Crisis exercises play a vital role in preparing organisations for different situations. Great exercises will strengthen resilience and improve decision-making in high-pressure environments.
As a Crisis Exercise Facilitator, you need to know that the exercise is delivering what you need, and helping everyone to learn.
Here are the 9 key signs that an exercise is making an impact. You should see evidence of most, if not all, of these during and immediately after an exercise.
Participants should be leaning in, engaged and asking questions.
Make sure you have researched roles and responsibilities ahead of the exercise, so that the scenario can include everyone.
If participants constantly seek clarification on objectives, or keep challenging the scenario, this may indicate they don’t really understand the purpose of the exercise.
Take time over the introduction and pave the way in advance of the exercise. Be explicit about what’s important and what participants should expect from the day. We often describe how a high-performing crisis team acts during an exercise, to help illustrate positive behaviours.
Exercises should replicate the high-pressure environment of a real crisis. Use email, social media feeds, eyewitness video, new reports, real phone calls and interviews to make the experience as immersive as possible.
A noisy response room is usually a better sign, than a quiet one. By talking to each other and moving around the building to see different teams, participants are breaking down silos.
Fostering a more open environment for discussion can strengthen collaboration and enhance outcomes.
Just make sure the discussion is structured and enables progress!
During a good exercise you should see lots of small wins appearing: key information quickly escalated, a great holding statement on social or good evidence of forward planning.
These are all great feedback points and a nice starting point for a hot debrief at the end of the day.
Exercises should have defined objectives that align with the organisation's broader crisis management strategy.
Keep bringing the scenario and the participants’ response back to these outcomes. It helps emphasise that all this hard work has real purpose.
Feedback from participants will highlight areas where they feel confident, or where they need more help. This allows you to regularly review and update future exercises accordingly.
Effective crisis exercises will show noticeable improvements in preparedness over time.
After every exercise, debrief notes and participant feedback should be used to refine and improve future programs. Establishing a cycle of continuous improvement ensures that each exercise builds upon the last, strengthening overall preparedness and resilience.
One successful exercise will help create buy-in for continuous improvement and guarantee engaged and excited participants next time round.
Read our resource 5 key steps for designing a crisis simulation
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