Developing a short list of Focus areas for 100-Day Challenges.
Developing Short List of Focus Areas for the 100-Day Challenge
Developing a short list of focus areas for 100-Day Challenges may seem simple, but it can be quite tricky, and it is profoundly important. In some business schools, a whole course is devoted to this topic. It gets at the critical distinction between vision and strategy, between results and activities, and between means and ends.
Focus Areas
Business Challenges
In business, this distinction is less tricky than in social impact domains. The main purpose of a business is to make a profit. Without profit, the business will eventually shut down. The profit equation is simple: revenues need to exceed expenses. So, in a business, 100-Day Challenges typically focus on increasing one of the sources of revenue or decreasing one of the expense items.
So in a business, possible focus areas for 100-Day Challenges would typically look like this:
- Increase revenue from an existing segment of clients
- Generate revenue from a product that targets a segment of clients
- Reduce the cost of a product that is sold to a price-sensitive segment of clients
At times, the focus areas are one step removed from revenues and expenses. They focus on one of the drivers of revenue or expense. For example:
- Increase pricing at contract renewal time without losing profitable clients.
- Increase client retention rates (this generally reduces costs, as retaining clients is generally less expensive than acquiring new ones)
- Accelerate the time to market of a new critical product (the sooner it gets to market, the faster it begins to generate revenue and, hopefully, profit)
Social Impact Challenges
In the social impact sector and in Government, this distinction is not as straightforward. Reducing costs is often a critical success factor. However, the equivalent of revenue in the social sector is impact. And this depends on how success is defined and varies from one sector to another.
100-Day Challenge focus areas in the social sector and in Government typically involve ways to demonstrate impact in the sector, and these could be quite situational.
For example, in the education sector, focus areas could be:
- Increasing access to schools
- Reducing dropout rates
- Increasing registration of girls in schools
- Improving maths scores among matriculating students
Each focus area targets an issue that exists in the community (for example – girls are not registering in schools), and it challenges a team to create a better version of the current reality in 100 days.
Caution: Avoid "Activity-oriented" Focus for 100-Day Challenges
Notice that the Focus of 100-Day Challenges is articulated in terms of the desired impact (e.g. improved enrollment of girls) and not the means to achieve this impact (e.g. conducting awareness-building campaigns).
Even if you are convinced that the way to increase girl enrollment is through awareness campaigns, your challenge to the team needs to remain at the level of impact.
Leaders in the social sector find it difficult to restrain themselves from telling 100-Day Challenge teams to focus on a particular solution or activity. Please do your best to resist this temptation.
The next exercise is aimed at driving home this distinction between activities and impact.
Exercise
Which statement in the following pairs, A (yellow) or B (orange), is a more appropriate Focus for a 100-Day Challenge? In each row, choose one of the two banners. Click on it to find out if you chose the appropriate one and the rationale for this.
In each of the exercises the more appropriate Focus of 100-Day Challenges is articulated in terms of the desired impact and not the means or activities to achieve this impact
GBVF Specific 100-Day Challenges
GBVF 100-Day Challenges in South Africa are a means localise the National Strategic Plan (NSP) to end GBVF. Ending GBVF 100-day Challenges are currently being convened and organised by Courts, Municipalities, TVETs and Universities. The impact indicators below have been culled out of the NSP as possible Focus Areas for End GBVF 100-Day Challenges. The numbers in parentheses are the NSP pillars that this impact indicator corresponds to.
Courts
- Reduce backlog of cases. (Pillar 3)
- Speed up time from filing to resolution. (Pillar 3)
- Reduce withdrawal of cases-(Pillar 3)
- Improve the experience of court clients (model court). (Pillar 3)
- …
Municipalities
- Increase the procurement from women-owned businesses (Pillar 5)
- Increase the number of support services that survivors of gender-based violence actually receive (Pillar 4)
- Reduce the incidence of GBVF in “hot zones” (Pillar 2)
- Reduce incidents of gender-related bullying in schools (Pillar 2)
- Reduce incidents of sexual abuse in the workplace (Pillar 5)
- Increase the number of safe spaces/shelters (Pillar 4)
TVETs & Universities
- Break the Silence: increase the number of survivors who come forward and report experiences of GBVF. (Pillar 2 & 4)
- Heal the Wounds: Increase the number of survivors who receive high-quality care, support, and counselling so they can overcome the trauma of GBVF. (Pillar 4)
- Create Deterrence: Increase the number of perpetrators held accountable through disciplinary actions in TVETs and courts. (Pillar 3 & 5)
See the previous Deep Dive on the “Strategic context of GBVF in South Africa” for additional background on the NSP pillars.
Prioritising Tips
It is good to bring forward 3-5 potential focus areas for discussion and decision with other leaders and stakeholders. This way the leaders participate in making the decision on what to focus the 100-Day Challenge on, without getting overwhelmed with too many choices.
The short list is best based on the specific context and timing:
- Which items of the menu are most relevant for us, now?
- Which of these will be most likely to garner interest and support among leadership stakeholders?
- Which of these could benefit the most from the three magic ingredients of 100-Day Challenges: intense collaboration, rapid innovation, and disciplined implementation?
At times, the impact indicators may have a natural sequence or order. For example, in Ending GBVF 100-Day Challenges hosted by Universities in South Africa, it became evident that the initial 100-Day Challenges needed to focus on “breaking the silence” – helping more survivors come forward and report their experiences. Subsequent waves of 100-Day Challenges focused on “healing the wounds” (providing integrated care services to survivors who come forward), and then on “creating deterrence” (bringing justice to perpetrators).
