Getting the Most Out of Your Leadership Development with Group Coaching

Really, um, to kick us off, as Zach mentioned, uh, my name is Maie Barley. I'm the principal behavioral scientist here at Torch. Uh, I'm really excited to have this conversation today, really getting a deep dive into group coaching, how it works, um, some of the great things Samira is doing at Waymo with it. Uh, my passion for this, um, I'm a scientist, but I'm also an executive coach myself and a lot of my research, and one of the things I really like doing is facilitating group coaching. So one of the, um, studies I did was a really massive study about how to use group coaching to improve wellbeing while still making progress at the same time. Um, the time, it was the most rigorous study of group coaching to date. I spent a lot of time interviewing people, also doing surveys of them to see what changed as a result of it, and then also studied myself as the facilitator to see what was working and not working. Um, so one may have surpassed me, but I'm deeply passionate about this topic. I read a lot about it. Um, I really love working with groups. I really love working with teams. Um, and so it's really interesting to me. So very excited to have this discussion today. Um, Zach already asked you to put in where you're coming in from, but if there is a leadership skill that you personally are working on, we'd love to hear that. Feel free to throw that in the chat. Um, it's always nice to hear what people are working on. I'm working with a coach myself, so I have a number of different things that I'm also working on. So maybe I'll share that with you later. But in the meantime, I really wanna tell you a little bit more about Samara. Thank you so much for being here. Samara. Um, she leads a bunch of different initiatives at Waymo. Then they're really designed to support commitments around equity, inclusion, and diversity. She manages an employee resource group. Um, she does a lot with mentorship and designing those programs and different developmental initiatives to really foster a diverse pipeline of talents. Really easy to just get certain people moving up to leadership positions. And so making that more inclusive is really great to see. Uh, before going to Waymo, Samira has done group coaching, style programming and other, uh, learning and exchange type programming. So if you have additional questions after we talk specifically about Waymo, um, I'm gonna potentially throw that out there as an area, uh, to talk about. But really, and also just to kind of like, say my role, I'm here to really just host, I'm gonna be facilitating the conversation between the two of us and kind of the mc, if you will. Maybe I'll be putting on my coach chat, asking some, some deep coaching questions. But we want this to be interactive, as Zach mentioned. So feel free to ask questions in the q and a feature, throw them in the chat. Um, someone will help me monitor the chat. Maybe I'll get an eye on it. We'll see. Um, and as you know, it's gonna be recorded so you can get that afterwards. So feel free to focus here. The other thing I'll put out there is Samantha's gonna talk about her experience working at Waymo and potentially other places. So I wanna be really clear she has the right to say no thank you to any questions we pose to her if she doesn't feel like that's information she wants to share. So I invite you to say, no, thank you. Should you not like a question, Samara, we will totally honor that and move on to something else. Um, so yes. With that being said, well actually, I realized we are gonna do a poll first. So, uh, let's kick off with the poll and then Samara's gonna start answering some questions. So, first question for you and our poll. And Zach, this is where I get a little bit awkward, so tell me if I need to stop sharing my screen so we can do the poll. But, uh, what types of leadership development are you interested in using group coaching for, potentially? And we have a couple of different options for you coming up in the poll. If anyone can't see the poll, please let me know. Oh, I see the poll. Okay, we're good. Let us know. Give us some time to vote, see what people are interested in. Oh, thank you for the dancing. Sorry. Like that. That's getting, getting along. Great. All right. Give us one more minute. Promise. This isn't a secret quiz. There are no wrong answers. Just wanna know what you're interested. Thank you. Okay. Now, first question for Samara. Ready to move on. So, Samara, we've done this great program at Waymo. Um, looking back, as you launch this program, what's been the biggest surprise or takeaway for you from implementing group coaching? I'm gonna stop sharing these slides to give you more Stuff. Yeah, sure. Yeah. Hi everyone. Um, so glad to see your names in the chat. I know I can't see all of you just yet, but, um, I am, I'm always pleasantly surprised by how much people love participating in that group coaching setting. I know it's really impactful for me, but I think, you know, sometimes as a, as a program implementer or facilitator, you don't always know exactly what the experience is within those groups. And so I'm always shocked, pleasantly shocked that the, that the experience in groups is so impactful for people. Um, you know, I think that it's, it's always amazing to me to hear how how many groups or people within the group stay connected long after that group coaching setting or, you know, cohort setting. Um, and I'm, it's always interesting to hear, too, how powerful it is to shift perspectives based on what you learn in a group. So, um, you know, I, uh, Mandy mentioned, and Zach mentioned that before Waymo, um, I used to also implement different group learning opportunities. One of 'em was for an international fellowship program. This was before Waymo connecting people from different countries around similar topics. Um, and so that was really the first time when I was like, wow, this is very amazing. And it was honestly shocking to me how how much people really got out of that group coaching experience. Um, and so I really followed that ever since then. Um, and at Waymo, we, and the program that I'm gonna share with you a bit about today is called our Emerging Leaders Program. And it uses a group coaching element as part of it. Um, and so when we got to the end of the program, you know, I heard people talking about the things that they learned or the impact of the program. And so part of our final questionnaire was what elements of the program were most impactful to you? And group coaching was there at the top. And so that surprised me. Um, not because I don't believe in the power of it, but just because I, you know, it's one of those elements where I don't have a window into what exactly is happening because it is so intimate and private to the group. Um, so, so that's one where I, it it, it surprised me. And so we decided to keep it in the program. Unmute myself so I can respond. Yeah. Uh, yeah, I similar, I, it shouldn't be surprising how powerful it is. Um, as I've facilitated these sorts of groups, it's funny. People come in, they're like, yes, I want this experience, but they're also highly skeptical of whether or not it's gonna work. And so kind of managing that on the front end and helping people feel, um, safe in that session, get to trust their peers, being willing to share what really works for them, um, unpopular terminology. But I always found like, if you can get some degree of vulnerability in your first session, then that really starts to build those impactful relationships that you see carry forward. So similar, I've had some groups that are like, we're bonded for life. We'll meet without you. You're longer needed, Mandy. And I love that, that, that makes me really, really happy and gives me a lot of joy. So I'm so glad to hear that this was so impactful. Do you wanna talk a little bit more about the program overall that you just mentioned? Do you want me to show your slide? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let me take you through it. So, so y'all can see kind of what, you know, we, we added a number of modalities of learning into, um, into this program. Um, oh, sorry. The pull results popped up for me. Pull results are in Nice. Okay. Okay. Lemme go back to this. Okay. All right. Yeah. Um, okay. So what's on the slide right now is the program journey of this program that I told you about called Emerging Leaders. Um, you'll notice that group coaching was one component of it. Um, it might, you know, look like a lot on the screen. So that's why by the end of the pro, by the end of the pilot, we were thinking, you know, what, what aspects of this are most impactful that we wanna follow? And group coaching ended up being, um, at the top of that list. So we started off with an onboarding call. Um, that's when folks started matching with their, um, with their one-on-one coach. So there is that level of, um, individual learning following each person's own learning goals. Um, we did an in-person program, and that was really special for the groups to meet each other for the first time. So in our pilot year, we had 24 participants. Um, each group coaching group had eight people in it. Um, and you know, there's, there's different, I've, I've used different numbers, but this not, this of eight tended to work pretty well for this group since, you know, they could meet other people from across the company. Um, and, and then even throughout the six month program, which you'll see here on the slide, even if, you know, one or two people was busier on vacation or something like that, they still had a really solid group. So, um, so that number eight worked for us. Um, they met each other in person for the first time, um, before starting their group coaching. And I know that's not always feasible for every program, but if it is, highly recommend it that. I think to Mandy, your point about building that vulnerability, um, that was really important. Um, so this is the program, six months. You'll see we kind of weave in that, like there's a one-on-one coaching the leadership assessment, the group coaching level that gets at those specific topics that people are exploring together. They build their network, um, they get exposure to leaders. So that's kind of like at the more like company-wide system level of how do these topics fit into our company overall. Um, so yeah, so that's, that's the, that's the overview of the program. Um, and who it's for. So it's a six month program for our L four that, which is about mid-career level at Waymo, um, employees who are members of our employee resource groups. Um, and so, and I manage our employee resource groups, and this is a really great offering, um, for members of our ERGs. And anybody can be a member of an ERG, but it's a really great opportunity to make sure that, you know, the cohort is really a great opportunity to build and learn, uh, to build a, a diverse community of peers, but also learn from each other and learn from, you know, across, across different, you know, identity groups and across different, um, parts of the company. And then the other, so the, the other thing that I'll note too, um, where the group coaching really came into play is that we had a really important goal around building networks, um, within, within the company. And, um, you know, having those, having those connections, someone to, to rely on, someone to reach out to, um, was, was a really important, uh, design principle that we had. And so that's where the group coaching really came in. Um, okay. So maybe I'll stop there. What other, what questions do you have for me, Mandy, on the, on the program? Absolutely. I always have questions that's new. Um, so yeah, learning from each other, we talked about that, that seems really important as the, the key piece of the, of utilizing group coaching. Um, and, and you mentioned the term employee resource group. That's what I wanted to double click on. Um, for anyone who's not familiar, can you give us a quick definition of what an employee resource group is designed to do? What it is? Yeah, sure. So employee resource groups are run by groups of employees, um, and are four people who want to come together and build community around a particular identity or, um, or topic of interest. Um, so at Waymo we have, we have seven employee resource groups. And, um, they are really tasked with building that sense of community and belonging and also creating targeted development opportunities specific for their group. So, and building those networks, things like mentorship or, you know, opportunities to participate in this emerging leaders program, things like that. So yeah. Does that answer your question? Yes. So you already had kind of community minded folks in mind as you're building this sort of program. And so we just had a question in the chat. And actually this may, um, may jump down a little bit if you don't mind, to talk about participant selection. Um, so Lindsay put in the chat, are the participants distributed globally? Um, does everything in occur in person? So there's that question from the chat, but I also know you feel very strongly about participant selection, and so we, I'd love to hear from you how you thought about doing that. Yeah, absolutely. So, um, to answer the question that was in the chat, we do have people who are participating globally. So for that first in-person, we just had one in-person, um, opportunity. We did fly people from different cities or countries where they lived. Um, and the rest of it was virtual, so the group coaching was virtual, um, everything else was virtual. So that worked for, for people being distributed. So just that first in-person part, um, just that one meeting was in-person. Um, but to take a step back into how we selected the groups and then how they're structured, I'm seeing these questions coming in the chat too. Um, I'll start by saying I feel very strongly, and Manny, I'm curious to hear your experience too. Mm-Hmm. Um, is that it's so important to set the stage for that generous learning experience. Know there are, there are certain development opportunities where you maybe have a specific thing in mind that you want to talk about with a one-on-one coach, or a specific skill you want to grow or something like that. Um, but group coaching really thrives when everyone who's participating also has something to offer the group or is aware of and can articulate maybe their approach to something or their, um, their way of thinking about something. And even if they don't think they are, sometimes even just articulating something as part of that learning process. I know for me, I learned the most about myself when I'm sharing like, well, here's how I've approached a similar situation. I'm like, oh, interesting. I never thought about that before. So, um, okay, so here's how, here's what we did. Here's how I get to that, um, to that cohort of who will be really participatory and generous learners in the application process. I ask this question, and I have it written here so I can tell you word for word. So the one of the questions in the application is, what would you look forward to contributing to the cohort learning process? And then the subtext that I include in there for, for, um, thought is a key design principle of this program is to foster learning among the cohort diversity of perspective and lived experiences to maximize learning in the group. For example, you may include things like professional or educational background, cultural or, or family background, learning styles, geographic location. So that's a long sentence, but it's just the subtext and what comes out of that question really is amazing. And, um, our, we run a selection process with the, with the applicants and the selection committee's review. And that's what really gives them insight into who will, who will be a really active participant, whether you, you know, have, have that moment of reflection to say, um, to say, you know, what, what can I offer? What are my strengths? Am I willing to show up for this group too, and contribute and actively participate? Um, so that's one thing that I highly recommend is to invite your participants to share what they look forward, forward to contributing. Um, and I think that's, that, that's the, that's probably a primary thing that I would say in terms of our process and how we select that goes a really long way. Um, and then I think to, I'll just share the rest of the process too is that we have, we have selection committees that are reviewing the applications for, you know, identifying emerging leaders. So to do that, we ask questions around like, what's your commitment to personal and professional growth? And then we also ask, how have you demonstrated initiative or contributions to positively influence the company or the team? Um, yes. Yes. So, and I saw in the chat someone asked, you know, are these participants already in formal leadership roles? So the answers for this program, the answer is no. Um, I think for people who are in formal leadership roles, group coaching is also amazing for different reasons. Um, for this program, they're not explicitly in leadership roles. So this gives them an opportunity to say, how have I demonstrated leadership either in the ERG, in, you know, an informal setting on my team or in a project or something like that. Um, and so that's how we get to the get to like who are the emerging leaders. Um, and then the second thing we look at is who will benefit from and contribute to the program? So their own learning goals and what they hope to contribute. Um, and then the last thing I'll add too is the selection committee's review, um, unidentified, um, applications, so no names. They just look at what's on the application for the, for the, um, selection criteria. And then the org leaders from each org review their candidates. Um, so I'm, I give 'em a semi-finalist list and they then they can offer one, this is really great for visibility for these folks, you know, um, putting their names in front of their, you know, their org leaders or department heads. Um, and then two, it also gives an added, um, added information. So if that org leader says, you know, like, this list is great, I'm familiar with something that this person is working on, I'd, I'd love to advocate to, you know, move them up into a selected spot or something like that. Um, and so that really gets the, like the company level buy-in too in each of these selections. Hmm. So that's how we go about the selection. I saw a couple other questions come in, but Mandy, based on that so far, what, is there anything else I can share specific to how we select Yes. Uh, so question came in the chat. Do you mind if, um, we post in the chat the question you use on your selection form? Or would you prefer us not to post directly? Yeah, we can that. Okay. So I'm gonna, I'm gonna copy and paste that you very much, yeah, here we go. And then, yeah, I Do recommend let's, Yes. Yeah. Well, and we chatted, um, before and talked about this and I totally agree that generosity, um, being generous with learning I think is a really excellent way to describe that. And it's kind of when I'm working with customers trying to decide, you know, do you want one-on-one coaching, do you want group coaching? There's different reasons to use both of those levers. And so you'll see in Samira's program, they leverage both one-on-one and group coaching. And I totally agree with you when you're in a group coaching experience, it's all about, um, finding the, I look at 'em as challenges, like what is everyone in that group trying to learn together? How are they trying to work on similar challenges? And so I, um, have identified, and I think it's similar for you focusing on an employee resource group, is people need to have something in common. I look really strongly at social identities because I think those are really powerful. So it's either a shared social identity or it is a shared challenge or both of those intersecting. Um, so I've run a group for, um, women PhD students and how to navigate that academic system. So they're facing similar challenges. They can learn from one another. And I agree with you, it's really important to speak from your own lived experience in the group, things that you have tried and how it worked. Like it either went great or it didn't. And so you get to hear all the different things that other people like you have tried. So you don't have to try options one through 10, maybe you just try options seven and eight 'cause you've heard from other people how the other ones went. Um, and that's been really, really useful. Um, it is kind of hard to explain to people when they're going into the experience, but then, uh, they seem to get it once they're there. And so I think screening for generosity of spirit, um, using, if y'all noted mayor asked about people's past behavior. So past behavior science had on is the best predictor of future behavior. So people like, I mean, new Year's resolutions, that intention action gap is real. So how people would like to be, they're aspirations for themselves are great, but if you really wanna know how someone's gonna do, asking them what they've done in the past, go good. Um, and then also like what we've found and also just from the peer reviewed academic research is someone's willingness to commit to a program is one of the best indicators that they will be a good participant. And so if they understand the time, energy, and attention commitment that they are making and they're like, yes, I'm up for it. Super, super great. And I love that you have your leaders reviewing, uh, the short list of the people that are hand raising. 'cause it really starts to my language, create a culture of learning and show who is committed to learning and growing and, um, becoming different professionally. So I love that. And that passive buy-in that you get from people. Um, we'll talk a little bit more about getting buy-in. 'cause that's a question that we get a lot. Um, I think that's, yeah. Incredibly cool. Yeah. And let me say something too, you, you said a couple things just now that I wanna double click on. One is that, so we used the question that we put in the chat, what do you wanna contribute to this cohort learning experience, um, for this group? Because that was this group that's, you know, more mid-career level, that was a really great opportunity to show like, what are the learning styles, communication styles, experiences that we can then, you know, form these groups of eight that we had. So we do look at that to say, you know, like, are there compliments that we wanna pull from to form the group so that that helps to inform the group? Um, in another setting where we have group coaching for more senior folks, maybe more senior leaders, um, I find that a lot of leaders are maybe more aware of like, I, I already know I have something to contribute, so we don't even have to ask. Yeah. Um, and so then it gets to your point of are you willing to commit to it? So that's, that's really just setting the stage and the expectation of like, you will be invited to share your perspective, your experience on this topic. Um, and sometimes we give, you know, some parameters on how to do that. It's not advice, it's, you know, we're learning together. Um, but, so yeah, it is a little bit different when you're forming groups for, you know, earlier mid-career to more senior leaders. Um, mm-Hmm. So, so yeah, that's one distinction I wanted to make. Um, I forgot about the other one so we can move on. I'm sure we go back to it if like, the thought trades coming in and out, it's, um, because also I've noticed like a lot of people are trying to figure out this space and figure out what works and don't, and I mean, you hit on a hot button issue early on, like, how big are your groups? Yeah. And so you landed on eight. I agree. I think six to eight is kind of the magic number. 'cause if not everyone's gonna make it to every session, even though you would like them to, it's just life happens. But you do want people in that first session so that the group can actually form if someone's missing from that first session. I've dealt with this a lot as a group coach. If you're not in the first session, you're actually not in the group and Right. You can't really integrate that person. I've tried, I've tried many things. Anyone has any suggestions, I'm open to it. Yeah. And that's why we did the first meeting in person, um, which is a very high investment. But for, for those of you who can do that as part of your program, it is awesome. Even if you can't, I think just making sure that everyone's there for the first program, for the first meeting is good. Um, and I will say too, the group of eight is a good size because this program is six months. Um, for other programs that I've done, I think the six, the number six that you mentioned is more the sweet spot, um, for like a, you know, maybe like a six week or, you know, couple month program. Um, so that's kind of how I think about the size of the groups too. This eight worked for this one because it was so long. So people, you know, people could kind of like, like if they had vacation or something, it was fine. Mm-Hmm. Um, yeah. And enough time to get to know everybody in the group too. I agree. And this is probably, I'm noting a question in the chat, and so it's probably worth just double clicking on some of your program elements, um, asking about how the group coaching is structured, the different topics. Um, yeah. Are everyone coached around the same topics? Mm-Hmm. Um, and well, how long are the group coaching sessions? I'm gonna knock that one out. I'm pretty sure it's 90 minutes. Yeah. Um, 'cause this is where, um, our organizations are partnering to be really explicit and call it out. Um, so Torch provides coaching, we provide group coaching, and so we partnered with Samara on utilizing group coaching throughout this program. And so, um, I'll mention our philosophical take and then you Yeah. Tell us, um, why you picked the Samara. Um, we like to theme different sessions so that when we work with folks like Samara, she has a sense of what's gonna happen in each session. Um, you will likely talk about that topic, introduce a few, um, maybe principles, frameworks, ideas, and then have people share from their own experience. Um, so it's not, it, there is structure, but it's a bit loose structure and everyone is oriented around the same topic. So that's why you're doing that in a group so people can learn from each other around a topic. But then the one-on-one is very, very individualized and personalized. So I love the combo. I'm a big fan. Um, turn it over to you, Samara. What would you like to add? Yeah, yeah. So this is part of the reason why we chose to partner with Torch on this program. So for everyone who's listening, everything you see on the screen is run by Torch with the exception of the chats with leaders. So I coordinate those, um, and I ran the selection process. But once we select the groups, then Torch takes over and it, and organizes everything. Um, and I, I see the message in the chat. Which 360? It's the 360 through Torch. Um, do Mandy, is there a name for it? Just the 360, I dunno. We call it the Torch 360 Leadership Assessment, kind of a long title. Um, but it's got nine different domains that you would want to ask leaders about, basically. Yeah. Yeah. So that, that was great. Torch has a lot of, um, tools that really fit with what we wanted for this program, which was awesome. Um, and so the topics that you see on here for group coaching, being a leader, navigating conflict, influencing without authority giving and receiving feedback, those were four of the topics that we chose based on our group. Um, and so we received, you know, the list of topics that, um, torch Coaches can facilitate. And so those are the four that we felt like would really resonate. And we got really great feedback about that. So we're sticking with the same four. Um, part of it is because of, you know, what, where they are like level wise in the company, um, and their learning interests. Um, so we could change that if like learning interests were to change. But that, those four seem to be great. And then the other thing I'll say too is that some of the best feedback that we got was actually specifically about the Torch coach. So everyone was saying like, I loved our group sessions with that Torch coach and like they really, you know, guided us through these conversations. And so I wanna bring that up too, because some group coaching programs can be, you know, like maybe you have, I've, I've been in one where it's like you have a guide of question topics and we facilitate ourselves, um, in this one. And I, and I feel like it's really powerful, is to have an expert coach guide the group through the conversation and really facilitate that conversation, make sure all the voices get in. Um, and so that was really impactful. Um, so I think that's, that's something to consider for, you know, for everyone with your, with your group coaching and an awesome resource that, um, that Torch has offered us. And then I'll also say too, in terms of structuring it, um, I, one of the, one of the reasons why I really like group coaching is because it's pretty easily scalable from like a program implementer side, because I, I can select even more people, you know, eight more at a time and then, you know, basically hand them over to Torch for these group coaching programs. And I don't have to check in with each individual person. So like with one-on-one coaching, um, that's a lot higher touch. You know, sometimes there's folks who wanna reach out with questions, which is great. Torch helps with that also. Um, but with group coaching, like the group holds each other accountable. They make sure that each of them show up for each other. Like, there's not a lot of handholding anybody has to do. Um, and so the group coaching format is a really scalable solution for those of you who are at companies or organizations that don't have like, the individual resources to, you know, like follow up on all of these things, but you want more people in. So, um, so yeah, that's the other reason why we, we are really going with that format. I love that explanation. Thank you for the co books. Um, that's so nice to hear, um, when, when people are loving what the coaches put out there. 'cause it is a challenging thing to provide coaching to a whole group of people around a particular topic. You're always doing this dance where you don't really want it to be like a professional support group is what I put over here on Right. Kind of one end of the spectrum, or one that is really just like a training with a bunch of people there. Like you don't want it to be small group training. And so really trying to strike that balance can be challenging. And I know we've kind of like touched on this topic a little bit, so I'll, I'll get a little bit more explicit about it. So this, um, are are more leaders, people who want to be leaders, they're trying to learn these particular leadership skills. Mm-Hmm. And Samir also mentioned like, this is great for senior leaders, but that has kind of a different flavor to it. And I fully agree because I've noticed when people are more senior, they don't really want their group coaching sessions themed. So the needs of that group tend to be a little bit different. They'll still cluster on particular themes, but it's a little bit more challenging to predict what those themes are going to be. It's a little bit more emergent, it's even more of a loosely structured sort of idea, um, is how I see it. And I'm curious if you see similar things. Yeah, exactly. The other, the other group coaching format that we use here at Waymo, um, uh, and we piloted last year a program for leaders. Um, but it was around one topic for the whole, um, I think we did it over the course of three months or so. Um, and so the one topic was about psychological safety. And so aside from that, they really guided their own conversations, um, in a, in a huge way. So, so yeah, totally agree. I, I definitely, um, and again, I didn't participate in those sessions, so I wish, I wish I could just be in a fly on the be a fly on the wall. Um, but you know, they, they had, they had that intimate space where they could, you know, learn, share with each other, be vulnerable, offer, offer insights to each other. Um, and so yeah, that definitely looks, looks quite a bit different for those groups. Mm-Hmm. Yeah, I agree. And keeping the, like, the more senior you get your time, energy and attention is just at much more of a premium. So people are always kind of voting with their feet. So getting a lot of value out of every session becomes really important to keep people engaged. So definitely call that out. And I know people mentioned in the chat being interested about manager development. And so you're seeing, um, a program that we made here for Waymo, um, to address kind of the different things that this population is going through. We've also started to develop more, um, like manager development specific content. So I'll throw that out there if anyone Mm-Hmm. Ever talk about that. But we have kind of group coaching for new managers or more senior managers, and also people mentioned coaching skills. We're actually developing a program really to teach coaching skills, which even group coaching is one of the best ways to really learn how to be a coach. I don't know if you've experienced that yourself. Yeah, definitely. Yeah. Absolutely. Awesome. All right. So I know we've covered a lot of different things. I think we probably have time for another question or two. I'm trying to see what we haven't covered yet. Talked about structure, participant selection did, gave us some great thoughts on process. Um, oh, let's talk a little bit more about the outcome piece and talking Yeah. Um, about this internally. So I mentioned a little bit, uh, about getting buy-in from other leaders. Yes. And, um, that you were started to do that even in the selection process. Thinking ahead. So what sort of outcomes did you see from this program and how did you tell everyone else about it? Yeah, so, um, we, let me, let me just, let me go take you through the whole journey. So, um, so we got a lot, we, we do some surveying throughout, of course, it's a six month program, so we do a check-in. Um, but what we did in the last wrap up call was, and this was co-facilitated by me and, um, a torch learning specialist. We did a live, um, feedback, uh, uh, like feedback survey, sorry, I was like, what's the word? Um, so that we made sure that everybody submitted their feedback while they're on the call. Um, and I know that, so if, for some of you, probably many of you already do this, but that's something that I've found to be very useful. 'cause otherwise people don't survey feedback after i, I know sometimes I don't. Um, and so, but we really treat that as a, a, a reflection moment. So it's not just like, here's this boring feedback survey. It's like, you know, we, we, um, first broke out into groups, um, different groups in the group coaching groups, but just kind of to like move people around, talked about what they learned throughout the program, shared out, and then had that quiet reflection moment where they could, you know, fill out that survey of what they learned, what was most valuable, that kind of a thing. So we got a really high, probably almost a hundred percent, um, survey response rate. And so from that, we saw things like, um, some of the biggest outcomes were the strong, the strong network that was built, those long lasting connections. Um, and I saw this from the cohort group chat too, that people would really tap on each other to be like, Hey, I have a big presentation coming up. Would anybody here be willing to help me practice or review what I'm gonna say? Yeah, it's awesome. And or someone else like, Hey, I'm going up for promotion. Can somebody else review this and offer me input? Um, and so that is, that is amazing. Um, and, and then I think all the other thing too is that another, a theme that came up was really fostering a culture that values different perspectives, different leadership styles. Mm-Hmm. Um, you know, that's, that's a, that's a big goal that I have, especially for this program when we do wanna foster that culture of, you know, celebrating diversity and being open to shifting perspectives and truly valuing each other's opinions and input. Um, and so that's one thing that came out was, you know, people were like, oh, I never thought about, you know, such and such, or now I'm thinking about something differently. Um, so we had those amazing stories, those quotes related to that network building related to that shifting of mindset. Um, and when we closed out that session that live, you know, wrap up session, I asked everyone my favorite thing, a fill in the blank question, which is, I used to think blank, and now I think blank. And so prompted everyone to do that. We just went down the list and everyone shared theirs, and it was amazing to hear what those responses were. So that's kind of like the anecdotal outcome feedback was awesome. Um, and then the other thing that I'll share the more like tactical metrics. Um, so the Torch behavioral scientists or specialists, um, produce a report about the learning outcomes and the return on investment. So that focuses on learning goals, so the areas that, that, um, that the participants are learning in. And then also the behavioral outcomes, um, in addition to like, satisfaction of the program and stuff. So I found that our, you know, the rest of our learning team and, um, you know, our more senior leaders, they were really interested in the, that behavioral analysis, like as a result of the program. Yeah. What's the be, what are the behavioral changes? Um, so, so yeah, I would say that in term, that's one other great thing about, um, working with Torch is that I have that as a tool to say, look at this, look at these outcomes, you know, um, both anecdotally in terms of stories and in terms of those, um, those numbers. Yeah. Oh, I, I love hearing that because yes, I am deeply passionate about behavior change as a scientist and a coach, it's just like extra strong in me. And, um, people forget how hard it is to change your behavior when you're looking at someone else and be like, well, why aren't they just being different? And it's like, from an evolutionary biology perspective, from like a social biology perspective, we aren't meant to change readily or easily. And so when people really invest the time and energy, I really love to see that come out. And I mean, just double clicking on the fact that you really wanted people to build networks and that goal is achieved. That's great. I heard you describing some people asking each other for help, which is a really strong indicator that you have a psychologically safe culture where people can hand raise and be a little bit vulnerable. Um, especially when you have a lot of high performers, the tendency to ask for help is not high. So I am thrilled for that. And the valuing of other people's perspectives, the fact that they're asking for help and want it, um, and want different perspectives, that is so cool to hear that just, yeah, that makes me feel warm and fuzzy. So Yeah. Yeah, I mean, that's the desired outcome. And to have that, you know, tactical feedback and response of those outcomes is amazing. So that, so there was overwhelming support to continue the program, the whole program that you saw on the screen earlier. But you know, particularly that, that group coaching piece, um, you know, there's, there's a lot of, there's a lot of, um, you know, data to support the, the impact of it. Yay. I love it. Yeah. I do have one more question for Samir, but I'm also looking at the time, so I am debating, so actually I will ask the short version of this question. Okay. What is one piece of advice you would give people considering group coaching for their leaders? Um, what my piece of advice is do it. Um, but I think my, I think we talked about this earlier, but if you were to have one takeaway of advice would be to curate a group of, and we both use this word generous learners. So whether for, whether that's asking that question of what do you wanna contribute or setting the expectation that, you know, if, especially if it's more senior leaders, we, this is an opportunity that we expect you to contribute and in this particular way, you know? Um, so that's, I would say that's, that's my main advice. Um, an awesome facilitator from Torch certainly helps. Um, and I'll also just leave you too with, if you are, if you're on the fence of like, is group coaching gonna be useful for me? Is it practical? Is it scalable? I've found that that group coaching model is probably the, like easiest, maybe like lowest lift for highest impact. Um, so that's my advice if, if, if you're on the, if you're on the path of, you know, what is, what's easy for high impact, I think I would group coaching is for you. Love that. Thank you. Thank you so much, Samara. This has been such a, I wanna continue the conversation. Why do we only have a certain amount of time? Um, but I try to, try to be mindful of the time. Um, we're gonna move into like more q and a from y'all and, um, listen or hear some of your questions respond to those. Um, feel free to ask them either Samira or myself. Uh, before we go into that though, I have a question for our wonderful audience. So this is our second poll. Um, and really I just would like to know if you'd like to hear more about scaling group coaching in your organization. So if you'd like to hear more from Torch, we would be happy to talk to you. If you don't wanna talk to us, that's okay. I'm really glad you came out today and heard, um, heard some air share her great experience. I love learning about group coaching, so this is deeply satisfying for me. Um, I'm really, really jazzed. Um, let's see, what else do I have to tell you for housekeeping stuff? Um, okay, let's, uh, as you're responding in the poll, please also throw some questions in the chat. I think Zach has been monitoring that for us. So Zach, what are we seeing? Yeah, thank you. That first of all, amazing discussion. I definitely was taking a ton of notes on my own, even for our own community achieve like how do we do more community group coaching experiences and track that, but also pair people together. And I'm thinking about as well of like, who do we allow into the group coaching people are willing to contribute? So those were some, so many just like amazing points there. And let me join you up here. I'll pin myself. Yeah, we got some good questions that came in the chat. I'm gonna build off of Judy's question. I know we talked about the, the coaching matching process. Samira on one end, there's kind of like the application into it, right? So you're asking those questions. There's the evaluation, then I'm assuming, like how does that go from there? Is like, do you have multiple groups where you're matching? Like if you had two or three coaching groups at a time Yeah. How do you maybe match and choose where they go? You know what I mean? Like are there certain elements there? Yeah, so for our program, we curated the group. So the whole cohort was 24. Each group had eight. Um, we curated that group of eight who stayed together for the course of the six months. Um, they met four times as their group. Um, and so we curated the group based on their learning interests and what they said they wanted to contribute to the cohort. So that's where that question came in handy. Um, and then in terms of matching them with a coach, they all four, all actually three, it was last year. Three of our groups of eight, um, were matched with the same torch coach that took them each through those topics of the topic, the four topics that we chose. Um, and Mandy, I'm assuming that you probably pick those coaches in particular based on those topics or maybe level of leader or something. Yeah, and we, um, to your point, like trying to keep the same group coach across all of the groups is really helpful because they get to really understand what Waymo's interested in, if there's particular language that really will resonate with those participants. So having kind of one coach across all of the groups ends up being really beneficial. And then for the one-on-one coaching, um, we have an algorithm that we use to ask people about their preferences. Um, we have pretty decent match rate success 'cause we also have a team behind the scenes that, um, reviews matches and it's like, but this one might be better. Or like, let's throw in a wild card option. And so that's been really great. I used our team for my coach batching myself. They're, they're very helpful. Yeah, and I think that's like one thing, thinking about the power of working with like a strategic partner like Torch is like they're working with companies every day, all day on this. So you gotta think about that expertise, that experience, that behavioral matching. Like that's, that's part of the, the reason why you need a strategic partner. So, um, awesome. I appreciate that, Samara. I have a follow up question to that, and it's kind of a second part to what Judy asked in the chat. And I'm gonna kind of pair it with another question from Anish in here. And I'm thinking part of where this question is coming from is, like, us as HR people leaders, we're often like crisis control or crisis response mode, right? So when things are going well, we're the ones that have to figure out what to do about that. Mm-Hmm. So with the pairing situation, what Judy's asking, like, were people happy with the outcomes? I'm just curious, have you ever had situations where you had to like evolve the group because it was tough for people to engage or connect with each other? And then I guess like a third part of that question to what initiatives sharing, um, like encouraging or getting introverts and certain individuals that maybe have like less of like a comfort with like, you know, putting themselves out there to participate in these groups. Yeah. Um, yes. So for your first question, it sounded, it's basically like what happens if the group doesn't work out together, they don't like each other? Yeah, I guess. Yeah. Um, so to be honest, I, I think the first thing that I would do is to reach out to that torch coach to, to get a recommendation. Um, and then in other, in other experiences, it, i, it has been pretty easy to, you know, maybe move one person to another group and just, you know, the original group can, I can just be like, we're making some changes, you know? And it's, it's actually usually pretty fine. Um, but I would, I would rely on that recommendation from the Torch coach to understand what's going on. Um, and then to the second question, which, what, what was the second question? Like the introverts of the Oh yes. Of the world. Yeah. Yeah. So I, I do feel like that group of eight is pretty large for, you know, if you have, if you're more introverted, tendency, like eight is still a pretty big number. Um, and so if you, you know, and so if you want to, if you have a sense of maybe the, the folks who will be in it or the duration of the program, if it's a shorter program or, um, you know, I don't know the tendencies and like maybe that maybe the number should be should be smaller than eight. Um, but what I will say is that part of the beautiful thing about, um, the program that we ran, which was a six month program with the group coaches, is that they got to know each other over time, um, first being in person. So actually the first time that we had folks meet their group, we had pairs within the group meet each other, and then they introduced their partner to the rest of the group. And that was kind of like a nice way to like start forming, you know, like a smaller group and then a little bit bigger and then their full group. Um, so I think that that helps. Um, so you can thi for, for those of you who are thinking about that, um, pairing people up within the group can also help in different, in different ways. Um, and then I will also say, I think having the topics be set in advance also helps with that too. So whether you're introverted or you have a, um, style of conversation or learning style that's more like, I need to think about what I'm gonna say before I say it. Um, having those set topics is, is really helpful. Um, yeah, I don't know, Mandy, if you have anything you wanna add to that? I agree. I am actually an introvert who plays an extrovert on tv. So I definitely, um, resonate very deeply with this question. Um, and so I feel very strongly that the role of the group coach is holding the space for people, whether they're extroverted or introverted, your extroverts are gonna be like, um, and introverts are gonna need a minute to adjust. And so, um, we very intentionally try to spend time in the first session setting the norms of the group. So some recommended norms and then the group, um, weighs in and says, I wanna add this, or I wanna emphasize that. And so they get to make them their own. And so that's one of the ways that they hold each other accountable. And so then as the group coach, it's really interesting because sometimes you'll put out a question and there'll be silence for a long period of time. So one of the groups that I ran in particular, my extroverts are like, I want to talk, but I wanna be really respectful of the introverts. And so they held themselves back to give the introverts the space and time to think. And so it can feel weird initially when you're first in those because there's a question asked, and then sometimes you're just holding silence while people collect their thoughts or think or do whatever. And so it's really slows down a group conversation. Um, I think when, when I think about like group projects in college, you'd usually have one person like, let's do this thing, we're gonna do it like this, and they would kind of dominate. And so the group coach's role is really to make sure the conversation is balanced and that all voices are heard. I love that. Yeah. It really separates the difference between just having like maybe you're just kind of assigning someone to be a facilitator in house versus like a truly skilled expert facilitator and coach. Mm-Hmm. Like that is what separates those two kind of maybe skill sets or individuals. It is a craft. And that's, I think another power of why having a strategic partner like this is like they know how to engage the introverts. They know how to facilitate the discussion in a way that engages the group and create space and all those different values. So, um, and I love the focus as well of, of in the, and the question was like, was one one-on-one leadership coaching optional? Like yeah, I know obviously Torch does that as well, but that's like another avenue that Samaria, you kind of talked about pairs one-on-one coaching ahead of time, developed relationships in those other venues so that when the group comes together it's like, it's a little easier stepping stone into it, but woo. All right. Well this was amazing. I wish we had another hour, a half hour to continue this discussion. Uh, thank you so much Samara and Mandy to leading this discussion. Um, where else can people learn more and discuss, uh, connect with you? I'm gonna share your LinkedIns in the chat, but anything else of how they can connect and follow up? Absolutely. So I threw in the chat if you want to stay up to date on group coaching, you wanna hear more about one-on-one coaching, feel free to click the link in the chat. And then also if you wanna join our newsletter, we keep a newsletter going about leadership development. Um, sometimes I will write random blogs about different topics that I've been noodling on. So, um, if you wanna see more of my brain noodles, I'd love to have you there. Please feel free to, to link in with me. Um, love to hear from folks. I love a group coaching, I love this chat, so I'm gonna be pumped for the rest of the day. Perfect. I love it. Definitely connect with them, follow the blog and the newsletter and everything they have going on. Connect with Samira, Mandy on LinkedIn. If you have more questions, I'm sure they'll be happy to continue the dialogue with you. Um, but that is a wrap. Thank you so much for everyone for joining. Mandy and Samira, thank you again for leading this discussion and uh, hope to see everyone again at our next program. Really appreciate it.

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