Disaster Recovery Journal Winter 2024

What if we took a different approach to initial simulation exercises, specifically to a new crisis team? What if we gave them time to think, analyze and assess their course of actions beyond split-second decisions? Ultimately, we want a sense of inclusion and internal adoption throughout the audience. This will give them a better perspective of how they will proceed during an actual event. Here are the major components to an alternate format for simulation exercises.  Have an event occur over multiple days.  The initial meeting would explain how this exercise will transpire over the next five days.  At the start of each day participants will receive an e-mail describing the event scene for the day.  They will be expected to document how they would respond to that specific scene.  Each day, as a new email arrives describing more details of the event. They will add to their response document after thinking through and conferring with their team.  There will be no daily submissions, but participants are asked to map out their actions and bring the document to the following week’s meeting.  Once the team convenes a week later, we discuss each scene with each participant reading their responses.  Responses can be modified during the meeting and/or after the meeting. The benefits of this approach accom plishes a number of things.  It allows participants to have time to think about their approach, being able to modify their response throughout the day they receive the daily email. understand approach, allowing the participants to see their contributions from a holistic company-wide standpoint.  They will have time to meet with their teams to formulate the “day” response and collectively provide a more  Internal adoption in an easy-to

department-wide inclusive response that is well thought out.  Most importantly, by participating in this approach, starts the building process of their individual departments’ recovery plan. They can use this document as a “springboard” to create various approaches to their recoverability. “homework” back to the crisis team meeting, you can now take all the information gathered and formulate an overall company-wide crisis management plan. As I mentioned, this is a good approach when developing a new program. It can get the overall plan in place and be used as a starting point for future individual depart ment meetings, refine the various inputs to make the plan robust and actionable. By taking a traditional approach to simulation exercise response, we get folks engaged for a few hours. Many times, what is learned is put aside for more press ing business challenges that are more immediate. By staging an event over multiple days  Once all participants bring their

doesn’t overwhelm participants and brings them into the process by being more inclu sive in a more orchestrated approach. As a facilitators of the program, this approach allows you to develop your baseline crisis management or business continuity plans and prepare for more rigorous exercises as the overall program matures. Having a flexible approach to simulation exercises give businesses more options that can add many benefits to the overall program as well as having the ability to be more inclu sive at the department level, resulting in more detailed plans. v and training/awareness initiatives. He has an extensive background in designing, implementing, and managing business continuity programs for large multinational corpo rations. Over the years, Robert has worked for a variety of companies, both large and small, in a range of industries including finance, healthcare, government, insurance, and aerospace/defense. Throughout his career, Robert has demonstrated a passion for helping organizations prepare for and respond to major disruptions. He is a trusted advi sor to his clients and a respected leader in the field of busi ness continuity and crisis management. Lawrence Robert, CBCP, CBCLA, is a highly experienced business continuity professional with decades of experience in domestic and international business conti nuity, crisis management, disaster recovery,

40 DISASTER RECOVERY JOURNAL | WINTER 2024