We helped HM Land Registry transform how their teams worked in a new digital programme, moving from team silos to a connected organisation with clear service development approaches, thriving communities of practice, and pathways for people to grow.
The Client:
HM Land Registry – UK government department responsible for registering land and property ownership in England and Wales
[Emily] has had a really positive and significant impact on HMLR and leaves a lasting legacy. Her insights are always well-informed, impactful and delivered in a frank but constructive manner…
She has real credibility, not just because of what she’s done before, but because she genuinely cares about the organisation she’s working in and the people that work there.”
John Abbott, Director of Digital, Data and Technology, HM Land Registry
The Challenge
In 2017, HM Land Registry launched a transformation programme to better serve its users, but faced significant obstacles:
Misaligned teams.
Teams weren’t organised around services, creating inefficiencies and unclear ownership.
Inconsistent starts
No standard approach to team kick-offs meant teams began work without a shared understanding.
Siloed knowledge
Expertise was trapped in individual teams with limited opportunities for cross-team learning
No clear growth pathways
People lacked visibility on how to develop their capabilities and progress in their roles.
The Tacit Solution
We worked as part of a wider team, taking a hands-on, iterative approach directly with people and teams across the organisation to create sustainable solutions.
Phase 1: Team Foundations
Created a practical team kick-off approach that gave teams the foundations to succeed, easy to implement, and quickly adopted across multiple teams.
Phase 2: Building Communities of Practice
Established communities of practice across the digital organisation with a replicable framework that teams could use to set up and sustain their own communities, embedded into their ways of working for long-term sustainability and forming an important part of their ongoing People Strategy.
Phase 3: Capability Development
Led an initiative across HMLR Digital, with the vision of Supported, Capable, People. Bringing together work with Communities of Practice, a new mentoring programme, clearer onboarding, improved line management, new role profiles and positions for heads of practice and more joined-up approaches to skills development (using our model Capability Profile Mapping), creating a holistic system for people to thrive and grow.
The Impact
Sustainable Team Structures
Teams reorganised around services with clear ownership and accountability, with consistent team formation and kick-off approaches.
Connected Organisation
Better join up with communities of practice that bridged silos across the organisation, with knowledge sharing and collaboration embedded in the organisation’s DNA, and an upskilled enabling team that can continue to establish and maintain communities without ongoing external support.
Empowered, Supported People
Clear view of skills and capabilities across practices, better capability plans, a mentoring programme to support upskilling, and new approaches to line management, all of which led to stronger capabilities across the organisation.
“Having a community of practice has meant that it’s been much easier to get people to work together on building capabilities for the whole community – we’re making change happen collectively, instead of having change happen to us. For instance, we’ve set up working groups which drive the community’s activities on things like revamping consent forms and the storing and sharing of research. Most valuably, we’re working with user research colleagues who sometimes we hadn’t even met a few months ago, who have great knowledge, experience and insights to share. Without a formalised community, it probably wouldn’t have happened.”
Head of Practice, HM Land Registry
What Made This Work
- Started small and proved value – Began with team kick-offs before expanding to larger initiatives
- Created replicable approaches – Built frameworks that teams could adopt without constant consultancy support
- Worked hands-on – Partnered with people and teams rather than just providing advice
- Listened and adapted – Identified capability gaps through close observation and responded with new initiatives
- Built for sustainability – Focused on lasting change that would outlive the engagement, by mentoring internal staff, providing reusable approaches and setting up systems.
Services Used
- Organisational Consulting
- Workshop Design and Facilitation
- Communities of Practice Consultancy
- Career Progression frameworks
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