Lessons from mentoring #Purposechallenges

19 March 2020, Francisco Palao runs the first 24-hour Global ExO Workshop focused on Covid-19. The workshop brief being to generate ExO Initiatives against COVID-19 that could have a massive impact in a short period of time.

Little did I know at the time, that this workshop would mark the beginning of an amazing journey mentoring teams on purpose driven challenges across the globe as well as organising #PurposeChallenge South Africa.

The following are some of the key lessons learnt during the journey, which I believe will assist mentors/coaches in the many #PurposeChallenges to come as the movement spreads across the globe.

Trust the process:

• It’s a proven recipe

Participants

• Each participant brings a unique set of skills, capabilities and perspectives - Diversity is a requirement for ground breaking ideas
• Everyone wants to contribute - Create a space that draws everyone in
• Everyone wants to learn - Encourage debate, questioning and the sharing of ideas. Focus on creating a culture of asking questions and learning through every step. e.g. what did we just learn/discover/realise?
• Everyone has their own expectations - Create an opportunity for all to voice their expectations and check on the achievement/fulfillment of such. There will always be someone whose expectations are not met - Create spaces to connect outside the challenge to engage on those expectations further

Mentor through questions

• Ask, don’t tell- Self-discovery is the most powerful teacher
• Every question can be responded to with a better or deeper question - Master the art of building questions on questions
• Sometimes, the best way to respond is to deflect the question in the team - The answers to questions are always within the team.
• Be a powerful mirror that helps the team reflect

Team dynamics

Every team will form, storm, norm then perform. Key is to accelerate the forming, storming and norming:

• Create opportunities for the team to form before the actual challenge work session
• The challenge is like a "pressure pot - The combination of the short time together with the frameworks provided facilitate the shift through storming, norming and performing

Define a clear problem statement

• What is the problem? - Be specific?
• Who is affected by the problem?
• Is it a problem worth solving? - What is the size and scale of the problem?

A focused solution

• Target the cause of the problem
• The solution must be: Disruptive/ transformative, Scalable and Quick to implement
• What are the first and most important steps to execute the solution?

Here's to your success as a mentor on #PurposeChallenges and any other Challenges/Hackahons.