Guiding & Coaching a 100-Day Challenge team (Team Coach)

Week minus 4 – I am the 100-Day Coach, How Can I Help?
Overview of 100-Day Challenges
Strategic context: GBVF in South Africa
Developing a short list of Focus areas for 100-Day Challenges.
Week minus 3 -Engaging Leadership Stakeholders
Gallery of Ending GBVF 100-Day Challenges in South Africa
Ending GBVF Dashboard
Choosing a Focus for your 100-Day Challenge
Who should be on the 100-Day Challenge team?
Facilitation 101
Week minus 2 – Getting Everyone Ready for the Start-Up Workshop
Preparing the Challenge Note
Overview of the Start-up Workshop
Your role as a Team Coach
“Doing no harm” – Practical guidance on working with GBV survivors.  
Using Mentimeter in Workshops
Week minus 1 – Getting ready to facilitate the Start-up Workshop
Understanding our 100-Day Challenge
Setting our 100-Day Goal
Shaping our Team Agreement
Developing our 100-Day Work Plan 
Feedback and Close-out
Final Preparations for the Start-Up Workshop
Week 2 – Managing the first team meeting
Facilitation 101
Week 3 – Sorting out data issues
Data Issues in 100-Day Challenges
Week 4 – Briefing the Challenge Strategist
Creating the Enabling Environment for 100-Day Challenges
Coaching the Challenge Strategist
Week 6 – Preparing for the Refresh Workshop
Using Mentimeter in Workshops
Overview of the Refresh Workshop
Week 8 – Briefing Leadership Stakeholders
Week 9 – Revisiting the data
Week 11 – Identifying potential future Team Coaches
Week 14 – Getting ready to facilitate the Scale-up Workshop
Shaping the way forward with the Challenge Strategist
Turbocharge Organisational Performance with 100-Day Challenges
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Telling the team’s story

Guiding & Coaching a 100-Day Challenge team (Team Coach) Week 10 – Capturing the voices of beneficiaries Telling the team’s story

Week 14

Telling the team's story

Draft the story of this 30-Day Challenge

Begin to sketch out the unique story of this 30-Day Challenge team:

  • What are the “memorable moments” of the teams: these could be moments of success or moments of great difficulty?
  • For each of these moments, fill in the structure of a story that makes the experience of the team as vivid as possible. 
  • Decide how best to bring each story to life: this could be through a short video where the protagonists of the story describe the experience, a news article or a blog with quotes from the protagonists, or some other way to memorialize the experience of this team.   

Why stories matter

Every 30-Day Challenge is unique. Your team’s journey – filled with collaboration, innovation, persistence, and new relationships – deserves to be shared so others can learn. Your last gift to the team is to help them tell their story in a way that inspires others. 

This is an easy-to-apply, practical guide that will help you share your story compellingly.

Elements of a great story

Characters that feel real

  • Create a main character people can relate to. Give them strengths, weaknesses, desires, and fears.
  • Make them feel like real people, not superheroes. They should have their own motivations and backstories.

A journey that matters

  • Have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Provide context (why you must be doing this), be descriptive, and aim to ‘paint’ a full picture with your words. Imagine having a conversation with a close friend on a topic that you were extremely passionate about. 
  • Include challenges that make the story interesting. What obstacles did the team encounter?  Show how things didn’t always go as planned.
  • Describe how the team had to pivot and respond to something unexpected.

A world that comes alive

  • Describe the story’s setting in detail – what did you feel, what emotions came up? 
  • Describe the environment in which your story took place. How did the environment support / not support the team?
  • Add quotes that capture the team’s / team members’ authentic expressions, and things they said so people hear the real voices of you, the team.

A message that touches hearts

  • What did you learn – as a team and on a personal level?
  • What makes your story important?
  • What would you want others to understand?

Emotions that connect

  • Share feelings honestly – use language and scenarios that elicit emotions
  • Help people understand how you felt during the challenge (‘Overwhelmed, excited, motivated, stressed, supported….’)
  • Use real moments that show human experience and moments of connection.

How to tell your story

Show, don't just tell
  • Instead of saying, “We were tired”, describe:
    • ‘Cups of coffee shared at midnight’
    • ‘Tired eyes but determined smiles’
    • ‘Moments of breakthrough after long hours’
Make your story flow
  • Use different sentence lengths. Avoid using very long sentences. 
  • Keep one idea/point per paragraph. 
  • Build excitement and reflection.

Tips for different formats

Video stories

Blog posts

News articles

  • Keep it short (3-5 minutes)
  • Don’t over-edit the video – your audience is most interested in the actual story/conversation – not the production. 
  • The video can be team members talking directly to the camera or 
  • Recording of two or more people having a conversation with each other.
  • You can also record a video in a ‘selfie’ format.
  • Start by providing a short bit of context (why this story is important)
  • Follow with a powerful opening (the hook), What was the main result, major finding, main impact…
  • Use subheadings
  • Include personal reflections
  • Focus on key achievements
  • Quote team members
  • Explain the broader impact and link it to other key developments and relevant news within your community.

Final advice

Your story is powerful because it’s real. Don’t worry about being perfect. Share your authentic experience, and people will connect with you.

Your story matters. Your challenge made a difference.

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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.