Neil Butler
23 March 2026
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My late mother used to enjoy cooking her famous boiled fruit cakes almost as much I enjoyed devouring them, typically within a couple of days of their arrival. One thing you could rely on was when you bit into the first slice of that cake, it tasted exactly like it did last time. Towards the end of her life, she handed me the recipe and told me that I would have to make my own from now on. Let me be very clear I am most certainly nowhere near the cook she was. Indeed, I would describe my culinary skills in much the same way as my Year 9 Woodwork teacher used to describe my woodwork skills – virtually non-existent despite my best attempts to improve.
And yet, following the recipe, I could almost exactly replicate Mavis’ boiled fruit cake!
That’s what happens when you get a recipe and follow it – follow the exact same steps, add exactly the same ingredients and typically, you get exactly the same result.
Think about how well your organisation does change. Most organisations are determined to follow exactly the same recipe regardless of what project they are working on and – guess what? They get the same outcome every time.
That would be great if every change activity was identical. But it isn’t. That would be great if your organisation delivered change perfectly. But, I’m guessing they don’t.
We are here to change change. If you follow the same recipe, you will get the same cake.
Your challenge is to make sure whatever approach you take to change is flexible, adaptable and appropriate for the circumstances. Blindly following a protocol or methodology without the capacity to tailor the “recipe” is more of a recipe for disaster than success.
And then there are organisations that think they can use their existing change recipe for a transformation (remember transformation is far, far more than big change). If you try to deliver a transformation with a change approach, it will be like trying to create a five-course meal using Mavis’ fruit cake recipe with bigger amounts of each ingredient. You’ll end up with plenty of fruit cake. You won’t end up with a five-course meal.
Are you ready to change change? First thing you should do is look for a better recipe.
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BONUS – Mavis’s Boiled Fruit Cake
INGREDIENTS
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon mixed spice
425g crushed pineapple
455g mixed fruit
125g butter
1 cup plain flour
1 cup self-raising flour
Mix all ingredients except the flour in a saucepan and bring to boil over a gentle heat, stirring throughout.
Boil for three minutes and remove from heat.
Allow the mixture to cool to room temperature.
Sift the flour into the cooled mixture and stir until all ingredients are mixed evenly.
Pour mixture into a 20cm cake tin, lined with brown paper or similar
Place in a pre-heated oven at 180oC and cook for 60 minutes. Lower temperature to 120oC, cover cake with foil to stop burning, leave in oven for another 15 minutes.
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