Make Happy

What Make Happy does

Make Happy is a London-based innovation consultancy founded in 2010 by Jonathan Bannister. It specialises in creative facilitation, deliberate creativity training, and team-building workshops for organisations, teams, leaders, and individual facilitators. The core offerings combine evidence-based methodologies — the Osborn-Parnes Creative Problem Solving process (accredited by the US Creative Education Foundation), LEGO Serious Play techniques, Basadur Simplexity Thinking, Design Thinking, and psychological safety frameworks grounded in Amy Edmondson's research and Google's Project Aristotle — with proprietary tools including the Social Business Canvas, Psychological Safety Field Guide (a Miro board template), Business Canvas, Culture Canvas, and Brand Framework Canvas. The company also operates LAB School, a self-paced online learning platform hosted on Thinkific covering CPS, Effective Facilitation, Problem Solving Sprints, and Difficult Conversations.

Revenue is generated through three streams: (1) bespoke professional facilitation services for hire, delivered as in-person or virtual workshops for enterprise and government clients; (2) certified training programmes, including the £950+VAT CEF-accredited CPS Level 1 course (capped at 12 participants) and a three-day LEGO Serious Play Facilitator Training; and (3) online courses via LAB School. Go-to-market is dual-mode: sales-led senior engagement with a free initial consultation via Google Calendar for enterprise workshop buyers, and direct-to-consumer self-serve online learning for individual facilitators, coaches, OD practitioners, and entrepreneurs. The customer base spans enterprise (Uber, GSK, PepsiCo, M&S, Hello Fresh, Accenture, EY, Faurecia), government (UK Cabinet Office), education (UCL, LSE, Nottingham Trent University), and nonprofit (RSA, FASD Ireland) sectors, supported by a small core team and an associate network (David Lunken/Cedracroft Advisors in the US, Steve Morris/Spark+Forge).

Operationally, Make Happy is a privately held, founder-led firm with no external institutional investment, registered as Make Happy Ventures Ltd in England and Wales, headquartered in De Beauvoir, London N1. The company monetises its principal asset — Jonathan Bannister's exclusive CEF certification and 20+ years of facilitation experience — alongside a curated ecosystem of institutional partners (Creative Education Foundation, Trinity College Dublin Tangent, Strategic Play Global) and technology integrations (Miro, Thinkific, Zoom).

Name

Make Happy

Legal name

Make Happy Ventures Ltd

Website

https://makehappy.co.uk

Company type

Private

Founded year

2010

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Make Happy is a London-based innovation consultancy founded in 2010 that helps organisations, teams, leaders, and individual facilitators improve creativity, collaboration, and problem-solving through Creative Problem Solving, LEGO Serious Play, Design Thinking, and psychological safety training programs.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Innovation Consulting Services

NAICS

Professional and Management Development Training (611430)

SIC

Services-Management Consulting Services (8742)

akta.pro primary industry

Creativity & Innovation Mindset (EDABAMAH)

akta.pro secondary industry

Innovation & Design Thinking Programs (EDAMAHAD)

Keywords

• Innovation consulting services
• Creative facilitation training
• Team building workshops
• Creative problem solving
• LEGO Serious Play facilitation

Headquarters

HQ city

London

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Others

Revenue model

1. Professional Facilitation Services: Providing senior, highly-skilled professional facilitators to design, prepare and run meetings, workshops, and team events. Certified in Lego Serious Play, Osborn-Parnes Creative Problem Solving, FourSight Thinking Profile and Basadur Applied Innovation.
2. Certified Training Programs: In-person certification courses such as the CEF-accredited CPS Level 1 course (£950 + VAT) and LEGO Serious Play Facilitator Training. Includes course materials, manual, and certification.
3. Online Courses: Self-paced video courses through LAB School covering Creative Problem Solving, Effective Facilitation, Problem Solving Sprints, and Difficult Conversations. Platform at thelabteam.thinkific.com.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Make Happy is an innovation consultancy that helps teams and organizations solve important problems better through expert facilitation, deliberate creativity training and practical workshops. Its portfolio includes Creative Problem Solving (CPS) workshops and CEF-accredited certification, LEGO Serious Play team building and facilitator training, Design Thinking, Psychological Safety, Facilitation Skills, and Difficult Conversations training, alongside professional meeting facilitation services and an online learning platform called LAB School.

Product overview

Make Happy is an innovation consultancy offering a portfolio of training programmes, workshops, facilitation services, and downloadable tools. The core offerings include Creative Problem Solving (CPS) with accredited certification from the Creative Education Foundation, and LEGO Serious Play team building workshops and facilitator training. These are complemented by specialised workshops in Design Thinking, Psychological Safety, Facilitation Skills, Difficult Conversations, Basadur Innovation Profile, and Culture Mapping. The company also provides professional meeting facilitators for hire and operates LAB School, an online learning platform offering self-paced courses in creative problem-solving and facilitation. A suite of free innovation tools including the Psychological Safety Field Guide (Miro template), 6-Minute Problem-Solving guide, Business Canvas, Culture Canvas, Social Business Canvas, and Brand Framework Canvas round out the offering.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• LAB School: Online platform and in-person initiative to teach skills and empower the next generation of out-of-the-box thinkers in Creative Problem Solving, Effective Facilitation, Problem-Solving Sprints, Difficult Conversations at Work, and Psychological Safety

Products and services

• Creative Problem Solving (CPS) Workshops A structured, research-based problem-solving process developed by Alex Osborn and Sid Parnes, teaching the discipline of balancing divergent and convergent thinking for deliberate creativity and innovation. Workshops are delivered to teams and organisations.
• Certified Creative Problem Solving Level 1 Course A two-day intensive programme accredited by the Creative Education Foundation (CEF), teaching the foundational discipline of deliberate creativity with official certification upon completion. £950 + VAT per participant, limited to 12 participants.
• LEGO Serious Play for Teams Team building workshops using LEGO blocks where participants build models and share stories to unlock creativity, solve problems, and improve collaboration through hands-on play. Available in-person and virtual (via Zoom).
• LEGO Serious Play Facilitator Training Three-day immersive training programme in London qualifying participants as certified LEGO Serious Play facilitators. Includes starter kit, structured methodology, and one hour of post-qualification mentoring. Course designed by LEGO Serious Play Master Trainer Jacquie Lloyd Smith.
• Design Thinking Workshops User-centered innovation workshops applying design thinking methodology (empathise, define, ideate, prototype, test) to develop products, services, experiences, and systems.
• Psychological Safety Training Training programmes helping teams and leaders build psychologically safe environments that foster trust, learning, collaboration, and innovative performance.
• Facilitation Skills Training Training programmes teaching practical facilitation skills to design and lead meetings, workshops, and problem-solving sessions that create clarity and move groups towards action.
• Difficult Conversations Training Workshop training equipping participants with techniques and tools to handle challenging workplace conversations effectively.
• Basadur Innovation Profile Assessment tool based on Basadur Simplexity Thinking that helps individuals and teams understand their innovation styles and preferences.
• Culture Mapping Workshop Workshop using the On Culture Canvas to help organisations define purpose, values, and refine their culture.
• Virtual Team Building Sessions Remote team building workshops conducted via video conferencing (Zoom), maintaining the same energy and engagement as in-person sessions for distributed teams. Capable of accommodating 100+ participants.
• Hire a Facilitator Professional meeting facilitation services providing senior, highly-skilled facilitators to design, prepare, and run meetings, workshops, and team events. Includes a free initial consultation call.
• LAB School Online Learning Platform Online learning platform and community offering self-paced courses in Creative Problem Solving, Effective Facilitation, Problem Solving Sprints, Difficult Conversations, and Psychological Safety, hosted on Thinkific.

Quantifiable outcome

• Virtual workshops can accommodate 100+ participants effectively

Named customers15 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration2 records

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Six partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Trinity College Dublin (Tangent)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerJonathan Bannister is a Learning Partner at Portal, the innovation centre at Trinity College Dublin (Tangent). Tangent is Trinity's innovation workspace where Jonathan collaborates on innovation initiatives.
• Creative Education FoundationcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerJonathan Bannister is part of the core education faculty of the Creative Education Foundation in the USA and teaches their Foundation Course in Creative Problem Solving. He is one of only two facilitators globally certified to teach the accredited Level 1 CPS programme outside CPSI and FLCC.
• G5A Foundation for Contemporary CultureminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerJonathan Bannister is a council member of the G5A Foundation for Contemporary Culture in Mumbai, contributing to their educational programmes and initiatives.
• Cedracroft Advisors (David Lunken)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerDavid Lunken is a partner in the US, founder of Cedracroft Advisors, certified LEGO Serious Play facilitator, and core faculty member at Creative Problem Solving Institute (CPSI). Jonathan and David design and run online courses for facilitation, creativity, and CPS under LAB School.
• Spark + Forge (Steve Morris)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerSteve Morris is founder of Spark + Forge, an experienced designer and facilitator. Trained as a LEGO Serious Play facilitator by Make Happy, he brings design and design-thinking background. Co-designed the Psychological Safety Field Guide with Jonathan Bannister.
• Strategic Play Global (Jacquie Lloyd Smith)coreTechnology or IntegrationLEGO Serious Play facilitator training course is designed by Jacquie Lloyd Smith, LEGO Serious Play Master Trainer and founder of Strategic Play Global. Make Happy delivers this three-day training programme.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• The Grove: David Sibbet's group-process and visual facilitation consultancy producing Grove Model, facilitation training and tools for teams and leaders; comparable as a methodology-led facilitation training and consulting firm targeting similar enterprise buyers with a structured workshop and certification model.
• Hyper Island: UK- and Sweden-based experiential learning and leadership consultancy running facilitator training and innovation programs for organisations; directly comparable as a professional services firm teaching CPS-adjacent, design thinking and team-collaboration methods to the same enterprise buyer.
• Basadur Applied Innovation: Sid Basadur's innovation training firm offering the Basadur Simplexity Thinking profile and related facilitation/training programmes, including certification of practitioners; comparable methodology-anchored training firm whose Basadur Innovation Profile Make Happy itself licenses and delivers.
• Business Innovation Factory (BIF): US-based innovation lab and consulting platform that designs and facilitates high-stakes innovation experiences with large organisations; similar in reliance on experiential facilitation and storytelling-driven workshops to help leaders work on complex problems.
• Fearless Futures: London-based facilitation and leadership development consultancy running workshops on psychological safety, purpose and team collaboration for enterprise and government; directly comparable in target buyer (people/leadership buyers), facilitation-led model and workshop format.
• Strategic Play Global: Jacquie Lloyd Smith's LEGO Serious Play master-trainer practice; designs and delivers the three-day LSP facilitator training course that Make Happy delivers, making it the closest direct competitor and partner in the firm's largest certification line.
• Applied Imagination: UK/MENA-based innovation training firm built around Creative Problem Solving, storytelling and team-based problem-solving workshops; mirrors Make Happy's CPS-led training portfolio and professional-services delivery to enterprise and government clients.

Broad incumbents

• IDEO: Global design and innovation consultancy whose portfolio includes Design Thinking workshops, leadership programs and facilitation services; overlaps with Make Happy on human-centred design workshops and team innovation engagements but operates at vastly larger scale across a broader service catalogue.
• Innosight (Huron): Clay Christensen-founded innovation strategy and training firm (now part of Huron) offering leadership programs, innovation workshops and facilitator training to global enterprises; overlaps with Make Happy on selling structured innovation training and team capability-building to large buyers, but at materially greater scale.
• Doblin (Deloitte): Deloitte's innovation strategy and design practice running innovation training, leadership programs and facilitation for global enterprises; comparable in selling innovation methods and team capability-building to large organisations but as part of Deloitte's broader advisory portfolio.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/@makehappywork
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/825942
• Instagraminstagram.com/makehappylondon
• Xx.com/makehappylondon

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles3 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Make Happy