Operational Resilience Industry Insights

Operational Resilience Revealed 

Human performance is driven by what you can’t see

Traditional performance models haven’t kept pace with advancing technology, rising complexity, and increasing demands. Our research reveals that unlocking human performance through an advanced model is a fresh opportunity for improvement. By bridging design limits and investing in human-powered operational resilience, industries can overcome performance plateaus and achieve sustainable, industry-leading success.

By: Kari Strobel & David Wilbur

Lifting the veil

A decade of research reveals new thinking in human factors and operational resilience

To explore the capacity to handle uncertainty and irregularities during normal and off-normal operations, we conducted both quantitative and qualitative research with operators, managers, and leaders in high-risk industries using Vetergy’s Operational Resilience Evaluation (ORE) approach. The ORE focuses on human factor performance indicators, including system robustness, sound judgment in high-stakes decision-making, and adaptive capacity. 

We learned that pushing for prescriptive compliance hinders the ability to adapt, limiting the ability of the workforce to know how and when to use rules to achieve better outcomes. Ultimately, the key in building and sustaining human powered operational resilience lies in creating balance between adaptive performance and design expectations.

Operational Resilience redefines human performance within a complex systems perspective. It emphasizes the capacity of an organization’s people to adapt to changing conditions through sound judgment and effective decision-making, achieving desired business and safety outcomes.

Sound judgment involves balancing rules with adaptability, assessing risks and opportunities, learning from experiences, anticipating challenges, and making proactive decisions to drive safety, resilience, and desired results.

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