Face to Face Choosing a Focus for your 100-Day Challenge

Face to Face Choosing a Focus for your 100-Day Challenge

Choosing a Focus Area for Your 100-Day Challenge

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 pick a reasonably sized 100-Day Team (8-12 members). 

If the focus of the 100-Day Challenge is too broad or too vague, such as “we want to make progress on ending gender-based violence in our municipality”, it will be very difficult to decide who needs to be on the 100-Day Team, or the team will be way too large to be a real team.  As you probably have experienced, when teams get to be too large (more than 15 people), they become very slow and tough to manage.

It 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

1. Clarify

Go over the menu – the relevant impact indicators. Ask if there are clarification questions on any of them.

Make sure that you only allow clarification questions at this stage: questions aimed at understanding what is meant by this. You have to be firm in not allowing the conversation to drift to evaluation or commentary on the impact indicator. 

2. Agree on Criteria

Share the criteria for deciding which focus area to start with (slide in the deck) and make sure everyone is clear on these.

3. Reflect in Silence

Ask group members to reflect in silence for 5 minutes on which of the impact indicators they feel particularly strong about: either as being appropriate or inappropriate to start with as a focus area for the 100-Day Challenge.

4. Advocate

For each impact indicator, ask if anyone would like to share a strong perspective about it. Ok if no strong views are expressed. If they are, try to bring the discussion back to the criteria and how well it fits. Allow follow up questions or comments by others in response to opening perspectives. But try to limit the commentary on any particular impact indicator to 7 minutes. Use a timer if necessary.  

5. Vote

If the discussion on # 4 extends to 30 minutes, signal that “we will sped no more than 10 minutes, and then move to voting”. And hold the pace. Then give each member of the group 2-5 voting dots (depending on how many impact indicators are on the menu), and ask them to use the dots to vote on their choice of impact indicator to start with. If you are distributing more than 2 voting dots per person, tell them that one person cannot cast more than two votes per impact indicator.  So as not to skew the vote. 

6. Confirm Group's Decision

Count the dots. Pick the one that gets the most votes to start with. Remind them that this is just a start, and that they can tackle the second one in the second 100 days. Resist the temptation to combine two impact indicators!

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?
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.