Running
Running is the live execution of the exercise design. It’s where the Master Events List (MEL), Pattern of Life (PoL), and player interactions converge in real time. EXCON manages the unfolding story, adjusts "rhythm", and adapts to participant decisions to achieve realism.
Realistic training
Realistic training exercises should do the following:
Add stress
Generate emotion
Test for intuition
Show consequences
Test team adaptability to changing circumstances
Test cohesion by introducing friction and opposing purposes
Understand the trust required due to organisation of team roles
A crisis is not like a normal day in the office: tensions, political stakes, and stress are all running high and everyone's wellbeing is pushed to the limit. Re-creating the stress of a crisis during training is paramount because we all behave differently when stressed. Our ability to maintain good situational awareness is dramatically impaired and the way we communicate/collaborate with others can deteriorate.
Hence, a realistic rehearsal must test the team, especially how it communicates and collaborates.
Team communication & coordination
The above conditions test not just decision-making, but the human elements of teamwork: communication, coordination, and trust.
A key part of team communication is achieving a shared situational awareness.
Information from unfolding events are interpreted in different ways by different people based on their experience, culture, point of view and so on. To orient the team means sharing interpretations and this takes time (which is in short supply during a crisis) and listening to others.
When considering team organisation, parallelism refers to how much overlap there is between roles. Asymmetry refers to how different the role responsibilities are.
Where there is little overlap between roles and, where responsibilities are unique to each team member, there needs to be a high degree of trust. Exercises can test team trust by creating political, social and financial forces that threaten team unity, pulling the individual in the opposite direction from the team goal.
Multiagency exercises (where there are teams of teams) offer additional opportunities to surface friction and consequently, develop ways to overcome that friction. For instance, old rivalries and hostilities are better to surface during a rehearsal than during a crisis.
Ultimately...
A well-run exercise reveals how people, not just plans, perform under real pressure.
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