Just this week, FEMA reminded us all that “exercises are a key component in ‘building a culture of preparedness,’ empowering communities and individuals to become more resilient against the threats and hazards that Americans face.”
It’s true. Post-incident critiques, per Ready.gov, often “confirm that experienced gained during exercises was the best way to prepare teams to respond effectively to an emergency.” That’s because exercises help ensure awareness and understanding of the emergency or continuity plan, and help stakeholders measure and improve their own performance. Plus, they help identify opportunities to improve capabilities organization- or community-wide in an actual event.
So where do you start in developing an exercise program?
You start with a clear understanding of your current Continuity of Operations Plan (COOP) or Emergency Operations Plan (EOP). You start with basic tools like FEMA’s recently released Exercise Starter Kits, which support a simple, four-to-six hour tabletop exercise for four to 50 participants. And, if feasible, you start with experienced facilitators who can easily turn those starter kits into a fully customized and highly valuable exercise program for your organization or jurisdiction. After all, they are the ones who are uniquely qualified (and trained) to help build upon your plan’s strengths as well as identify ground truths so you can make any/all necessary improvements.
So who in your organization should be responsible for setting up the exercise program?
More often than not, it’s the same, almost-always overwhelmed person (or persons) responsible for developing your Continuity of Operations Plan (COOP) or Emergency Operations