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Case Study: Resilience in Action—Building Reservoirs for Change 129

Lack of Available Options

A common challenge to companies facing disruptive strategies by their
competitors is that they lack any effective responses (Christensen, 1997).
Similarly, it is probably difficult to create truly novel management innova-
tions. Thus managers tend to refer to and copy so-called best practices
(what other companies are doing) as solutions to their management prob-
lems. At the extreme, this becomes the search for a silver-bullet solution.
Such a quick fix can be rolled out effectively, but it will ultimately fail to
solve the underlying issue.
This company tendency was combated in the program by participants
deliberately seeking to develop multiple solutions to persistent problems
(such as the harnessing of innovative ideas companywide) and experiment-
ing on the ideas on a small scale and iteratively. Thus participants discov-
ered ways to resist the temptation to rush into a large-scale implementation
of a definitive “pilot” without first understanding the idea’s implications
and its conditions for effectiveness.

The Portfolio of Management Experiments

The management innovations were independent, autonomous initiatives
with dedicated teams. At any one time, there were some three to five
management experiments being tried. Though often on a small scale, they
produced learning about what was possible to accomplish in terms of
management innovation (“no permission required to do this experiment in
the front of the company café”). While none of the experiments has been
directly adopted as mainstream management methods, they did provide
important insights into resource allocation, idea harvesting, motivation,
and innovation management, such as people being willing to volunteer their
time to projects they consider important for the company’s survival or for
the sake of their own careers.

The Jampion Experience and Consequent Activity

Ten Jampions formally reflected on the program impact. In the interviews by
a neutral party in August 2005, the Jampions commented on their experi-
ence as a Jampion, how it had changed the way they work or think about