Building the habit of speaking up — a research team at a global pharmaceutical company

Quick answer

A research team at a global pharmaceutical company asked IMPROV Communication in for a 150-minute Applied Improv session on the 5 Guiding Principles, for all fourteen members of the team. The aim was stronger psychological safety in a group where precision is the daily job. In anonymous feedback — answered by every participant — 12 of 14 would recommend the experience, and the appetite to collaborate across teams scored 5.7 out of 7.

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At a glance

• Client: a research team at a global pharmaceutical company
• Engagement: 5 Guiding Principles training, June 2026
• Scale: 14 participants, one 150-minute experiential session
• 86% would recommend the experience to a colleague (12 of 14)
• 5.7 / 7 likelihood to reach across teams to collaborate
• 5.5 / 7 confidence to apply the learning at work
• Half the team opted into the 30-day behavioural-change sprint (7 of 14)

Source: anonymous post-session survey, June 2026. Every participant responded — a complete read, not a sample.

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Why they asked us in

Research teams at a pharmaceutical company work at the front edge of the company's mission, where getting the science right is the whole point. In a setting like that, precision and individual expertise are the daily currency, and people can easily stay heads-down in their own work. The cost is quiet: ideas that never get aired, questions that go unasked, colleagues who rarely cross paths.

This team wanted a different texture to how they work together — more openness, more crossing of lines between specialists, a little more permission to be wrong out loud. The brief was less about a single skill and more about the conditions that let a team of experts think together.

The challenges that shaped our design:

• Heads-down by default. A group of specialists, each deep in their own work, with few natural reasons to connect across the team.
• The cost of precision. Where the job rewards getting it right, admitting uncertainty or floating a half-formed idea can feel risky.
• Divided attention. A busy research environment where focus is constantly pulled in several directions at once.

What we delivered

One 150-minute session, designed as a single connected experience for the whole team, led by an experienced IMPROV facilitator.

The session followed the three-phase architecture at the heart of our methodology:

• Pre-training activation. Alignment with the team ahead of the day, so the session spoke to their world rather than a generic template.
• The session itself. Experiential exercises grounded in the research on psychological safety and emotional intelligence, and the 5 Guiding Principles of IMPROV. Participants do, then reflect, then commit. Less listening, more taking part.
• Post-training reinforcement. A 30-day sprint of short Monday and Friday prompts, built from what participants themselves said, to carry the learning into ordinary working weeks.

What the participants told us

We gathered feedback through an anonymous survey straight after the session, measuring confidence to apply the learning, the likelihood of reaching across teams, the appetite to continue, and whether people would recommend it.

Question (1 = low, 7 = high)	Score
Confidence to apply it at work	5.5
Likelihood to reach across teams to collaborate	5.7
Sees value in continuing	5.6
Would recommend to a colleague	12 of 14

Note: every one of the fourteen participants responded. Scores are means across respondents.

Three patterns stood out.

The appetite to connect across teams scored highest of the rated questions. For a group of specialists, an instinct to cross lines rather than stay in lanes is a strong signal — exactly the shift the team came for.

The behaviours people committed to converged on one theme: attention to colleagues. Asking before telling, checking in before tasking, pausing before interrupting. A team turning toward the people around it, not just the work in front of it.

The principles that resonated most were Do Not Judge Yourself and Embrace Failure — the freedom to be imperfect. In a place where the job is to get it right, that freedom is what speeds up learning, and it is where the team wants to grow.

In their own words

I have the power to change things. By making mistakes, I make it easier for others to also do. — Participant

I was a bit too nervous because sometimes I was in the spotlight, and it wasn't as bad as I thought it would feel. — Participant

Yes, And was new to me, and it makes a lot of sense and is easy to implement in your daily routine. — Participant

Interacted with team members I have not done much before. — Participant

What they committed to on Monday

• Ask colleagues how they are doing before launching into work.
• Give feedback in a "Yes, And" way — dropping the "but".
• Be mindful before interrupting someone's focus to ask a question.
• Listen fully, rather than doing ten things at the same time.

Bring this to your team

Most teams of experts know this question: how do you keep the precision and add the connection, so that specialists think together rather than only side by side? What transfers is a session people feel rather than sit through, the three phases that turn a single day into lasting behaviour, and a follow-up built from participants' own words so the change survives past the first busy week.

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