Overview of 30-Day Projects
Overview of 30-Day Projects
30-Day Projects are based on the 100-Day Challenge project model. So we will start with an overview of 100-Day Challenges – and then translate these into their compressed version: 30-Day Projects.
What are 100-Day Challenges? How are they different from traditional projects that last 100 days? And why do we believe that they enable unusually high levels of performance in teams and organisations?
The following two videos will help answer the above questions
Summary of the videos
Here’s a table that summarises the features and builds on what we saw in the two videos.
Crisis
100-Day Challenge
Sense of Urgency
Fast: 100 days from start to completion of the project
Success, or even survival, is far from guaranteed
100-Day Goal feels almost impossible to achieve
“All hands on deck” – all focused on the crisis
Right team is assembled, all committed to the goal
People ignore red tape, hierarchy, and approvals
Evolving 100-Day Plan, with lots of experimentation built into it – not business as usual
Let's dive into the roles and events in the 100-Day Challenge...
The 100-Day Challenge project involves 3 interconnected events (workshops), each building on the other. In the second video you were introduced to these events. We will dig a bit deeper into each workshop below.
The graphic below shows these three workshops (Start-Up; Refresh, and Scale-Up) as part of a relay race.
The graphic shows a race track, with a stretch of terrain before the Starting Gate, and a stretch beyond the Finish Line. Below is a narrative that tracks the movement of the athletes on the race track, from pre-start to post-finish.
The Challenge Strategist holds the baton in the terrain before the Starting Gate. She is responsible for getting the right team to the Starting Gate and for recruiting a Team Coach.
Once the Team is at the Starting Gate, the Challenge Strategist hands over the baton to the Team Coach to get the team ready for the race. As part of getting ready for the race, the Coach helps the Team pick a Team Leader.
Once the race gets underway (the Team leaves the Starting Gate), the Coach passes the baton to the Team Leader. Both Challenge Strategist and Team Coach stay on the sidelines of the track, cheering and supporting the Team and smoothing the track for them.
Once the Team gets to the Finish Line, The Team Leader hands over the baton to the Challenge Strategist, so she can organise the follow up work: additional 100-Day Challenges, etc.
The start, middle and end of the race are occasions for Workshops facilitated by the Team Coach. These involve the Team and others, including the Challenge Strategist and possibly other leadership stakeholders.
To learn more about these workshops, click on each black box
Pre Start-Up Workshop
Focus: Challenge Strategist consults with leadership stakeholders to decide on the focus of the Challenge
Team: Challenge Strategist consults with leadership stakeholders to select and recruit 100-Day Team members.
Coach: Challenge Strategist recruits Team Coach to support her and to guide the 100-Day Team
Start-Up Workshop
Goal: The Team sets its 100-Day Goal
Plan: The Team develops its initial 100-Day Plan
Process: The Team elects a Team Leader, and it develops a Team Operating Agreement.
Refresh Workshop
Goal Revisited: The Team assesses progress, and it confirms or adjusts the 100-Day Goal as needed.
Plan Adjusted: The Team adjusts its 100-Day Plan for the remainder of the race.
Team Dynamics: The Team assesses its own dynamics, and it adjusts the Team Operating Agreement as needed.
Scale-up Workshop
Celebrate: The Team celebrates achievements and shares lessons learned
Sustain: The Team recommends ways to sustain the impact
Amplify: The Team and leaders map out options to build on the 100-Day Challenge
Post Scale-Up
Path Forward: Challenge Strategist & Team Coach help leadership stakeholders decide on the path forward
Governance: Leadership stakeholders, guided by the Challenge Strategist, recruit Challenge Strategists and Team Coaches to guide and support future 100-Day Challenges and other related projects.
Now let's translate this into 30-Day Projects...
Here’s how the relay race diagram looks like when we compress it into 30 days:
30-Day Projects vs. 100-Day Challenges
The GBVF Maturity 30-Day Project is based on GBVF 100-Day Challenges. However, it is designed to be simpler and faster.
Here are main differences, apart from the obvious shorter exploration (implementation) phase:
The context for the 30-Day Project is the organisational Health check, versus the GBVF National Strategic Plan.
The 30-Day Project team members are from the same organisation, whereas the 100-Day Challenge team typically spans multiple organisations.
The 30-Day Project team is smaller – 4-8 team members versus 8-12.
The organisational leader who convenes the leadership team is the “Project Sponsor” of the 30-day team. In 100-Day Challenges, leaders from multiple organisations elect one or more “Challenge Strategists” to guide and support the 100-day Team.
Organisations interested in hosting community-wide GBVF 100-Day Challenges can encourage participants in GBVF Maturity 30-Day Projects to apply to become GBVF 100-Day Challenge Ambassadors. This will involve a more extensive training program on supporting community leaders to organise 100-Day Challenges that aim to localise the National Strategic Plan to end GBVF and to accelerate its implementation in and through courts, municipalities, and educational institutions.
100-Day Challenges Experiences
Here are videos of three long time practitioners of 100-Day Challenges talking about their experience with the model.
Chief Prosecutor for the Polokwane Cluster, Octavia, shares some insight into the impact of the End GBVF 100-Day Challenges in the courts and how the experience has influenced the way of working to improve the reporting and management of GBVF cases in courts.
The Managing Director of Newmont Australia (Mining Sector), Mia, uses 100-Day Challenges, which was called Rapid Results in the past, to enable the operations to utilise and harness the front-line teams’ capacities to implement and innovate.
Our own 100-Day Challenge Guru – Nadim (the younger version) – talking about doing 100-Day Challenges in different countries. (100-Day Challenge used to be called Rapid Results Initiatives)
