Design for wellbeing during COVID-19: A cybernetic perspective on data feedback loops in complex sociotechnical systems

The COVID-19 pandemic has put wellbeing on the global agenda like never before. Many businesses, organizations, and even governments have recognized wellbeing as a formal policy goal. This paper addresses the question of how to design complex systems to improve the wellbeing of their stakeholders. We present a case of helping a university adopt a systematic approach to wellbeing assessment and improvement during the COVID-19 crisis. To support the improvement of student and staff wellbeing, we adopted a cybernetic perspective. Practically, this involved focusing on the design of a feedback loop that used wellbeing assessments to inform organizational actions. We argue that “off-the-shelf” assessments of wellbeing are often insufficient for supporting a systemic response to data because they lack context-sensitivity and actionability. While a “cybernetic perspective” may evoke a sense of the inhuman or mechanical in the optimization of wellbeing, our case study suggests otherwise. At least from our perspective, a society that aims to improve wellbeing may look more like a deliberative or dialogical democracy than an automated AI system.