The 30-Day Challenge process 1) A regular survey asks LINERs what good habits or improvements they want to make in their lives,    then recruits leaders 2) LINERs sign up for the improvement area of their choice (lasting for an entire month). 3) Members in each group join a LINE group chat. 4) Over 30 days, members of each group encourage and remind each other by uploading    a photo of themselves each day working on developing that good habit. (No one format is required. Any photo is fine. And just typing #done is enough to count each day.) # The 30-Day Bot is an automatic participation recording system,   voluntarily made by one of the leaders for other leaders  (a symbol of the skills of LINE's developers)  # A Small deposit system is used to encourage everyone to kee to their 30-day Challenge A deposit is collected at the beginning of each month and is returned to each person after successfully participating for 30 days. The amount collected from the days missed is donated to an organization chosen by the members under the name of the group

Together rather than alone! The rise of 30-Day in the remote work era

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, LINE already introduced many changes to the office and work system, including extensive use of work-from-home (link). But as COVID-19 continued, many LINERs said they were beginning to feel lonely, only communicating with their colleagues through chat messages and video calls. People said they miss socializing with co-workers and connection that is built from sharing over lunch or during coffee breaks. In addition, many LINERs said they wanted to make better use of their free time and of the time they saved from not commuting to the office. This led to a 25% increase in new participants to the monthly 30-Day Challenge program.

In the first half of 2020, about 120 people were participating each month in the program, but that grew to 164 people by September 2021. That's a rise of 36%! Along with the official implementation of LINE's *Hybrid Work system, it’s apparent that the prolonged remote work system implemented because of COVID-19 has led to a great increase in demand for the 30-Day Challenge program.
*LINE Hybrid Work 1.0: A mixed work system that lets employees choose whether to work in the office or at home.

When we asked for their feedback, participants in 30-Day Challenge were clear about how much they valued the program.

“In the remote working era, it’s pleasant to have a common topic to talk about with colleagues every month.” (From a member of Becoming Healthier Every Month One Step At A Time) “Sharing a common goal with colleagues, though online, gives me a sense of belonging and personal motivation!” (A member of Step-by-Step Book Club) “It’s difficult to get to know colleagues outside of meetings while working at home. The 30-Day Challenge program is a good opportunity to meet colleagues outside of work.” (A member of Spend an Aromatic Day With Coffee) “I wouldn’t have been able to stick with a new habit by myself! But I could keep at it by thinking that I made a promise to my colleagues.” (A member of Becoming Usain Bolt) “It’s very pleasant to work together on a habit that can become a daily source of inspiration!” (A member of Daily Doodle)

 

Behind the creation of the 30-Day Challenge!

The 30-Day Challenge was introduced as a New Year’s project for LINERs in February 2019 (in Korea, New Year’s resolutions often start on the Lunar New Year). As a chat messaging company, the Organization Culture team pondered how to encourage employees to participate in online networking. They came up with the idea of creating mutual-encouragement groups, beginning with four area: The Live Long Project focused on taking vitamins, No Disposables encouraged the use of reusable objects instead of disposable ones to help the environment, the Upright Project was about walking 10,000 steps every day, and Create a LINE Sticker got participants to develop stickers for the LINE messenger.

At first, organizers were unsure how much interest there would be in a program like this. But 66 LINERs joined in the first month, growing to 116 people the second month, as the number of groups grew from four to ten. From there, 30-Day Challenge just kept growing, becoming one of LINE’s most popular in-house networking programs by 2021.

Participants made it known how much they appreciated the program: “I feel so proud, as if I finally finished some homework I had been postponing.” “I felt even more fired up and had fun by working together!” “I enjoyed the process of accomplishing my personal goals.” “What encouraged me was seeing actual results for something I had only thought about before joining."

Some of the most popular 30-Day Challenge groups

After nearly two years, we created a Hall of Fame for some of the records that had been set, like “longest ongoing habit” and “shortest time to close applications." Here are some of the habits that LINERs really love:


Daily Coding is the “longest ongoing habit,” having been running since the second month of the program. It is rumored that the best gardeners at LINE are nurturing the gardens of Github every month.

Tears Result in Muscle Loss is a group dedicated to working out at least three days a week. However, the passionate members didn’t stop at 3 days a week, and instead went on to achieve a 124% mission participation!

The Step-by-Step Book Club aims to get members to read 15 pages every day. Not only did this group get the most participants ever, but it’s also broke recruitments records! Rumor has it that one month, this group got filled up in less than an hour.

The Early Bird Project, for waking up at 7 am every day, is also one of the longest groups. Waking up early every single day requires a lot of determination for anyone, so understandably, one leader might be overwhelmed to lead several rounds in a row. Even so, there's always another member ready to take over the leadership role whenever one leader retires. This group joined the Hall of Fame for “Diligence and Persistence.”

The secret of its success? LINERs are serious about their 30-Day Challenge!

Over the past two years, 30-Day Challenge has been able to maintain a high participation rate every month thanks to the passion and affection of the LINERs who take part in the program. In a recent survey, 94.2% of participants said they were Satisfied or Very Satisfied with the program. Why is that? According to some of the respondents, they find it motivating to see others participating with passion and get reminded of their goals every day, they enjoy sharing information about their goals, it's easy to participate (thanks to the D-30 Bot), and it feels good to achieve your goals.

 

“I’m glad to stick to this Challenge! Even when I forget once in a while, I get pumped seeing everyone else’s participating!” (From a member of Miracle Morning) “When I tried to drink more water by myself, I never lasted long. But 30-Day keeps reminding me, and even if I don't succeed 100% of the time, I'm still happy with my results. Sharing the process of working toward a common goal was very fun, and it encouraged me to work harder.” (A member of The Body Is Made of 1.5L of Water) “I joined on an impulse, but I learned a lot while sharing and looking for information on the topic.” (A member of Cooking 3 Meals a Day at Home) “Even finding a few hours to work on something is difficult by myself. But working together, I could go on for 30 days and even 180 days. I’ve been working on my book report project for six months now. Writing a book report every month felt very helpful. I like our group where we can share each other’s writing and recommend books to each other.” (A member of A Book Report Every Month)

One thing that people say makes the 30-Day Challenge so successful is the D-30 Bot, which automatically tracks people's participation using the LINE messenger. It was created by a developer who was one of the early 30-Day participants, who came up with the idea and programmed it by themselves. Truly a "WOW" move. The D-30 Bot is now used for all the 30-Day groups, and has become a proud symbol of the program. And as the program continues, it continues to be improved and upgraded, thanks to the enthusiasm of everyone who takes part.

 

Last, but not least, are the enthusiastic group leaders in each of the 30-Day groups. The leaders come up with programs for all to join, lead the group chats, and encourage everyone to succeed. The 30-Day Challenge wouldn’t have been possible without the group leaders!

“The D-30 Bot worked so well, there wasn’t a lot I had to do as a leader. It was great to work on our goal together, something I wouldn’t have been able to achieve on my own!” (The leader of Creating a Refreshing Home Office) “It’s a good experience to continue encouraging members who are working on the same goal. When I see members continuing past a month, and when I see more new members, I feel very proud as the leader.” (The leader of Trend Clipping) “Everyone participated every day, and that felt great because it felt like I was working out with everyone.” (The leader of Walk Together and Be Healthy)