I haven’t been blogging regularly recently – I’ve been distracted by other things – and I’ve decided that I need to fix that. However as I’ve been busy during my working hours, I decided to resurrect something from early in the life of this blog – an accidental recipe.

So often, as you work on digital transformation, the end goal changes as you progress. You start off thinking you will end up in one place, but you learn and experiment as you go, and sometimes what comes out of the other end is much more wonderful that you expected at the start. True transformation often emerges, rather than being designed (we give the name Design Thinking to a process that is not really about designing to an end goal, but designing as you go – so you really don’t know what the endpoint is until you get there).

Tonight I had an idea for dinner. Fish baked in the oven and using up the new potatoes and large beefsteak tomato that I had in the cupboard. I bought a cod tail from the fishmonger (though you could do this with any solid white fish) and looked what else he had around – some shallot onions would help, a small fennel, and the herb section included a bunch of Dill which seemed promising (may thanks to Sandy’s the fish shop in Twickenham for both inspiring and providing the key ingredients for this meal).

Now any of you who have worked with me on social adoption projects will know that I start with known frameworks that work, and tons of experience, and make the rest up as I go along (depending on the emerging business needs and the evolving culture of the participants). I cook the same way.

So here is the recipe I invented (generous for 2 people):

1. Clean a couple of handfuls of new potatoes and parboil them for around 15 mins.
2. Meanwhile, I used a Le Creuset casserole pot to cook the dish, on the hob and then in the oven. Lightly fry 2 or three shallot onions (finely chopped) with a chopped garlic clove in a little olive oil for a minute. Add a small fennel (sliced) and fry for another minute. Throw in a roughly chopped beefsteak tomato (or whatever tomatoes you have to hand) and half a bunch of Dill (I used just the leaves and left the stalks behind). Sprinkle with black pepper and stir together.
3. Add a small Cod tail (skinned) to the pot in largish pieces. Add a splash of white wine. Thickly slice the parboiled potatoes and spread on top. Cover and transfer to a preheated oven at around 180 degrees.
4. After 15 mins, remove the lid and spinkle with  good covering of parmasan cheese. Continue cooking without the lid.
5. After a further 10 minutes, transfer to under the grill (I have a combined oven/grill so I could just switch it to grilling).
6. After 5 minutes or so, remove and serve (with additional parmesan – and, of course, a glass of the white wine!)

It was one of those times when I really didn’t know how it would turn out, but it seemed like a good idea. And the result was amazing – the potatoes really absorbed the flavours, especially the Dill which made the meal very special.

Whether you are transforming organisations or cooking dinner, there is nothing quite like exceeding expectations!