not just meeting moderation.
- Check for relevant credentials or community such as MAFN’s “Find a Facilitator” directory.
- Ask for experience in strategy sessions, cross-functional groups, and Federal-market contexts (capture, pipeline, teaming).
- Confirm that their role includes designing the session, moderating with neutrality, and producing a summary/action plan — not only running the meeting.
- Clarify deliverables: what the output will be, how follow-up is structured, and how accountability is maintained.
The ROI of Professional Facilitation
The investment in a professional facilitator is often small compared to the potential upside. A well-facilitated Hot Wash delivers:
- Clear decisions and owners instead of “we’ll revisit.”
- Higher participation and candor, which means you’re more likely to surface root causes and real change.
- Faster transition from discussion to action — reducing inefficiency and rework.
- Stronger trust across your team — which, as Brené Brown’s work shows, drives higher performance and better collaboration.
In short, when you’re serious about using your Hot Wash as a strategic pivot — not a routine meeting — a professional facilitator is a force multiplier.
Keep Accountability And Momentum Alive
Insight means nothing without implementation. Once the Hot Wash concludes, your first task is to protect that momentum.
Assign ownership for every action. For each takeaway, identify:
- Who is responsible,
- What success looks like, and
- When you’ll revisit progress.
Then set a follow-through meeting — not months later, but within the next quarter. This short-interval review becomes your “mini Hot Wash.” It keeps lessons fresh and prevents drift.
Use visible tracking. Add a column in your CRM or project system labeled “Hot Wash Follow-Up” and update it monthly. When accountability is public, progress accelerates.
Leaders can reinforce this culture by asking one simple question in every pipeline or capture meeting:
“What did we learn last time that applies here?”
That question turns the Hot Wash from a once-a-year exercise into a living framework for smarter decisions.
Adopt a Proven Cadence: The Rhythm System
If your team has mastered the basics of a Federal Sales Hot Wash and wants to take the next step, consider adopting a formal cadence like Patrick Thean’s Rhythm System.
The Rhythm System, detailed in Rhythm: How to Achieve Breakthrough Execution and Accelerate Growth, introduces a 13-week operating cycle — one quarter — that builds alignment, focus, and accountability across the organization.
I love this approach. Any year I have used it for my own business, I created a foundation for strong growth, lower stress, smoother operations, and better use of resources on the road to achieving my goals.
It’s also the perfect complement to your Hot Wash discipline.
- Each quarter begins with strategic planning and goal-setting (“What matters most?”).
- Every week includes brief check-ins to assess progress and obstacles (“Are we on track?”).
- The cycle closes with a structured reflection on results — a mini Hot Wash built right into the rhythm.
This cadence bridges the gap between strategy and execution. It creates transparency — everyone knows what success looks like — and it builds trust because progress is discussed openly, not hidden until year-end.
For GovCon leaders, Thean’s model offers a proven way to sustain momentum between fiscal milestones. It keeps teams aligned on priorities while maintaining the vulnerability and curiosity that define a high-trust culture.
When a company combines the candor of a Hot Wash with the predictability of a 13-week Rhythm, it gains both insight and consistency. The habit of reflection becomes the engine of performance.
Measure ROI and Culture Change
Your Hot Wash discipline should generate measurable returns. Connect reflection to tangible outcomes:
- Improved PWIN and faster capture cycles.
- Higher engagement scores and reduced team burnout.
- Better cross-department collaboration.
- Increased re-compete success rates.
Beyond numbers, pay attention to how people show up. Are conversations more candid? Are leaders modeling curiosity instead of defensiveness? That’s culture change in motion — and it’s just as important as any performance metric.
Your Strong Ground for FY26
Brené Brown’s latest book, Strong Ground, describes how courageous leaders build environments where openness and accountability coexist. That’s the same foundation your Hot Wash builds every time you run one.
Each reflection reinforces your organization’s strong ground — the place where vulnerability meets responsibility, and where performance takes root.
When you make the Hot Wash a habit, you’re not just reviewing results; you’re cultivating resilience. You’re giving your team a space to tell the truth, learn faster, and trust deeper.
Reflection is discipline in action — and the teams that practice it don’t just react to change; they shape it.
Key Takeaways:
• Make reflection a quarterly rhythm, not a once-a-year task.
• Choose a facilitator who can ensure trust, neutrality, and follow-through.
• Pair your Hot Wash discipline with Patrick Thean’s 13-week Rhythm to sustain accountability.
• High-trust conversations fuel high-performance teams — and measurable Federal sales growth.
The Wrap
Your choice of the right leader for your Federal Sales Hot Wash and your commitment to ongoing regular milestone reviews have a critical impact on how much return you get on the time your team spends in the session, and on two other investments as well: your entire marketing and sales spend from last year, and what you’ll allocate for the year to come.
Learn more
- Talk with a professional facilitator: Many thanks to Brian Tarallo of Lizard Brain Solutions and my point of contact at the Mid-Atlantic Facilitators Network, who chatted with me as I researched this article.
- Find a facilitator: Query through the Mid Atlantic Facilitators Network (MAFN)