Bumps in the Track
Bumps in the Race
This is a Learning Deep Dive on Bumps in the Race. And these are inevitable. But before we go there, here are some ways to inject positive energy in the Team. This at times can help avoid the bumps altogether.
Injecting Positive Energy
Tracking chart for the
100-Day goal
One way to keep the team focused on the goal is to develop a visible way to track progress towards the goal. This can be on a wall chart or online, and it can be updated weekly. Progress towards the goal can be celebrated at weekly team meetings. You can remind the team that a small progress early on in the 100 days is a precursor for exponential progress in the latter part of the 100 days.
Friendly peer
competition
When several teams are working on similar goals in different regions, it is helpful to bring team members or team leaders together on virtual calls to “compare notes”. Those ahead of others get more confident and work harder to stay ahead. And those falling behind are encouraged that “if others have done this, then so can we” – and they work harder to get caught up. It is a win-win. Teams also can learn from each other in these forums.
This same dynamic can play out within the same team, when the plan calls for each team member to do similar things in their area or department. You can suggest to the Team Leader to orchestrate this friendly competition. It is important though to keep it positive and collaborative, versus using it to “name and shame” individual team members.
Negative
visualisation
There is a tactic for building resilience that was pioneered by the stoics in ancient Greece. It is referred to as “negative visualisation”. It involves imagining worse case scenarios, and envisioning how these can be handled. This helps one avoid feeling stuck, panicking, or giving up in the face of adversity.
This technique can be used by 100-Day Challenge teams in the first week or two after the Start up Workshop, when the inevitable setbacks happen as the project gets underway, these feel “light” by comparison to what the team had imagined and prepared for.
Responding to Bumps in the Race
What do you do when the team hits a bump on the road? How can you, as a Team Coach, respond to help them?
Below are some of the bumps that 100-Day (and 30-Day) Challenge Teams have encountered in the past. For each bump, we share ideas on how others handled it to smooth the team’s journey. Scan the bumps on the left, and if you are experiencing or anticipate a similar situation with your team, go over the corresponding ideas on the right. You can come back to this list in later weeks as well.
If you try these ideas or experiment with new ones, please send us a note and let us know how it went. If we feel that it has broad applicability, we will build it into the next version of the online guidance.
Fluffy 100-Day Goal
Without a “SMURFy” 100-Day goal, the team might lose enthusiasm and focus during the Challenge.
Keep going: It is essential that the team keeps working together until the goal is set. This could be done in one or more work sessions after the Start up Workshop. Technically, the challenge begins the day after the Goal is set!
Facilitated Discussion: Schedule a work session with the team leader and team to facilitate a discussion and help the team converge.
Vote: If there are two or three options, agree that they can decide through voting.
Adjust the Focus: Go back to the Challenge Strategist and get their advice on how to sharpen the focus more so it is easier for the team to agree on a goal.
Vague 100-Day Plan
The team has not completed its work plan by the end of the Start-up Workshop.
Implement & Plan: It is okay to begin implementation while the work plan is being developed. The team just needs to agree on what needs to be done in the first few days of the 100 days. Then, the team can agree to meet to develop the rest of the plan.
One Week Plan: In some 100-Day Challenges, it is hard to envision activities beyond the initial week or two, so a plan can be developed looking at immediate activities, and then the team charts out the plan for the remaining days based on what emerges in the initial week or two.
Divide & Conquer: If you only got to a “high-level plan” without details at the Start up Workshop, you can advise the team leader to assign each element or work stream in the plan to 2 team members, and to ask them to develop this into a detailed plan in preparation for a follow-up planning session. This way, you do some homework before reconvening to finalise the plan.
Weak Team Operating Agreement
The team did not spend quality time on its team agreement.
The team agreement is often short-changed at the Start up workshop. If that happens, it is important that the team allocate time in the first meeting to focus on developing the agreement. In preparation for the session, each team member might consider what should be included in the agreement.
Dominant Team Member
One of the team members is dominating the conversations at team meetings and leaves little room for others to participate.
After the meeting, bring this issue up with the Team Leader. There are facilitation techniques to handle this situation:
- Round robin: The team leader goes around the table, asking each member for their input. This provides a formal structure in which everyone gets to express their opinion.
- Anonymous posting of ideas: Ask team members to write down ideas on post-it notes, which are then posted anonymously on the flip chart. A few team members can then organise the ideas, and present them to the entire group.
- Sub groups: Break up the team into groups of 2-3. The subgroups then develop ideas in response to a specific question. The subgroups come back together and present to the entire group.
- The 1-2-4-All technique is designed to engage everyone simultaneously in generating questions, ideas, and suggestions in rapid cycles. First individual reflection. Then sharing and consolidating in pairs. Then pairs pair up into groups of four and share and consolidate. Then they share with the rest of the team. Here is a video on how to do this.
Direct Feedback: You or the team leader can also have a one-on-one conversation with the team member to make them aware of this and work with them on ways to break the habit.
Over-Involved Challenge Strategist
The Challenge Strategist or other leaders are constantly ‘looking over the teams’ shoulder’ demanding regular feedback on team activities and trying to steer from the side lines. The team feels disempowered and passive.
- Talk with the Challenge Strategist and ask them how they feel the team is doing. Help them become aware of the consequences of their actions.
- Share articles and readings about the 100-Day Challenge approach with the Challenge Strategist and leaders, and discuss why they work.
- Ask for a time slot in a management meeting and invite one leader modelling the ‘proper’ behaviour to share their experiences and perspectives.
- If this is not the first 100 Day Challenge in an organisation, ask a Challenge Strategist from a previous Challenge who had struggled with this issue to talk with the existing Challenge Strategist.
Unassertive Team Leader
Talk with the Team Leader to find out what might be going on.
- If he/she is being distracted by other priorities, bring the issue up with their manager (through the Challenge Strategist if need be), and remind them of agreements made at the Start up Workshop.
- If they lack the skills or experience to run meetings and ‘take charge’ inclusively and respectfully, provide extra coaching and handholding, share guidance notes, and model the behaviour in a team meeting (if appropriate).
- If they are losing interest, ask them to bring this up at a team meeting so the team can elect another team leader.
- In an extreme situation, one 100-Day Challenge team met, ‘fired’ its team leader and elected a new one. You can help a team do this!
- Ask the team to elect co-team leaders, so if one gets buried with other work commitments, the other can take a more active role.
Team Members Missing in Action
Team members are getting busy with their day job and are not finding time to attend team meetings or to do the work.
Most team members have a full-time job, and the 100-Day Challenge might fall behind on their list of priorities. If you notice poor attendance, suggest that the Team Leader contact team members by phone to remind them that their participation is crucial to the team’s success and that their input is greatly valued. It is also important to get their feedback on the convenience of the meeting’s time and location.
- Ask peers on the team to follow up and inquire with the team member.
- If all else fails, acknowledge that there is a ‘core’ team and an ‘extended’ team: members of the extended team will be kept informed of progress and ‘pulled in’ on an as-needed basis. Go with the ‘coalition of the willing’. So, move some people from the core to the extended team.
- Ensure that leadership is updated on the presence/engagement of the team members.
- Incentivise team members through positive visibility and exposure – recognition and gratitude. Suggest to Challenge Strategists that they send a short praise email to the manager of a team member who always shows up and helps. Better yet, draft the email and send it to the manager.
- Ensure that there is a backup for each participant.
- You or the Team Leader can discuss this situation with the Challenge Strategist and seek their advice on the best way to proceed.
Commitments Slipping
One or more of team members are not delivering on what they committed to do. This could demoralise the team and go against one of the hallmarks of 100-Day Challenges: disciplined implementation.
There are many reasons for weak follow through. You and the Team Leader should look beyond excuses such as ‘lack of time’ to get to the root of the matter. Offer to provide support in whatever way feels useful. e.g.
- Talk with the Challenge Strategist to see if they can help the team prioritise the 100-Day Challenge work.
- Have a conversation with the concerned team members, to understand their constraints.
- Pair the individual concerned with another team member to increase capacity, connections, and mutual accountability.
- Break down the task into more manageable pieces.
- Bring this up at a team meeting, to use peer pressure to your advantage. One way to do this is to review “how we are doing against our Team agreement, where we are falling short, and how we strengthen our commitments and our follow-through on these.”
Tension between Team Members
Tension can take on different forms:
- There is tension between two team members, which is making it difficult for the rest of the team to have productive meetings.
- Team meetings are frequently becoming heated.
- Team members dismiss each other’s ideas, e.g., “That won’t work in this context because of x” or “We’ve tried that before, and it didn’t work—let’s move on.”
- Team members accuse each other of being the problem.
Conflict and disagreement between team members are normal and healthy. However, if it becomes a recurrent pattern between team members or degenerates into disrespectful attitudes or behaviours, it creates a toxic team environment.
If you see this recurring at a team meeting, it is best to call a break, and to ask the contenders to stay behind, with the Team Leader. Let them know that the tension between them is affecting the morale of the rest of the team. Ask them to restrain themselves for the rest of the meeting, and schedule a time for a facilitated conversation between them so they can get to the bottom of the issue between them, and agree how they will manage their differences and disagreements in ways that do not affect the morale of the rest of the team.
One useful technique you can use in this follow up meeting is a technique called Heroic Conversations—a structured approach to turning tough talks into productive discussions. You have linked an article on this below. Here are the highlights:
- Begin by asking if they are open to having a conversation about the issue, which shows respect for their feelings and sets a cooperative tone.
- Use open-ended questions like “Can you help me understand what you need?” to draw out the perspective of each.
- Validate their feelings, by acknowledging their viewpoint with a statement like, “I can see why you might feel that way.”
- Frame the rest of the conversation around finding a solution that works for both.
