Jeremy Branzetti: Clinician. Educator. Scholar. Coach.

A WAG is a group of people who come together once a week for a defined period of time – in our case, 10 weeks – and collectively help you think about your writing project in a new way. The key point is that everyone in the WAG is working on THEIR OWN projects. This is not a group paper, but rather a group to help write many papers. In general, the biggest benefits that come from a WAG are that they help you think about the idea of your paper as a series of small, manageable steps while using the threat of public shame over your head! 

Ok, that last part is a joke. . . sort of. But the accountability part of the group is often what truly pushes people to make steady progress in the face of temptation to delay or procrastinate. Think of it like having a gym buddy: If you go to the gym on your own every day, it’s easy to wake up, feel tired, and choose to blow it off. It’s a lot harder to text your gym buddy and blow them off. No one wants to do that, just like no one wants to have to report out in their WAG that they didn’t make Table 1 for their paper as they publicly declared they would do last week.

What a WAG isn’t:

• A group paper or project
• A work-in-progress session wherein you’re soliciting input from a group out a single project
• A collective brainstorming session
• A chance to chat with colleagues and catch up

How do I set up a WAG?

Well, in the spirit of making tasks manageable, let’s break down the WAG into some easy steps:

Step 1: Find your WAG people

WAGs are best done with between 4-8 people. One of those people will be the WAG leader or coach for the group. This person must understand the principles of the WAG, as they will often have to help others learn to break their work down into manageable steps. They will track everyone’s work across sessions, so they must also commit to being able to attend all of the WAG sessions. This is a great role for that person in your team that is super-organized and doesn’t have any qualms about pushing others to stick with it. When people join the WAG, they should commit to attending at minimum 7 of the 10 WAG sessions. The best way to make sure you go to your WAG is to make sure it is on your calendar.

Step 2: Choose your day and time

A consistent schedule both helps people stay on track and reinforces the idea of a certain block of time being “WAG time.” Choose a day of the week and time that is good for your group. As the typical WAG is 1 hour long and lasts for 10 weeks. One hour is a manageable chunk of time to plan ahead and protect on your schedule. It is strongly suggested to plan out a WAG before a clinical schedule is made so that everyone can protect the necessary time. For those of you out there that have assistants who manage your calendar, make sure they know this is NOT USABLE TIME! Don’t let your WAG time be taken away once it is on your calendar – very few things will truly suffer if it is addressed one hour later. Finally, WAGs are as effective virtually as in person. You can also do a hybrid format where some of you are in person and some of you are virtual.

Step 3: Understand the format

Ok, so what does the hour look like? Each session of the WAG has THREE discrete parts. Recap (first 10-15 minutes), quiet writing (30-40 minutes), and finally goal setting for the upcoming week (10-15 minutes).

• Part 1: Recap/Today’s Plan – Recaps kick off each meeting (except the first). During this time, the WAG leader tasks each attendee to announce what their planned tasks were from the end of the last session (remember that public shame reference above…), and then asks the member if they accomplished this task. This is the accountability part of the WAG! Everyone shares their successes and failures with the group, and everyone can benefit from the praise, support, encouragement, or even shared struggle of the group. Each person then states what they will be writing for the day’s session over the next ~30 minutes – again, saying their goal on the record for all to hear. 

• Part 2: WAG’ing – Each member of the WAG will work independently on their own task. Not only is this great for getting reacquainted with your work, but it is great for helping to train your brain to see your work into small, manageable chunks that you believe you can accomplish. Chunking your work, much like chunking material into smaller bite-sized morsels for learning, makes things seem way less overwhelming. It’s critical to re-emphasize that this is not a group project! You’re not using the group for project feedback, asking others to give feedback on your writing, or engage in collective brainstorming on a project. Once the work session begins, everyone should be quiet and attentive to their own work.

• Part 3: Report/Weekly Goals – After 30 minutes of intense, focused, and productive writing, the WAG leader reorients everyone back to the larger group, and, similar to Part 1, each member reports their progress during the 30 minute WAG session. They declare their goals for the next 7 days. For items not completed during Part 2, WAG’ers may roll them into the weekly plan for their next 7 days. 

And that’s it! Three parts, one hour a week, roughly 10 weeks. Et voilà!

A note about WAG leaders

The WAG leader is very important in the weekly goal setting, as most inexperienced chunkers make their chunks too big or too vague. It is the WAG leader’s job to help coach the participant to make their weekly plan be as specific and clear as possible (think SMART goal). I usually start each person off by asking, “over the next 7 days, what specific tasks are you going to accomplish? Don’t forget to tell me the details.” And when your WAG’er responds that they are going to work on Table 1 and 2, you have to clarify:

Me: “How much time will you be spending over the next 7 days?”  

Them: 2 hours?

Me: “ In what chunks of time?” 

Them: 1 hour at at time

Me: “How many of those chunks?” 

Them: Two

This short conversation allowed them to see that they’ve decided to spend two 1-hour time slots, and now they can actually just go to their calendar and schedule them. After the WAG is over, usually about 2-3 days later, the leader sends the current tracking document out to the group – again, reiterating accountability through a direct reminder and public commitment. 

Also, note that the WAG leader does not, in any way, have to possess seniority within the group. This is a writing collective, not a writing hierarchy. Chairs and first year faculty alike can benefit from WAGs, and anyone who is willing to keep the team on task can lead the group. In fact, it’s probably an excellent introductory role for administrative or leadership experience for junior faculty.

Of WAGs and Coaching

So… you may be asking yourself: why is this description of Writing Accountability Groups on a site about coaching, you ask?I like to think of the WAG as coaching in disguise. The format of the WAG implicitly includes coaching principles: nondirective questioning, listening, goal-setting and refinement, identifying suitable outcomes, etc. The WAG leader coaches attendees, using, questioning and helping the WAG’ers chunk, cut, and refine their tasks to be manageable, clear, and discrete goal with measurable outcomes. They are not telling the WAG’er what to do, or the best way to go about their tasks. Instead, leaders empower WAG’ers to generate accountability and make steady progress towards a self-defined goal. This is a prime manifestation of a group coaching format, and doesn’t require expertise to be successful – merely attention, time, effort, and commitment. Neither a senior leader nor technical expert is required for the WAG to be successful.