Week minus 5 – Selecting a 100-Day Challenge Coach
Week Minus 5
Finding a 100-Day Challenge Coach
A 100-Day Challenge is a high-intensity, time-bound project. While it shares the basic components of any project — a team, a goal, and a plan — it functions differently from traditional government mandates. Before starting the journey, you need to find a 100-Day Challenge Coach that will support you and guide the 100-Day Team.
Podcast
Every week, listen to the conversation between the 100-Day Challenge Strategist and Coach, discussing what needs to be done this week and with great tips! We are using AI to help us create these. This does mean you have to excuse their accents. This is home-brew stuff, even if it does not sound like it.
Aligning the Local GBVF Ecosystem
The Power of “Team-First” Design – In most environments, leaders set a goal and assign it to a team. The 100-Day Challenge flips this logic: The team is selected first, and the team then develops the goals and plans. This bottom-up approach ensures that those closest to the work are the ones driving the solution.
However, to guide a team through the Challenge approach, you need a “Coach” who plays a vital role in supporting you and the 100-Day Challenge team throughout the process. This is a functional and strategic role, not a formal job title, and they will be on a learning journey with you as the project evolves. They will:
Race Track Guide: Enable a newly formed, multi-sectoral team to move forward from planning to performing by facilitating workshops and sensing when to push them and when to let them breathe.
Chief Motivation Officer: The coach is the one person whose explicit job is to make the 100-Day team feel seen, celebrated, and capable. This is a strategic function — teams that feel motivated move faster and recover better from setbacks.
The Empowering Questioner: Rather than solving problems for the team, the coach asks questions that help the team solve them themselves. Rather than telling the Team Leader what to do, the coach asks what they think.
Why This Matters for GBVF Response: Without a coach guiding a team through the specifics of a 100-Day Challenge, it just becomes a normal project — busy, well-intentioned, and unlikely to change anything a survivor actually experiences.
Your Tasks This Week
Select your 100-Day Challenge Coach
Your primary goal for the first week of the 100-Day Challenge is to identify, recruit, and brief the right person who will serve as your 100-Day Challenge Coach.
The Learning Deep Dive, “Finding a 100-Day Challenge Coach,” two places to look — inside the organisation running the challenge and outside it — and the right answer depends on what the challenge needs most.
Prepare to Convince Them
To succeed in enrolling the 100-Day Challenge Coach, you must fully understand the scope of this role and be ready to answer questions from prospective candidates. Use the following Learning Deep Dives to prepare for these high-level conversations:
The 100-Day Challenge at a Glance: Revisit the Deep Dive you did as part of the introduction.
The National Strategic Plan (NSP) on GBVF: Contextualising your work with South Africa’s national mandate.
The Challenge Gallery: A showcase of past 100-Day Challenges that successfully translated the NSP into local, collective action to support survivors and reduce GBVF.
These resources are designed to equip both you and your Coach to engage other high-level stakeholders. Together, you will begin the essential work of co-designing your 100-Day Challenge to create a tangible impact in your community.
Remember: you are encouraged to move faster than the program’s suggested pace. Every day saved in preparation is an extra day your team can spend making an impact on the lives of survivors.
Brief the Selected Coach
Initial Coach Briefing: Host a 1-on-1 meeting with the chosen Coach to explain the 100-Day methodology and their specific role as a guide, motivator and enabler.
Share the Coach’s contact details so we can add them to the learning app.
Your Role as 100-Day Challenge Strategist
There is one additional topic that is important to learn about during this first week of your 100-Day Challenge journey: your Role as Challenge Strategist. This Learning Deep Dive will help you understand the unique aspects of this role and the skills you will sharpen during your own 100-Day Challenge journey.
