A Wednesday evening that earned its audience — UCAPS, University of Copenhagen

Why UCAPS asked us in

UCAPS is a community of PhD students and postdocs at the University of Copenhagen. Its members are brilliant at their science, and — like most researchers — rarely taught the human side of the work: communicating under pressure, reaching across cultures and departments, and quieting the self-criticism that comes with a finely trained analytical mind.

The organisers wanted a session that would do more than fill an evening. Their members are a discerning, voluntary audience who sign up for substance rather than social events, work across many cultures and languages, and have to choose to show up after a full day. The session had to earn its audience.

The challenges that shaped our design:

• Brilliant people who tighten up under pressure. The same critical mind that produces good science produces a relentless evaluator of one's own performance in a conversation or a talk.
• Cross-cultural interaction is daily life. Members come from many departments, countries and language traditions, and collaboration depends on bridging that.
• A voluntary audience. Nobody was required to attend, so the experience had to be worth a Wednesday evening — and worth coming back for.

What we delivered

A two-hour experiential session grounded in the 5 Guiding Principles of IMPROV, followed by a 30-day reinforcement sprint for those who opted in — one short habit prompt each Monday, one reflection each Friday, for four weeks. The session itself was hands-on throughout: participants work, notice what happens, and commit to one specific behaviour to carry back to their work. The sprint exists to close the gap between feeling a change in the room and being able to do it alone under pressure.

What the participants told us

The numbers tell one story from three angles. People believe the skills matter for their work (6.32/7) and that this kind of training should continue (6.16/7). They are less sure they can do it on their own yet — confidence to apply sat at 5.58/7. That gap between belief and confidence is exactly what we'd expect after two hours, and it's the gap the 30-day sprint is built to close. Eighteen of the nineteen opted in.

More than half the room landed on the same insight. Asked which of the five guiding principles spoke to them most, eleven of nineteen named Do Not Judge Yourself — the inner critic.

Principle named as most resonant	Times named
Do Not Judge Yourself	11
Yes, And	4
Embrace Failure	3
Make Each Other Look Good	2
Do Not Judge Others	1

For a research community, this is the right thing to land first. The inner critic is the quiet brake on communicating freely, and naming it out loud in front of peers is itself the start of the shift.

What people noticed about themselves is the signal that something moved. The answers clustered into a few patterns: the inner critic spoken out loud; physical habits noticed for the first time (a tight body easing through the session, hands in pockets, less eye contact); and — most telling — people discovering more capacity than they expected. That last pattern is the signature of psychological safety experienced rather than explained. When the room is safe enough, people surprise themselves.

In their own words

No judgement of myself. I am constantly doing it. — Anonymous respondent

I felt so much relieved thinking that no one is there to judge my mistakes. — Anonymous respondent

It surprised me how a conversation can go a completely different way by just changing one word. — Anonymous respondent, on "Yes, And"

I can actually come up with something to say in a new situation. — Anonymous respondent

I felt more calm by the end. In the beginning I wanted to be funny and creative; by the end I was more real and serious, and didn't feel bad about that. — Anonymous respondent

The activities helped to ease me up. — Anonymous respondent

What they committed to doing differently

Each respondent named one specific thing they would do differently back at work. The strongest cluster was using "Yes, And" to reframe feedback and keep difficult conversations open; the next were about visibility — saying the thing, approaching the person.

• Ask my supervisor a question instead of trying to remember the topic and looking it up afterwards.
• Say what I want to say in our group meeting on Friday, without first weighing whether it's worth saying.
• Mention to a colleague something that excited me about my weekend, and ask about theirs.
• Talk to a person I have never spoken to.
• Take feedback with a more open mind, rather than hearing it as an attack.

These are the smallest possible behavioural changes, and they are the ones that compound.

A community that wanted more

The clearest signal in the data is appetite. 89% (17 of 19) said they would join a longer IMPROV course designed for university students. 95% (18 of 19) opted into the four-week sprint. On a voluntary, self-selecting cohort, a 79% response rate, a 95% recommendation rate and a 95% opt-in for follow-up point to the same thing: the session earned its audience, and they wanted more, not less.

Bring this to your community or institute

Any university community, graduate school or research institute faces a recognisable version of the same question UCAPS was working with: how to give brilliant people the human skills their careers depend on, in a way they will actually choose to attend and come back to. Our approach transfers directly — an experiential session built on the 5 Guiding Principles, a follow-up sprint that turns intention into habit, and a format that a discerning, voluntary audience will show up for on a Wednesday evening.

Source: anonymous post-session survey, 20 May 2026. 19 of 24 participants responded, most within minutes of leaving the room.