Design for resilient performance: Concept and principles

Abstract

Resilient performance in socio-technical systems is usually described as stemming from people's self-organization and spur-of-the-moment actions and decisions. However, this is not exclusive with work system design ahead of time, with the deliberate intention of influencing resilient performance. This paper proposes a concept and principles of Design for Resilient Performance (DfRP), making explicit contributions that had been concealed and fragmented in the literature. Based on a literature review of influential human factors studies, 23 design principles were identified and set a basis for a Delphi study with 27 experts from nine countries. After three Delphi rounds, consensus was obtained and the DfRP concept was defined as well as seven design principles, namely: (i) there must be functional models of the system; (ii) make variations in performance visible; (iii) use the type of standardization that best fits the nature of the function; (iv) design slack resources and strategies; (v) design for acceptable performance even under degraded conditions; (vi) design must involve leveraging diverse perspectives; and (vii) design to support continuous learning at the individual and organisational level. The applicability of the principles is demonstrated through an exploratory case study of the rapid response team in a hospital. The principles of DfRP are contributions of prescriptive nature, which might give rise to more resilient socio-technical systems.