100-Day Challenges for leaders

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Week Minus 4 – Preparing for Engaging Leadership Stakeholders

100-Day Challenges for leaders Week Minus 4 – Preparing for Engaging Leadership Stakeholders

Week Minus 4

Preparing for Engaging Leadership Stakeholders

This week, the tasks will be simple and easy. But there is quite a bit of background materials to go over in the Learning Deep Dives, so please block out some time for this. 

100-Day Challenges are projects that last 100 days, from start to finish. They are unique in many ways that will become clearer in the coming days and weeks. However, like all projects, each 100-Day Challenge has a team, a goal, and a plan. One unique aspect of 100-Day Challenges is that goals and plans are developed by 100-Day Teams, rather than being handed down to them by their leaders or supervisors. So in 100-Day Challenges, choosing a team comes before deciding on a goal. But in order to choose the right 100-Day Challenge team, a decision needs to be made on the general focus of the Challenge. 

Three Tasks This Week

This week, your primary task is to prepare yourself for engaging with other leadership stakeholders so, together, you can decide on a specific focus area for the 100-Day Challenge and, based on this, select a 100-Day Team. Please go over the following Learning Deep Dives to get prepared for these engagements:


Prepare to Engage

Overview of 100-Day Challenges. This will help you answer questions about the 100-Day Challenge approach. These will inevitably come up when you are talking with leadership stakeholders about the 100-Day Challenge Focus Area and Team. 

Strategic Context: GBVF in South Africa. This will provide important background on GBVF in South Africa, and it includes an overview of the National Strategic Plan to end GBVF (NSP) that will be the basis  for developing the menu of Focus areas for Ending GBVF 100-Day Challenges.

Developing your Short List of Focus Areas for 100-Day Challenges. This will help you understand the unique aspects of 100-Day Challenge Focus areas and how these relate to the NSP. 


Set-up Engagements

Set Up Leadership Engagements. Invite other leadership stakeholders for a meeting next week to brief them about the 100-Day Challenge and engage them in deciding on the Focus of this next 100-Day Challenge and 100-Day Team membership. If you prefer, you can also have one-on-one conversations with the leadership stakeholders or meet them in small groups. For a list of suggested leaders to engage with, click the button on the right.

GBVF Leaders >>

Select a Team Coach

Recruit a Team Coach. The coach will help you with these leadership engagements and with the follow-up work. He will become a 100-Day Challenge process expert, so the actual focus area of the 100-Day Challenge will be less important than the attributes and skills he brings to the role.  Please go over the Learning Deep Dive on Selecting Team Coach. 

Weekly Assignment

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Thought starter reflection questions

Jot down thoughts on these questions – to the extent they are relevant to your experience at the session:
  • When did the mood in the event shift from “why are we here?” to “this could be interesting – I am excited to be part of this.” What triggered this shift? 
  • When did you have to go “off script” on the agenda or to change the agenda? What triggered this? What did you adjust? How did it go?
  • What was most surprising to you at the event?
  • What new insights did you gain about the issue at hand, and about the way leaders in the system interacted with each other?
  • Where did the conversation get stuck? What got it unstuck?
  • How would you characterise the level of trust among participants in the meeting? To what extent did this shift as the meeting progressed? To what do you attribute this shift, if indeed it happened?

Thought starter...

Reflection Questions 

Jot down thoughts on these questions – to the extent they are relevant to your experience at the session:

  • When did the mood in the event shift from “why are we here?” to “this could be interesting – I am excited to be part of this.” What triggered this shift? 
  • When did you have to go “off script” on the agenda or to change the agenda? What triggered this? What did you adjust? How did it go?
  • What was most surprising to you at the event?
  • What new insights did you gain about the issue at hand, and about the way leaders in the system interacted with each other?
  • Where did the conversation get stuck? What got it unstuck?
These are 100-Day Challenge Mentors. 

They did some work before you received the Challenge Note. This included:

  • Writing the Challenge Note, and making sure that the leaders of all the organisations represented on the team are comfortable with it – and committed to supporting the work of the team
  • Helping the leaders of these organisation recruit you and your colleagues to the team
  • Gathering some baseline data and other information that will help you and your teammates set your 100-Day goal and develop your plan.
  • Making sure all the preparations are made for a successful Lift-Off workshop, when you and your teammates will meet and get your 100-Day Challenge started. This includes venue, facilitation support, food, swags, comms, travel arrangements and whatever else is needed.

 

Mentors will participate in all or part of the Lift-Off Workshop, mostly at the start to provide context and answer questions, and at the end to give you and your teammates feedback about the goal and plan you develop.

During the 100 days following the Lift-Off Workshop, here’s what the Mentors will do:  

  • They will check in every two weeks with the team leaders to see how the team is doing and what support they and the team need.
  • They will keep other organisational leaders informed and engaged during the 100 days, and pull them in to help as needed.
  • They will participate in the last part of the Refuelling Workshop, halfway through the 100 days, to see what additional support the team needs, and to begin to plan with the team for sustainability and scale-up.
  • They will work with the team at the Sustainability Workshop to finalise recommendations on sustaining the results and building on the work of the team.