Reinforcing the 100-Day Challenge culture

Week 2

Reinforcing the 100-Day Challenge Culture


Reinforcing the culture of collaboration, innovation & implementation

Here are some of the things the team leader, with your support, can do to inspire intense collaboration, rapid innovation and disciplined implementation through the team meetings.

Inspiring Intense Collaboration

Collaboration is reinforced when people trust each other, and when they are committed to a shared goal. Here are ways to reinforce these in team meetings:

  1. Commitment to Shared Goal:
    • Start each meeting by reviewing progress against the 30-Day Goal, AND celebrating successes, however small these may seem.
    • Periodically ask the question: how are we feeling about our 30-Day Goal? Is it still exciting? Are we still determined to achieve it, in spite of its difficulty? 
  2. Relationships of trust
    • Use check-in questions that invite team members to reveal something about themselves to their teammates: Personal experience, proud family moment, embarrassing moment; etc. Showing vulnerability and being genuine with others strengthens relationships and builds trust.

Collaboration in Action: you can ask two or three team members to work together to solve a problem, and to update the rest of the team at the next meeting. 

Example: The policy development requires some research to see what other organisations have done, so as not to reinvent the wheel. The Team Leader can ask two team members to work together to do the research and present a summary at the next team meeting    

Inspiring Rapid Innovation

  • Encourage and celebrate bold moves and risk taking
  • If the team tries something that fails, celebrate that as well: “what did we learn from this?”, or “I am glad we failed now rather than investing a lot of time before finding out that this is not worth pursuing”
  • Encourage mentors to have a similar attitude

Innovation in Action: Challenge team members at the team meeting to come up with new ideas to get around an obstacle that has come up.

Example: We are not hearing from many staff members who may have grievances and complaints about sexual harassment, because they do not trust that they will not be fired if they speak up. What are some “extraordinary” things the team can do to reassure them? 

Inspiring Disciplined Implementation

  • Send a meeting reminder (or delegate this to someone) at least 2 days in advance in order to encourage and ensure attendance, and include any relevant information to encourage preparation and participation.
  • Keep meetings as short as possible to be productive and effective – one hour at most.
  • Remind team members, before team meetings, of commitments they had made in the work plan.

Implementation in Action: Encourage the team to move into action quickly, try things out and see if they work, versus arguing on whether some things will be effective or not, or deferring action “till we gather more information”.

Example: Some team members might prefer that they get 100% of staff to fill the Health Check survey, so “we know precisely where the problems are before we start taking action.” The Team Leader can remind them that it is OK to try things out, even if we are not 100% sure yet of how effective they will be. We can assess the impact and change course if need be, rather than wait till we have complete information.

Diagnostic tool. - NADIM SHOULD THIS NOT BE A SEPERATE DEEP DIVE

EFRT (think Effort) is a 4-part diagnostic that you can use to engage with the Team Leader about how well the team is doing.

ENERGY

Conversation starters

How is the team doing? 

How is the team feeling? 

A great 100-Day team

Maintains spirit of the challenge; remains motivated; team members have fun

Warning signs

Team spirit lags; team loses its spark; attendance at meetings drops off; fear; anxiety

FOCUS

Conversation starters

What can we celebrate this week?

What are the numbers telling us? 

A great 100-Day team

Stays focused on the goal; addresses obstacles to achieving goals; uses data to track progress 

Warning signs

Non-essential activities consume time and energy of the team; no new ideas; feeling overwhelmed 

ROLES

Conversation starters

What is the level of contribution of each team member to the plan?

 How clear are people about your role? How clear are you about it? 

What is challenging for you as a team leader? And what else? And what is the real challenge for YOU?

A great 100-Day team

Each team member has a clear role, and they are clear about this and about the roles of others on the team

The Mentor and Team Leaders are especially clear about their respective roles

Warning signs

Role confusion; team members don’t have clear tasks; members don’t meet deadlines; people feel left out

TEAM DYNAMICS

Conversation starters

How are team members communicating? 

What are the tensions that are coming up? Which ones would be useful to talk about in team meetings, versus with the concerned members of the team? 

A great 100-Day team

Team members remind each other about their Team Agreement

Meetings are action-oriented and productive

There are strong relationships between team members

Team members talk about their disagreements without being disrespectful of each other  

Warning signs

Recurrent conflicts between team members 

Dominating behaviours

Team members avoid conflict

Team members feel like they are walking on egg shells when they are talking with one another