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Design feature – 100-Day Challenge roles

Private: Archive Orientation Design feature – 100-Day Challenge roles


Design feature

Roles in 100-day Challenges

100-Day Challenges do not happen in a vacuum. They emerge out of an opportunity or a need in an organisation, and in the social sector in a system of organisations that have similar or complementary goals (for example – reducing gender-based violence in the country, in a district, or a municipality).

There are typically many actors involved before a group of people are asked to form a team and take on a 100-Day Challenge. These actors play different roles. The precise contours of each role and the types of actors playing it may vary depending on the context. So naturally what follows is a model that needs to be adapted based on the situation.

The Story

We will start from the time that a group of people are asked to be part of a 100-Day Challenge team, and work our way backwards from there in terms of the various actors involved. We will use the example of gender-based violence and femicide.

You are a social worker. You received a Challenge Note asking you to be on a 100-Day Challenge team, with a mission of significantly accelerating the response time to sexual assault complaints to the hotline in your district, and ensuring more integrated support to the victims. The Challenge Note invites you and your teammates to participate in a Lift-off Workshop, where you meet your fellow teammates, learn about 100-Day Challenges, set your 100-Day Goal, and develop your 100-Day Plan.

You are a member of the 100-Day Team. You and your teammates, likely to be members of local government departments (including the police) and non-profit organisations working on gender-based violence, will be responsible for the following:

At the Lift-Off Workshop

  • Deciding on the 100-Day Goal 
  • Developing the initial 100-Day Plan
  • Electing team leader(s) to keep the team focused and organised, and deciding on other roles on the team

During the 100 Days 

  • Implementing the 100-Day Plan and measuring its impact during the 100 days.
  • Meeting every week with the team to review progress and adjust the 100-Day Plan as needed.
  • Doing what it takes to achieve your 100-Day Goal

Towards the end of the 100 Days

  • Developing recommendations to leaders on how to sustain and scale the impact.
The challenge note were signed by 2 or 3 people.
Find out who they were

Based on their discussions about the issue, the focus and the overall strategic context, the mentors prepare the Challenge Note that you received.

The discussions about the idea of using 100-Day Challenges, the focus of these, the team members, and the mentors often happen in a single event that we refer to as the System Leader Design Session.

The mentors are senior leaders in the local organisations working on gender based violence and femicide. One of them, for example, may be the head of the local police department. And they were elected by a group of organisational leaders who came together and decided to tackle this issue in the district, using 100-Day Challenges as a strategy for mobilising people for action, across the various organisations involved in this issue locally.
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This is the group that came together and discussed the issue, and decided to start by focusing in the first 100 days on accelerating response time and improving service integration. Based on this, they decided on the organisations that needed to be represented on the 100-Day team, and the specific team members. They also elected the mentors so they represent them vis-a-vis the 100-Day team.
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During the 100 days, these organisational leaders continue to play a role. Often, these leaders come together monthly anyway to review long term goals and discuss strategy. At these meetings, the mentors update them on the progress of the 100-Day team (or teams), and share the insights that are emerging. Leaders consider the implications of these insights on the broader strategy and on policy. And at times, they are pulled in by the mentors to actively support the team and help remove roadblocks in their way. 

Someone has to convene the leaders and lean on them to experiment with the idea of using 100-Day Challenges to move into action - in response to a need, a strategic opportunity, or a vision for change. This is typically a leader that is respected by his or her peers. It could also be someone who all these leaders report to. It could be a concerned citizen who took it upon himself or herself to build a coalition of leaders and ask them to take collective action on an issue. It could be a member of what is referred to in the system change literature as the “backbone organisation”. Since the main role of this individual is to convene these leaders at the outset of the process, we refer to him or her as the System Convener.
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Until this becomes a natural way of organising for action in an organisation or a system, there is a need for an experienced facilitator who also understands the principles, techniques and practices of 100-Day Challenges. We call this individual 100-Day Challenge Ambassador.

Ambassadors
Their role is to support all the actors on the scene, in whatever way is needed. This could include, as needed:
  • Facilitating some or all the workshops, system leadership design session, lift-off workshop, etc.
  • Coaching mentors and team leaders on their role in the context of 100-Day Challenges
  • Drafting the Challenge Notes
  • Facilitating 100-Day team meetings
  • Drafting agendas and follow-up actions to
    team meetings
    Drafting communication messages from

One more note on where all this work happens.

The team, mentors, and system leaders are all local – they are associated with a geographic region such as a city or a district or a municpality.  The fundamental premise of 100-Day Challenge work is that people involved in the work are in the best position to know the issues and find the solutions. And their involvement in developing the solutions increases the odds that these will be implemented wholeheartedly. So leaders and others in national ministries or corporate headquarters have an important role to play in shaping policies and long term strategies. But the actors we talked about above cannot be from national ministries or corporate headquarters. They are always “local”!

How it all fits together

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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.

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?