Designing 100-Day Challenges
(for leaders)
The purpose of this guide is to prepare you to organise a rapid (100-day) project that aims to significantly improve a strategic issue that requires fresh thinking and collaboration across departments and/or organisations.
You will be learning about the 100-Day Challenge Approach. Leaders in the private sector, in Government and in non-profit organisations, have used this approach to make breakthrough improvements on a multitude of issues and in dozens of countries all over the world. So, you will be joining a community of global leaders who have achieved remarkable results by empowering and enabling others in their organisations and communities.
Below are some of these leaders describing the results they were able to inspire through 100-Day Challenges.
Jakkie
Nadim
Our Challenge: Tackling Gender-Based Violence and Femicide (GBVF) in South Africa
You are in a leadership position in your organisation, court, municipality, or TVET. Your role is organising a 100-Day Challenge that inspires a cross-organisational team to progress significantly on an important GBVF issue.
You and the team you organise will be joining a movement of activists who are taking the initiative and actually doing something about GBVF in our country rather than waiting for instructions and guidance from outside and above.
This Learning Program is organised into several “Guidance Notes” related to “Ending GBVF 100-Day Challenges”
GRAPHIC OF THE RELAY RACE TRACK.
The 100-Day Challenge can be viewed as a relay race, with the baton getting passed back and forth between the different runners. When a runner passes the baton, they do not get out of the race. They continue to run along-side the runner with the baton, supporting and cheering them along. The runner holding the baton, though, is the one leading the show for that part of the race.
The Guidance Notes listed below will help you understand and play your role during the race, when you are holding the baton, and also in critical weeks when your support is particularly needed. The weekly Guidance Notes will be short and practical: what will you need to pay attention to during that week. They will make reference (and will be hyperlinked) to more in depth “Learning Deep Dives” that will help you better understand and prepare for the things you need to do that week.
The first Guidance Note includes Learning Deep Dives on the topic of GBVF in South Africa, to provide a strategic context and some useful background, before diving into the 100-Day Challenge process.
As you can see in the graphic, you will have the baton until about two weeks before Day 0 – the Start-Up Workshop. Then you will hand it off to the Team Coach. And you will get the baton from the Team Leader after the Scale-Up Workshop.
GUIDANCE NOTES
- Week Minus 4 – Preparing for Engaging Leadership Stakeholders: The Three Decisions…
- Week Minus 3 – Engaging Leadership Stakeholders
- Week Minus 2 – Finalizing the Challenge Note and 100-Day Team Selection
- Day 0 – Start-Up Workshop
- Week 1- Briefing Leadership Stakeholders
- Week 4- Meeting Coach and Team Leader
- Day 50 – Recharging Workshop
- Week 8 – Engaging Leadership Stakeholders again
- Week 13 – Preparing for Scale-up Workshop with the Coach and Team Leader
- Week 14 – Getting Ready for the Scale-Up Workshop
- Day 100 – Scale-Up Workshop
- Week 15 – Getting Ready for the Marathon
GBVF related Guidance Notes
1. Strategic Context: National Strategic Plan to end GBVF and the End GBVF Collective
2. Building on Success: Gallery of Ending GBVF 100-Day Challenges in South Africa over the past three years
3. Ending GBVF Dashboard: The compass we use to know the scope and scale of our impact
4. Do No Harm: Practical guidance on working with GBV survivors.
100-Day Challenge Guidance Notes
5. Winning the Relay Race: What are 100-Day Challenges? How are they organised? And what role will you play in them?
6. Getting the Team to the Starting Gate: What do you need to do in the next 2-3 weeks so the team can start its 100-day race?
7. Cheering the Team on the Track: What can you do during the 100 days to support the team?
8. Getting Ready for the Marathon: What can you do to ensure the team’s impact during the 100 days is sustained and amplified?
North-West University Certification
The management department at North-West University has adopted this program as one of its mini-courses on leadership and project management. You will be eligible to receive a certificate of participation from the University if you complete the assignments at the end of each guidance note.
The mini-course certificate can be used for credit towards a master’s degree in management from the University. A registration fee of ____ is required to enrol in the certification program. Please reach out to us at info@theworldofimpact.org if you’d like to enrol.
Where can I get help?
Tools and people are available if you need guidance or a second opinion. Follow the links or email us to connect.
