From working alongside each other to working together — a global legal team

Why this team asked us in

Lawyers are trained to be precise, careful and alert to risk. Those instincts make for excellent legal work, and they can make connection across a dispersed team harder than it should be. This team sat across two countries, met in person only once every two years, and had drifted into a pattern its own members recognised: handoffs that confused who owned what, a pull toward individual visibility over collective progress, and a habit of avoiding difficult conversations rather than having them.

The brief was to close those connection gaps and build the safety for people to work as one team — to reach across borders, hand off cleanly, and raise the hard things before they fester. The 5 Guiding Principles of Applied Improv were the vehicle.

The themes that shaped the work:

• Distance, in every sense. Two countries, rare in-person contact, and unclear handoffs between offices.
• Working against, not with. A drift toward personal visibility that turned shared work into quiet competition.
• A team that avoided friction. Difficult conversations got sidestepped, which let small issues harden.

What we delivered

A one-day experiential off-site grounded in the 5 Guiding Principles of IMPROV, followed by a 30-day reinforcement programme for those who opted in — short prompts that turn the experience into habit over the four weeks after. The day was hands-on throughout: people practise the behaviours, notice what happens in themselves, and commit to one specific change to carry back to work. For a team that rarely shares a room, the shared experience itself was part of the point.

What the participants told us

The numbers landed where the team needed them. Likelihood of reaching across borders and departments came in at 6.42/7 — the standout figure, with 58% giving a perfect 7 and nobody scoring below 5. Confidence to apply what they'd experienced scored 5.58/7. Every respondent would recommend the experience, and every respondent opted into the 30-day programme.

Which principle resonated most. Asked which of the five spoke to them most, the team pointed straight at the one that named their core challenge.

Principle named as most resonant	Times named
Make Each Other Look Good	5
Do Not Judge Yourself	3
Embrace Failure	2
Do Not Judge Others	1
Yes, And	1

Make Each Other Look Good winning is telling. Participants connected it directly to their own dynamic — "sometimes we work against each other instead of together", and "it is the key for team success". The session spoke to the real issue, not an abstract one. One person described Yes, And as the principle that opens up all the others — a sign the five were understood as a connected system rather than a menu.

The commitments converged on connection. A third named reaching out to a colleague they didn't yet have a relationship with; the next-largest group committed to giving more positive feedback — a direct move away from the team's habit of avoidance toward active contribution.

What people noticed about themselves ran honest and deep. Three named their own self-criticism unprompted ("Because I'm my hardest critic"). One named a defensive pattern with striking openness: "I have a strong tendency to take a defensive position — feel attacked without reason." Naming a pattern like that, in writing, right after a session, is exactly the kind of self-awareness real change is built on.

In their own words

Sometimes we work against each other instead of together. — Anonymous respondent, on why "Make Each Other Look Good" resonated

Contact a person in the organisation I've never had a private exchange with, and arrange a lunch. — Anonymous respondent, on what they'll do differently

I have a strong tendency to take a defensive position — to feel attacked without reason. — Anonymous respondent, on what they noticed

To be more positive, and to stop using "but". — Anonymous respondent

I am more confident in front of people than I have been in the past. — Anonymous respondent

What they committed to doing differently

Each respondent named one specific behaviour to change. The themes clustered around connection and contribution:

• Reach out to a colleague they don't yet know, often with a specific lunch or conversation in mind.
• Give more positive feedback and support others, rather than staying silent.
• Take a shared issue to a manager and present it as a team, instead of working around it.
• Focus on one thing at a time, rather than fragmenting attention across many.

The most striking commitments were the most specific — naming the person to reach out to, the issue to raise, the habit to drop. Specificity is what predicts follow-through.

Bring this to your team

Any dispersed team — across borders, offices or functions — faces a recognisable version of this team's question: how to get capable people who rarely share a room to work with each other rather than alongside, and to raise the hard things rather than avoid them. Our approach transfers directly: an experiential off-site built on the 5 Guiding Principles, designed around the team's real dynamics, and a 30-day programme that keeps the shift alive between the moments the team is together.

Source: anonymous post-session survey, March 2026. 12 of 24 participants responded — read as the twelve voices we heard rather than the full team.