Crisis Management Exercise to enhance Governmental and Interorganizational Crisis Management
Background
To increase the ability to respond in exceptional situations, a comprehensive, cross-organisational crisis management exercise was designed for the crisis management team of a local authority. The aim was to practice the cooperation between key players in civil protection, such as the administration, police, fire brigade and external agencies, under realistic conditions. The focus was on joint situation assessment, coordination and decision-making in official crisis management, as well as the quick identification of potential for optimisation in communication and process structures.
Solution
The implementation of the exercise took place in three phases:
In the preparation phase, the review and analysis of relevant documents was carried out first. In a joint kick-off meeting with the involved stakeholders, organizational key points, role allocations and learning objectives were coordinated. A rough concept for an exercise scenario was developed, with a realistic course of events, injects, defined roles and expected measures. A supporting presentation for the introduction to governmental crisis management was also created. Through several coordination meetings with all parties involved, the concept was finalized in terms of content and technology by our exercise tool.
The implementation took place on two consecutive days on site and included more than 25 participants from various organizational units. In addition to representatives from the administration, police forces, fire brigades and further external stakeholders were actively involved. The exercise was moderated by our experts and carried out with an acting counterpart staff. At the end, a simulated crisis press conference was held. All reactions, decisions and communication processes were observed, documented and processed afterwards.
In the follow-up phase, a final report was prepared. The report summarizes the course of the exercise, the interdisciplinary cooperation as well as central learnings and fields of action.