Analysis of Critical Knowledge for Strengthening Resilience and Operational Safety

Abstract

Resilience, viewed from an engineering perspective, refers to a system's inherent ability to regulate its operation before, during, and after disruptions. Knowledge is a critical resource that enables resilient responses, as it is essential for responding, monitoring, anticipating unforeseen events, and learning from their occurrences. However, despite the importance of knowledge in promoting resilience in operational safety, there is a lack of tools in the literature that provide evidence and explanation of knowledge resources. To address this gap, this article presents the development stages of an instrument based on the Critical Decision Method to elicit critical knowledge in Operational Safety Events (OSEs). The instrument includes a set of questions that guide the identification of decision-making points and the exploration of knowledge resources mobilized at each stage, founded on situational awareness, resilience engineering, and knowledge engineering. Prospective analysis sessions and retrospective OSE analyses were conducted with teams of workers from offshore oil and gas production and exploration platforms to assess the instrument's feasibility. The instrument enabled the identification of critical knowledge in both scenarios, which served as valuable input for promoting security and resilience. The instrument also facilitated the identification of opportunities to promote organizational learning and the development of effective actions to strengthen intangible resources that influence resilient responses, thereby enabling a thorough exploration of knowledge resources in retrospective analyses or prospective sessions of accidents and severe operational safety events.