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Welcome back! We are going to jump in with an element that is present in a lot of group programs: the Q&A call.

Do you have a Q&A call in your business? I’d love to hear about it!

Most coaches have a Q&A hour or call, maybe that’s the theme of the whole group call for that week or month. To put it plainly: this is ineffective for many reasons and we’re breaking that all down today!

Why your group coaching program’s Q&A call might not be as effective as you think

First of all, if this is something you’ve done, hi - me too. Nothing changes if nothing changes, so put down the ego that you’ve done this and it works sometimes and other people do it. Let’s just keep our minds open to solutions versus holding on to shit we’ve done and that hasn’t worked, just because everyone else is doing it.

That leads me to another point I want to make about online business - a lot of times we hold on to something really tightly because it seemingly works for other people and so it must just be something we have to keep pushing to get better at. What ends up happening is that we think there’s something wrong with US because we can’t get it.

So we double down, but we also have a war going on inside our heads about how we aren’t getting it and that means something about ourselves. Meanwhile, you have no idea if it’s actually effective for the people who are seemingly doing it right.

Is everyone doing Q&A calls in their group coaching programs?

Q&A sessions in group coaching programs are similar. I have only been a part of 1 group program that didn’t do this. It mostly happens everywhere and is being taught everywhere.

But the secret is: it’s not necessarily effective just because everyone is doing it. We cannot afford to keep up with the Joneses when we know deep down, it ain’t math-ing for us.

What if clients don’t bring questions to the Q&A calls in your group coaching program?

Here’s why a Q&A call doesn’t work in your program: a lot of times, clients don’t know what questions to ask. I’m gonna put my sassy pants on and tell you that this is a lazy way to run a program. This is putting the agenda in your clients’ hands, which isn’t a bad thing always - but there’s no backup plan.

Any time you’re getting clients together in a group is an opportunity to discover and grow. It’s not a “well, if you didn’t bring questions then you don’t get anything out of this” opportunity. That’s the fastest way to tank your program and the trust of your clients.

The setup with a Q&A call is really that you’ll be coaching the clients who have questions, and a lot of times, coaches will ask the group for feedback on a question to involve everyone. But it becomes a freaking advice giving fest!

What if someone doesn’t agree or wants to share a different point of view? That’s not always easy to do in the environment you’ve created. The person who did ask the question, now has a LOT of information to sort through. They are likely confused and overwhelmed.

This can lead to 2 things happening: they will either never ask a question again for fear of being buried with info, or they will only ever ask questions before they do anything because you’ve conditioned them to not be able to think for themselves.

How can I determine if my group coaching program isn’t bringing in results?

My analytical coach is wondering if I have any data to back this up! Is it even possible to get any data that would show how ineffective the group call is?

Let me give you some data points to collect here:

1. Attendance!

2. Can you quantify the result of your program or the mile markers in any way? Use those!

3. Client evaluations

Q&A calls in group coaching programs don’t promote lifelong learning

When Q&A is the only agenda, it basically allows for people to advice fest over everyone that asks for it. I am a proponent of using the coach for their expertise and asking them questions. But, I also don’t think it promotes true lifelong learning OR is even aligned with the way an adult thinks and takes action.

Advice giving can often come from a perspective of one person, and therefore not truly helpful to the client that’s asking. Because that client has a different perspective based on their life experiences thus far.

When we give advice, it’s actually selfish because we want the person to feel better, to fix things quickly, etc. We’re taking away something really powerful - the ability to make decisions! We may be giving the client a crutch that is something they can lean heavily on, without doing any of the other things they need to do in order to be successful.

Story time: Last year, I was in a group program for a year, and there was a client in the program who asked a LOT of questions. Because it was a Q&A call, she got the floor and she kept it week after week. Now could the coach have been a little bit better about moving on and managing her? Yes!

But that client ended up getting more and more desperate throughout the program for answers. She just really didn’t make a move until the Q&A call that week. It got a little old, and I know there were at least 2 of us that talked about it in our evaluation of the program.

In group coaching, you have to be mindful of the group as a whole, while being able to zoom in when people need it and having the rest of the group help their cohort out. There was no opportunity to do that in this program, it was like we were watching a 1-1 call and it was a bit awkward at times, to say the least!

What should I do in my group coaching program besides Q&A calls?

So now that we’ve talked about how Q&A calls don’t work, you’re probably wondering what DOES work.

The first thing I’ll say is if you have a strategy-heavy program, or you have knowledge gaps you need to provide for your people, you’ll absolutely want to build in some kind of really guided Q&A, a mastermind chat for 10 minutes at the end of the call.  

The idea behind a Q&A is important to recognize and shift to make it more meaningful.

But for the most part, having that as your strategy only, isn’t gonna work. So here’s some things you can do instead:

1. You can lead the group through an activity or a lesson you would teach in a module

2. You can have the group work together to solve something

3. You can ask a question, and then find a common thread in the answers and go deeper in conversation around the themes that come up

You’ll make more impact on your group coaching clients if you change your structure around calls

To recap - if you stop doing Q&A calls, or heavy on Q&A calls, you’ll make way more impact! Q&A calls do not promote community and accountability as much as you think they do.

Your clients are going to feel further away from you when you do this, and it’s just not conducive to adult learning.

In the very near future, I’ll be breaking down adult learning a little more as it relates to group programs, that way you can really see all of this coming together. Stay tuned for that!
I would love to hear what your biggest takeaway from this episode was! DM me on IG @theallisonnelson so we can chat about it - I am so open to hearing your thoughts on whether group coaching is effective for your clients or not!

To get this all down for your group program in a done-with-you 60 minutes, you can message me about booking a Money Maker session by messaging me on IG @theallisonnelson, or email me at allison@allison-nelson.com.

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