Firefighters in Action: How Strategic Improvisation Enables Agile and Creative Responsiveness in Complex Adaptive Systems

Abstract

This study explored “how strategic improvisation (SI) enables agile and creative responsiveness in dynamic organizations recognized as complex adaptive systems.” We highlight “what” constitutes SI, “why” it is strategic and “how” it allows for agile and creative responsiveness. We advance the conceptualization of SI proposing it as “an improvised deliberate practice that combines coupling unconventional ideas with emergency actions seeking new strategic patterns to indeterminacy.” This is the case of firefighters, with unique features, such as operating continuously in experimental conditions, exposure to failure, risk, and unpredictability, despite strict protocols to guide operations. Furthermore, agile and creative responsiveness in a complex system is the rule rather than the exception and, therefore, requires new adaptive managerial practices. Our findings provide the SI framework based on four main dimensions such as (i) resolvability; (ii) experimentation; (iii) interactivity; and (iv) sensemaking, composing a SI mechanism. Practical implications and future perspective were proposed.