Fast and right.
Thirty-one years of doing what the rules “didn’t allow” — inside the rules. Actionable strategies, real-world insight, and ethical leadership for the acquisition and contracting workforce: the playbook, the collections, and the stories, all in one place.
- 31 years in DoD acquisition
- Contracting Officer, unlimited warrant
- CO on the original GBU-28 bunker buster
- Founded a Rapid Acquisition Cell, 2012–18
- 5 years at MITRE
Contracting for Rapid Acquisition
A Practical & Personal Guide to Disrupting the Status Quo for a More Responsive Future
The tools to fix Federal acquisition have existed for decades. So why is everyone still slow?
Lorna Tedder spent more than thirty years as a Department of Defense Contracting Officer doing what her colleagues said couldn’t be done — awarding contracts in days instead of years, getting capability downrange before the funding expired, all inside the same regulations everyone else complained about. She was the Contracting Officer on the original bunker buster. She built a Rapid Acquisition Cell from scratch. This is the book she wrote to pass that playbook on — all of her very best techniques, in one place: short, blunt, occasionally funny, and built to outlast the next reform. Now, go fix something.
The Trifecta of Effectiveness
Tools, mindset, and relationships have to work together — the best tool in the world is worthless without the other two.
The Six Crumblestones
The recurring weaknesses that quietly sink any strategy — culture, communication, governance, requirements handoffs, tracking, and resourcing — and how to reinforce each.
Lorna’s Greatest Hits
The tools she actually used: Other Transactions, Commercial Solutions Openings, Class J&As, oral proposals, Price-Based Acquisition — many older than the people now “discovering” them.
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Four decades of hard-won contracting wisdom
Speaking of Innovative Contracting
Are your innovative ideas for reducing lead times being silenced?
Hard-won truths from her Agile Acquisition Blog (2018–2019): Other Transaction Authority, 10 USC 2373/4023, the “Frozen Middle,” data rights, building teams, and strategic sourcing — for professionals ready to break free of outdated processes.
Acquisition Devotionals
Real stories of resilience and success in government.
Strategies and stories from her LinkedIn writing (2020–2024) — risk management, process improvement, AI, and the collaborative mindset that transforms contracting — told through candid, real-life narratives.
Informative, interesting, or just plain amusing
Give Your Life Direction
Most people don’t lack goals. They lack direction.
23 practical life-coaching strategies to reclaim your time, set boundaries, and move forward with confidence. A toolkit, not a rulebook — each chapter pairs a clear concept with a short exercise you can start today.
Access
A woman framed for treason. A soldier destined to protect her. A conspiracy that reaches beyond time.
A romantic techno-thriller set in the 1990s and grounded in real government research and acquisition systems — written by someone who actually sat at the negotiating table. A betrayed DoD contract negotiator on the run, prophetic visions she can’t explain, and a trail of secrets that leads into Quebec — and beyond time itself.
Lorna E. Tedder
With 31 years in DoD acquisition as a Contracting Officer holding an unlimited warrant, a stint as an independent rapid-acquisition consultant, and five fulfilling years at MITRE, I’ve tackled everything from operational to specialized and production acquisitions. But quick-reaction acquisition remains my true passion, and I’m devoted to serving the warfighter — especially Special Operators. My career has been defined by creative solutions and challenging bureaucracy to drive meaningful results.
Now retired, I’m writing full-time and sharing my toolbox of proven contracting and leadership techniques with the next generation of acquirers.
“I’ve been called difficult, ahead of my time, and the reason things got done when they shouldn’t have been possible. I’ll take that last one. Proudly.”
Now, go fix something.