complimentary thinklets – second quarter 2024
ready for more
Lately, I have seen several online posts cautioning about exercising the same response scenario over and over. I do not believe you can over-exercise, but I understand what these individuals are saying. If you only exercise one scenario – maybe a data hack – or you only exercise a particular response timeframe – likely the launch phase, then you are leaving a lot that your response teams have not had any experience handling.
A colleague whom I admire also laments how much time organizations spend on exercises for their head office team at the expense of their field teams. Sometimes those field teams may bear the brunt of the response. Other times, they will encounter different priorities than the head office team based on what their local stakeholders are asking of them. One thing is for sure, they will be intimately involved in the response at some point and on some level. Don’t forget to include field teams or specifically focus on them when appropriate.
Designing a robust exercise program requires time and resources. Some of my clients share they simply do not have the staffing or money to conduct multiple exercises per year. Maybe a few are correct. Most times, with all due respect, they are not being as creative as they could or should be.
Exercises can be large or small. Involve multiple teams or a single department. Require months to design or several hours to prepare. They can be resource heavy or simply require people to join an existing shared platform.
There is no one-size-fits-all solution, but there are a few things common to every organization.
First, know what kind of exercises are available to you. There are online courses and professional seminars that can help you learn the various exercise formats that are available and how to successfully use them, including design, execution, and evaluation. Some starting points for research include FEMA (USA), the Australia Disaster Resilience Knowledge Hub, and the Business Continuity Institute.
Second, know where your organization is in its response capability journey. Some organizations are just learning to crawl. Others are looking to get their black belts. Some have technical challenges. Some have personality conflicts. Some exercise because they must, with management believing they are members of the “it cannot happen to us” club. You need to have this fundamental understanding to design an exercise program that moves your organization forward rather than just ticking a box.
Third, most organizations are capable of multiple exercises per year. While success is not about how many exercises you do, people are often uncomfortable with their crisis duties. Giving them a chance to practice regularly helps increase familiarity with unfamiliar roles. Do remember that you don’t need every exercise to be a large, complex, multi-team event to enhance your organization’s capabilities. Often, working with a single group to develop their skills can add significant value to your preparedness.
Lastly, do not get into a rut. If there is a scenario for which you absolutely must be prepared then by all means ensure it is always part of your annual exercise plan. But shake things up a bit to ensure your response teams get a chance to experience more than they did the year before.
One idea that can help is to simply pick up from last year’s exercise.
Maybe last year’s scenario revolved around a mass casualty incident at one of your facilities. Your team practiced its launch steps and initial interaction with first responders. For your next major exercise, start your exercise timeline two hours after your previous exercise ended. Emergency notifications were done, but now how are you going to care for your employees in hospital? Who will visit? What will they say? Your teams supported first responders with rescue and recovery steps, but now you need to begin asking how the event happened and whether other security steps are necessary at your other facilities. Media are asking tougher questions. Police suggest this might have been an inside job. Build off what you did last year and let your teams get deeper into the response.
Using last year’s exercise as the core event takes pressure off having to create an entirely new scenario. You can summarize last year’s response as a “pre-reading” document for exercise participants. Do an “update briefing” when they arrive at your coordination facility. Then give them a chance to see that a crisis doesn’t end when the first responders head back to their respective agencies.
We help organizations develop meaningful exercise programs, including finding ways to expand their offerings without overtaxing their teams or budgets. If we can help you, please contact us.
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