Improvisational strategies for success
We help leaders, teams and facilitators respond better to uncertainty, change and pressure. Workshops, keynotes and facilitation design, based in Oxford.
Beyond plans
Organisations are dealing with AI disruption, hybrid habits, overloaded meetings and must make decisions with incomplete information.
Leaders and teams need better habits for responding when the plan changes.
We help people listen, adapt, build with others and commit to well-chosen next steps.
What people ask us for
Leadership in uncertainty
For leaders who need presence, judgement and influence when conditions keep changing.
Team
adaptability
For teams that need to listen, decide and build together.
Facilitation
For workshops, meetings and events that need engaged participation and practical outcomes.
Presenting and storytelling
For people who need to speak, tell stories and respond well in live settings.
AI-era human skills
For organisations exploring judgement, trust and collaboration as AI changes the work.
Introducing improvisation skills into organisations
LIFEPASS
A practical model for working with uncertainty
LIFEPASS offers leaders, teams and facilitators a framework for dealing with complexity, emergence and collaboration.
Let Go
Inhabit the Moment
Freedom Within Structure
Embrace Uncertainty
Play to Play
Accept and Build
Short Turn-Taking
Spot Successes
An Oxford-based consultancy team
Paul Jackson Associates is based in Oxford and works locally, nationally and internationally. Projects are led and delivered by a skilled faculty; grown through several years of shared practice in Awkward Actors, Improv in Six Acts and wider consultancy, facilitation, training and coaching work.
Paul Z Jackson
Janine Waldman
Anthony Errington
Andy Tulley
Belina Raffy
Eren Slate
Joe Robinson
Ideas in use
Our work is supported by client examples, books, articles, talks and conference presentations.
Here are a few starting points:
Generating product ideas
A major US industrial manufacturer wanted fresh ideas for its card and paper products. We designed a creative workshop (in an aquarium) using improvisational activities to help the group experiment, imagine and generate hundreds of new possibilities.
A famous British art gallery was facing a familiar problem: too many meetings, too little action. We explored practical choices about contribution, improved agendas and timely speaking up.
The power of Yes…And
Paul Z Jackson’s TEDx talk on how a simple improvisational principle changes how people listen, respond and collaborate.
Start with a conversation
If you are planning a workshop, leadership programme, conference session, away day or facilitation project, book a short conversation. We will look at what you are trying to achieve, what is already in place and what kind of intervention would be most useful.