Decide on a Focus Area
Decide on a Focus Area
There is no right answer here, but whichever focus areas is chosen, it is important to define it sharply enough so it is possible to make visible progress in 30 days!
If is important to engage other leaders in making the decision about the focus area. This will create buy-in.
Steps to Zero in on a Single Focus Area
Start by highlighting the 3-4 policies or behaviors that you identified as problematic after reviewing the Health Check survey results. You can ask each leader in the room to offer their perspective on one or more of these. 0000Some may get defensive. If they do, remind them that “this is what the data is telling us. It is up to us to decide how to interpret it.”
If there is a general convergence on one of the policies or behaviors. That’s great. If not, and especially if the group is large, split them into breakout groups of 4-5 each, ask them to rank the proposed policies and behaviors, then present this to each other. Suggest the following criteria to rank the possible policies/behaviors (in terms of which one is “ripe for action” now):
- How large is the percentage of staff ranking this negatively?
- How strongly do we as leaders feel about this?
- How much legal and reputational risk is involved if we do no act on this now?
- How likely are we to make a visible impact on this in 30 days?
- How likely is it that working on this will create a momentum to tackle GBV in our organisation?
If there is still no convergence on one policy or behavior, you can use voting to select one.
Tips
Resist the temptation to take on more than one policy or behavior in your 30-Day project. You can remind your colleagues that this is just the beginning, and that you (or “we”) can focus on another behavior or policy in our next 30-Day Project.
If there is enough interest and capacity, you can pick two or more behaviors or policies. You may need to mobilize two or more 30-Day Teams. These can be launched at the same Start-up Workshop. You will need to prepare a Project Charter for each team.
Additional Conversations
Here are three additional conversations with leadership stakeholders that will help further define the 30-Day Project and enrich the Project Charter.
What guidance do we want to give the 30-Day Team - things to watch out for?
For example, if the focus is on reducing occurrences of sexual advances, it is may be worthwhile to remind the Team that this is particularly toxic when it involves disparity in power between the two parties – for example a boss and a subordinate.
What are some of the recommendations to the Team?
Leadership stakeholders may be eager to offer up ideas to the 30-Day Team that come from their own experiences and wisdom. For example, “when it comes to behavior change related to GBV, awareness campaigns are necessarry but not sufficient”. You can offer these ideas up to the Team in the Project Charter. But be careful not to offer them so many ideas that the Team has no room to come up with their own. Trust the wisdom of the Team to come up with a 30-Day Plan. Leaders can always offer up additional ideas when they join the Team to review their draft 30-Day Plan at the end of the Start-Up Workshop.
What are we hoping to learn from the 30-Day Project?
For example, if you are challenging the Team to “Break the Silence” about gender-based violence, you can be explicit with the Team that, from a leadership perspective, you are keen to learn why women in particular, are not speaking up about their experiences with sexual harassment. Is it because the culture ostracizes them if they do? Is it because they feel unsafe? Is it because they do not believe it would lead to any change? Is it because they do not know the proper – and safe – channels to report this? Is it all the above? This “learning agenda” can be integrated into the Project Charter.
One More Tip: Active Listening
Often, we pretend to listen at meetings, but we aren’t really listening… It is particularly important to listen well to leadership stakeholders at the one on one or group meetings. Here’s a short video on the practice of “active listening”.
