Transformation from the inside out

As the need for better digital services across government grows, so too does the need to invest in the people designing and delivering them. This type of work isn’t just about methods, it’s also about mindset, leadership, and culture. That’s why internal academies are powerful and often overlooked tools for transformation.

We’ve worked with organisations within Central Government, the NHS, the Scottish Digital Academy, and the Centre for Digital Public Services in Wales to co-design and deliver programmes that grow capability and confidence. We’ve also built and run our own internal academy, practising what we preach and learning as we go.

Our academies are grounded in the belief that technical capability alone isn’t enough. We design learning through the lens of soft skills, enhancing hard skills. This means building confidence in communication, teamwork, and advocacy alongside practical expertise in things like synthesising research, prototyping, and writing for accessibility. It creates well-rounded individuals and teams who deliver not just the what, but understand the how – how to lead, collaborate, deal with conflict and navigate complexity.

Why internal academies?

Internal academies build skills, confidence and connection from the inside out. They help teams work on real challenges, share honestly, and grow together, turning learning into lasting change. 

Adaptability and responsiveness

Internal academies flex around the real-time needs of teams. While we co-design learning paths and sessions, we hold them lightly and adapt as we go, changing pace, tools, and focus to meet people where they are. This means we support everyone, from literacy to fluency to mastery.

Working on the ‘work’, with peers

Participants bring real services and blockers into the room. They test tools and methods in a safe space, then can apply them the next day in practice. It creates space for open, honest dialogue, and often, solutions are already in the room. A peer says, “We tried this” or “Talk to X.” Learning becomes a shared act of problem-solving.

Building community and breaking silos

In person sessions foster spontaneous, human connections. We’ve seen the impact when people from different missions or portfolios sit down together, often for the first time. Barriers soften, and a shared vision can emerge. Relationships form naturally through shared learning.

Encouraging honest knowledge sharing

Polished case studies dominate most spaces, but they can hide the real lessons learned. Internal academies create brave spaces to unpack the mess, to reflect on what did, and more importantly, didn’t go to plan, and why. With psychological safety and time to share, continuous improvement becomes more than a slogan. 

Cross-functional empathy and understanding

We’ve done things like bringing policy-makers into UCD sessions and running empathy mapping across roles. These moments of shared experience build respect and collaboration. We curate diverse groups intentionally, because lasting change happens when people see each other’s worlds.

Strengthening leadership and team cohesion

Leaders, Leads and Heads of Practice are often stretched thin and can feel isolated. Internal academies can give them space to come together, reflect, connect, and think systemically. From service pattern spotting to digital leadership and facilitating feedback, sessions can help leadership teams become more than the sum of their parts.

Tackling overwhelm and self-limiting beliefs

When working as part of transformation programmes, we often see how some team members can feel adrift or unheard in their roles. Internal academies can offer reflective coaching and workshops to help people reconnect with their purpose. By modelling advocacy and showing the data, it’s possible to build confidence and clarity and help people support others in turn. They create self-perpetuating support structures, so when we step away the team naturally continues to share and learn together.

Building momentum and evidencing impact

Internal academies create lasting pathways for growth. People aren’t dropped back into “business as usual”; they develop individually through reflection, learning in practice and coaching, in cohorts, and within Communities of Practice. They make commitments, build confidence, and share learning that sticks.

Why invest in learning and an academy?

Investing in learning through an academy can reduce inefficiencies, improve service outcomes, and build long-term capability within teams. As Daniel Pink writes in Drive, the surprising truth about what motivates us,  people stay in organisations that they feel invest in their development, give them autonomy and a sense of purpose. An internal academy can help with all three, potentially helping culture and retention. 

Additionally, making the business case for an internal academy can be built around the following specific benefits:

1. It saves time in the long run

Investing in learning upfront reduces the time spent later fixing misaligned work, redoing services, or navigating confusion. When teams share a baseline understanding of methods and principles, they make faster, better decisions together.

2. It builds confidence, clarity and collaboration

Ongoing learning gives people the tools, language, and frameworks to understand their role and advocate for their work. Learning together also strengthens cross-functional collaboration, fostering empathy across disciplines and building shared understanding. It makes working across policy, delivery, and technology less frustrating and more effective.

3. It creates space for innovation and improvement

When teams are confident in the basics, they’re better able to experiment, take risks, and push services forward. Learning gives people permission and tools to reflect, adapt, and grow, which is where real innovation happens.

A proven way of building learning organisations and teams

Internal academies aren’t a silver bullet. They require commitment and resource. But when done well, they build skills and trust. They connect people and purpose. They unlock new thinking and help people feel seen. It’s transformation, from the inside out.

If you are interested in training or running an internal academy to help build capability in your organisation please contact our Head of Learning Design via email - tash.willcocks@tpximpact.com