Exercises are an important part of preparedness and the lifecycle of crisis management, business continuity, or communications planning.

But most exercises are just plain boring.

In this episode of the Managing Uncertainty Podcast, Bryghtpath Principal & CEO Bryan Strawser and Senior Consultant Jennifer Otremba talk about why exercises are often so boring and techniques to “spice them up” for your exercise participants. Topics include non-linear exercises, varying inject introduction methods, and the need for unique, high-energy facilitators.

Episode Transcript

Bryan Strawser:                   I have been to a lot of boring exercises.

Jen Otremba:                        Yeah, I was at one last spring that was so boring.

Bryan Strawser:                   Why was it boring? It was boring because poorly facilitated, poor content?

Jen Otremba:                        It just felt very monotone. It felt it was a little bit drug out, I thought. It was super long. And it was just boring.

Bryan Strawser:                   Do you think in that case of the boring exercise that the folks that were doing the exercise got anything out of that?

Jen Otremba:                        I think that they probably still got some things out of it. I think that they recognize that they were lacking in certain areas and they didn’t have some of the information that they needed. But, in general, I don’t think they got out as much of it, because I don’t think it was very memorable.

Bryan Strawser:                   What I think has been typical at least of the exercises I’ve gone to is that they’re just poorly constructed. They’re almost always about the most innocuous thing that you could have happen, or it is about the alien invasion and we’re all going to die. It’s like the Kobayashi Maru from Star War … Star Trek, that there’s no way that you’re going to survive the scenario. It’s the no-win scenario.

Jen Otremba:                        Yes, and I think in this case, I think it felt like a scenario that they have run 300 times before, and the way they presented it, it was as if they were bored with the scenario, because they’ve done it a bunch of times before. I don’t think it was very well done towards … done for the client to meet their specific needs.

Bryan Strawser:                   It’s really unfortunate because I think that I think exercises are important. I think we spend an enormous amount of time in the business continuity, or crisis management processes of conducting risk assessments and doing the business impact analysis, if you do those. The constructing plans and then it’s time to practice, because that’s how you build muscle memory. That’s how you kind of understand roles and responsibilities in real life, and then the exercise is always such a let down.

Jen Otremba:                        Yeah, ultimately you don’t want to spend all that time on the plan, and just put it on the shelf-

Bryan Strawser:                   Woo-hoo, we’re done.

Jen Otremba:                        We did it. It’s obviously best to test those processes, and make sure that they’re working and not wait till an actual crisis to test them.

Bryan Strawser:                   And they have to be tested in a realistic manner. We don’t want to test the, oh, the network switch failed, and that’s your exercise scenario, but you also don’t want the, hey, I’m out here in space by myself and now there’s five Klingon warships about to destroy me, and I’m going to die.

Jen Otremba:                        Right. You generally don’t want to do a zombie ap...