Building Dynamic Capabilities through Emergent Groups in an Uncertain World

One Sunday in Southern California, with Santa Ana winds blowing, the tinder dry, and the temperature hot, a forest fire broke out that rapidly became uncontained. Then six more large fires broke out. Soon homes were consumed. The entire city of San Diego seemed engulfed in an uncontained firestorm. Two different emergent groups from a radio station and an internet software development firm composed of people with no previous experience working with each other and with different human capital resources quickly formed to provide help. Both groups performed well: one group created a map with evacuation routes and shelters that was independently identified as keeping the public calm and informed during the days of crises; the other group kept the map populated with critical information on the trajectory of the fire perimeter so the public could make informed guesses about whether they and their loved ones were in potential danger or had a home to return to. Of the two groups, however, only one succeeded in creating a new capability for both organizations that now have a new way of communicating to the public during emergencies. Why did one succeed at creating a new capability and one did not when the firms were the same, the environmental selection event that triggered the emergent groups was the same, and the opportunities for learning by doing were the same?