Hello Reader,

Most organisations treat training like a quick shot of espresso. More often than not it's not intentional. But it's usually in the whispers around lunchtime, where people ask for advice on how to incorporate and apply service design thinking and doing into their day to day.

A burst of energy, a few new tools, and then… back to business as usual. This is the stuff we want to avoid.

But here’s the truth: a single training session is only ever a seed.

Seeds are important — they carry potential, ideas, and inspiration.

But left on their own, they dry out.

When I work with teams, I often see the excitement that comes right after a workshop. People feel energised, they’re scribbling ideas on sticky notes, and there’s a sense of “this time, things might be different.”

But two or three weeks later, the day-to-day pressures close in again. The seed doesn’t get watered. This is where many organisations lose momentum.

Capability is the Garden

Capability is what happens when you invest not just in a moment of learning, but in building soil that’s rich enough for those seeds to take root. That means reinforcement, practice, coaching, and making sure the learning is embedded in real work. It’s about moving from inspiration to integration.

Think of capability as the garden: it needs constant attention.

A healthy garden is diverse - different plants working together, cross-pollinating. The same is true in organisations. When multiple teams and functions are included, learning compounds and sustains itself.

The energy doesn’t just stay in one corner of the business; it spreads.

Why Reflection Matters

But there’s another layer: reflection.

Moving from seed-level change to organisation-wide capability is never just about skills — it’s about awareness. Reflection helps us notice what we enable and what we block, often unintentionally.

For leaders, this is critical.

Many are carrying years of experience and an immense amount of pressure.

Without space to step back, they may not see how their behaviours - perhaps insisting on layers of approval, or protecting their teams too tightly - can actually stifle progress.

These aren’t deliberate acts of sabotage, but they do create friction.

Reflection is what turns blind spots into opportunities for growth. This is why a second round of training is encouraged for executives to realise their role in service delivery.

The Politics of Progress

At both SD in Government in Edinburgh and the Journey Ops Conference in Stockholm earlier this month, this came up again and again.

After my talks, the questions weren’t about frameworks or canvases. They were about politics.

About how teams can get buy-in from leaders who don’t realise they’re holding maturity back.

This is the reality of design leadership: so much of our work isn’t about sketching journeys or prototyping services. It’s about navigating internal dynamics, working through organisational resistance, and finding ways to build trust in places where fear and hierarchy dominate. The politics are where the real battle for capability is fought. I know, it sucks. But it's the reality of working in these complex systems. It's hard but very meaningful work.

So here's what I think can and should be applied.

A Layered Approach to Training

This is why I never design training as a single event.

The real shift comes when it’s layered.

Team-level training creates shared language and confidence. Department-level training brings adjacent teams into the fold, reducing silos and misunderstandings. And executive training ensures leaders understand both the value of design and their role in making space for it.

When these levels are aligned, something powerful happens: design stops being “the team that makes things look nice” and becomes “the team that helps everything work better.”

It’s a reframing that sticks because it’s reinforced across the organisation, not left to one isolated group. But working towards a goal such as a service architecture that is the focal point for both teams and executives is single handedly one of the best investments organisations and design teams can make.

And my advice to you if there’s no budget right now…

Not every team has budget for a full training programme — and that’s okay. You can still make meaningful progress by reflecting on what you’ve already invested in. Try this with your team:

• Look back – Revisit the last training your team attended. What worked? What didn’t?
• Ask why it’s not sticking – Invite your team to share openly why they aren’t applying what they learned.
• Unpack the barriers – Is it lack of time? Fear of change? A sense that leadership won’t support them?
• Mine the dissonance – That gap between training and practice is where the real insights live. It reveals what’s missing in your culture, systems, or leadership support.

In fact, understanding what has been done before and why it hasn’t worked is one of the first questions I ask new clients. This helps me understand the blockers — and ensures that when we get to work together, the chances of hitting it out of the park dramatically increase.

Looking Ahead to Q1 2026

Looking into next year, I have availability to take on one more client in Q1 2026.

Ideally, this will be an organisation that wants to go on the full journey: starting with the team, extending into departments, and bringing leadership to the table as well.

Because that’s how the seeds of training grow into the garden of capability, and how design shifts from decoration to performance.

If that sounds like the journey your organisation is ready for, let’s talk.

Coming Next Week

Next week I’ll share a high-level report from myself, Marc Stickdorn, and Eoin Swift (Dublin City Council) that uses the data captured at our Case Study in Edinburgh.

Keep an eye out — it’s packed with insights that connect directly to capability uplift.

Have a great week!
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Gerry Scullion​ Founder & Designer Connect with me on LinkedIn | Join our Directory | Write a podcast review for This is HCD Podcast​

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