Scenario-Based Planning
CAPABILITY DEVELOPMENT
STEP 1 - Scope
Establish the key drivers, stakeholders, current capability or gaps.
Critical Thinking Skills
“An organisation may have a clear strategy, exhaustive risk management processes, detailed plans and highly skilled individuals. But if teams come together – under pressure, crisis or significant change – and are unable to demonstrate ‘critical thinking’, they may not be effective in managing the situation or seeing the opportunities.”
Head of Resilience
Crisis Management, Incident and Emergency
Capability Development
Our Unique Approach
Janellis has niche expertise and tools in helping organisations build organisational resilience by uplifting the capability of individuals and teams to respond effectively to a range of potential threats and risks they may face.
Exercise Development Process
We use scenario-based activities to train teams across the organisation including Executive Leadership teams, Project teams, Incident teams and Emergency Management teams. This approach facilitates an experiential-style learning opportunity that uplifts and embeds capability.
This style of executive training and exercising is designed to extend executive confidence, which provides assurance to stakeholders that crisis management teams and response teams can respond in a coordinated way to a range of potential disruptions now and at any time into the future.
The Janellis 4-Step Exercise Development process takes into account current capabilities, stakeholder expectations, current risk profile and any constraints that may exist.
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Hypotheticals
A hypothetical is a style of discussion exercise where problems are posed by a facilitator and considered by a panel of individuals ‘on their feet’. The facilitator keeps the activity moving by asking probing questions and introducing unexpected events as the scenario unfolds.
Hypotheticals are often conducted in front of an audience of emergency managers and other stakeholders, and require careful preparation and a relatively longer lead-time than other discussion exercises.
Hypotheticals are a particularly effective way to build a shared understanding of different approaches to problems. They are also useful for simulating operational stress by requiring participants to analyse complex problems and develop appropriate responses in real time.
This exercise type may be useful:
- When you intend to give little or no prior notice of problems to be resolved.
- To share resource and procedural information.
- To make a presentation to an audience.
- To assess a decision maker’s ability to ‘think on their feet’.
- If you seek to create a degree of operational stress.
Workshops
Workshops differ from other discussion exercises, in that the focus is on collaboration and engagement with key stakeholders in the development of organisational resilience plans, guidelines or tools.
Workshops can be employed as part of a series of activities to help shape and agree solutions to enhance operational capability and capacity. These styles of scenario-based activities are usually conducted with key decision-makers at a managerial or executive level.
To be effective, workshops must be highly focused on a specific issue, and the desired objectives must be clearly defined.
Janellis have been running Executive Workshops with organisations in high risk industries or environments around the world for over 10 years.
Simulations
Simulations (also called Functional Exercises) are closely related to discussion exercises (Hypotheticals and Workshops), but normally take place in an operational environment and require participants to actually perform the functions of their roles.
They are designed to test or practise a particular function; for example, managing an incident or emergency from within an emergency operations centre. Functions within the environment are conducted as if a real event were happening outside. Simulations are normally run in real time.
Scenario information is fed to participants in a manner similar to the way they would receive it ‘in the real world’, be that via phone, email or web-based incident management systems.
The input of scenario information is managed by the Exercise Control Team (EXCON), under the direction of the exercise controller, in accordance with the order and timeframe detailed in the master schedule of events list (MSEL). Participants’ performance is monitored by exercise facilitators and the tempo of the exercise can be increased or decreased by regulating the flow of exercise inputs.
The aim and objectives of the exercise will determine the amount of interaction the facilitators have with exercise participants. This exercise type may be useful:
- To practise, develop or assess procedures within a command centre or room
- To practise, develop or assess decision-making skills within a command centre or room
- To assess the interaction of the command centre / room with field teams and other functional commands
- Where there is no need to activate resources external to the command centre / room.
Field Exercises
Field exercises involve deployment of personnel to a simulated incident or emergency. These exercises may involve elements of functional exercises and often test control arrangements as well as ‘on the ground’ skills.
A major field exercise often follows a series of discussion or functional exercises; or they can take the form of a demonstration, drill or full-scale deployment.
These more complex exercises are an effective way to simulate the likely events and occurrences in emergencies that rarely occur, but for which responders need to be prepared. In some circumstances, they are the only chance for responders to apply some of their skills or work with other agencies in a realistic setting.
This exercise type may be useful:
- To practise, develop or assess the competencies of on-ground personnel.
- To evaluate the effectiveness of inter-agency coordination and cooperation.
- To evaluate the activation of an emergency plan.
- To consolidate a progressive exercise program.
- If your objectives require deployment of field personnel.
Case Study
Providing assurance of Sydney’s water network preparedness for major weather events
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