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The 10 Skills Every Executive Crisis Exercise Facilitator Must Master
Why great crisis simulations depend on much more than a realistic scenario. Organizations invest significant time and resources into crisis simulation exercises to validate plans, test decision-making processes, and prepare…
CC Series Short: The Pre-Read Video and the Trusted Agent
Scenario security is important: It helps ensure that the participants react in a realistic way. The team preparing the exercise should not share information on the scenario with the players. The controllers and evaluators should know the scenario very well. Everybody else shouldn’t. Some people will have this urge to…
CC Series Short: Creating Exercise Visuals
The saying “a picture paints a thousand words” has never been as true in the world of simulation exercises. The only difference is that it’s not just pictures that can create realism and keep participants engaged. It has never been easier to create simulation videos, audio recordings, manipulated images, simulated…
CC Series Short: The MSEL (Master Sequence of Events List)
The exercise facilitator and control team will control the exercise through the Master Scenario Events List (MSEL). The MSEL is the primary document used to conduct the exercise, providing the framework for monitoring and managing the flow of exercise activities. It shows when events are expected to occur and when…
CC Series Short: Step 2 – Exercise & Scenario Design
Once the main objectives of the exercise are decided, the exercise scenario can then be developed. A scenario provides at least two important services. First, it supplies a plausible starting point or setting for the exercise participants to examine particular challenges as well as responses to a crisis (e.g., hurricane,…
CC Series Short: Functional Exercise Objectives
The Functional Exercise is a fully simulated interactive exercise that tests the capability of an organization to respond to a simulated event. This exercise focuses on the coordination of multiple functions of organizations and takes place in an Emergency Operations Center. The Functional Exercise strives for realism, short of actual…
CC Series Short: Tabletop Exercise Objectives
One of the most important, if not the most important step, in the design and preparation of an exercise is to determine the exercise objective(s). It is not unusual for individuals planning an exercise to want to begin by focusing on a specific scenario. While the particular scenario they want…