Feeling stuck?

Under pressure on a project? Short on ideas? Or quietly unsure the current thinking will hold once it hits the real world?

That’s often the moment to pause — briefly — and bring in an external eye.

A short engagement now to sense-check assumptions, sharpen the concept, or clarify direction can save significant time, money, and explanation later.

You keep the credit.
You avoid the clean-up.

If you need clarity before commitment, this is the call that pays for itself.

Mik Allen Concepts

…helps organisations avoid the awkward moment where a project looks good on paper — but doesn’t quite work in practice.

I’m Dr Mik Allen, an applied anthropologist and creative strategist with 30+ years across performance, education, media, and cultural work. I specialise in making complex cultural ideas easier to understand, easier to explain, and easier to approve.

Most projects don’t struggle because the idea is bad.
They struggle because the assumptions underneath haven’t been tested.

That’s my lane.

I work with councils, universities, NGOs, and creative teams to sense-check ideas before they go live — testing whether they’ll resonate with the people they’re for, where the risks sit, and what needs tightening.

Think of it as a cultural systems check before money, time, and reputations are on the line.

Thirty years making work in the real world.
Fifteen years researching how it works.
The same question, from both sides.

In practice, that looks like:

• Live performance, events, and media — from outback halls to international cities

• Ensemble-making, directing, dramaturgy, producing, and creative development

• Teaching and curriculum design — from school-aged learners to postgraduate researchers

• Applied anthropology and cultural research grounded in delivery, not theory alone

• Work across councils, universities, NGOs, community organisations, and media-facing institutions

• Translating complexity into frameworks executives can approve and teams can actually use

• Designing concepts, IP, and strategies that hold up under pressure

• Comfortable working publicly or quietly behind the scenes

• Fluent in both creative instinct and institutional logic

Short version:
Experience and analysis.
Practice and theory.
Community and boardroom.

That combination is why people bring me in when a project needs to be meaningful, defensible, and able to land.

This site is a working studio: consultancy services, licensable ideas through The Refinery, a podcast, and practical courses.

If you’re scouting something solid, defensible, and genuinely useful to pass up the chain — this is worth flagging.

How I Work (and Why It Works)

I don’t arrive with a pre-packaged solution or a shiny framework looking for a problem.

I start by listening, asking the awkward questions early, and working out what’s actually going on beneath the surface.

My approach blends applied anthropology with creative systems thinking. In plain terms, that means I look at how people really behave — not how we hope they will — and map that against the goals, constraints, and pressures your project is operating under.

Practically, this involves:

• sense-checking the assumptions behind an idea

• identifying where meaning might slip, clash, or dilute

• translating complexity into clear options and decisions

• giving you language you can confidently use with your boss, board, or funder

Why am I good at this?

Because I’ve spent decades on both sides of the fence. I’ve made the work, taught the theory, managed the fallout, and studied the systems shaping how people respond.

I know where projects wobble — and how to steady them before it’s expensive.

I’m not here to take over your project.
I’m here to make it stronger, clearer, and easier to stand behind.

Think of me as a calm pair of eyes before the leap — the kind that helps everyone look smart when it lands.