All companies have found themselves in an

unfortunate situation due to a lack of foresight and planning. A tried-and-true method for mitigating the unknown is the tabletop exercise.

Tabletop exercises are an excellent way to challenge and examine crisis plans, including crisis media. These exercises can sharpen your problem-solving in pressure situations and elevate your company’s preparedness—provided you properly design, carefully conduct, fully evaluate and use your test results.

Tabletop exercises are interactive discussions led by a facilitator focused on a hypothetical issue. Key crisis personnel meets in an informal setting to discuss their roles and how they would respond to emergencies. These exercises developed from planning for significant logistical challenges like military conflicts and major disasters. They help sensitize key personnel to the importance of acting at the right moment and being prepared for the unexpected as the crisis deepens. Well-designed tabletops will test the organization’s media response plan and response procedures through guided discussion of various emergency scenarios.

A media tabletop exercise usually lasts one-and-a-half to two hours but can be longer or shorter depending on complexity. Exercises should be performed often, especially as you start using the tell in your preparation and planning processes—once a quarter. A well-designed tabletop program will shorten the first exercise and focus more on the fundamental essentials of the response team; as your team gets more proficient, the exercises can be more complex and test exceptional circumstances and challenges.

When setting up a tabletop, I recommend you think about these steps.

Review Business Continuity Plan

First, ensure your company has a plan and that the program is not too general and ready to be tested. The main reason to conduct a tabletop is to ensure your objectives are comprehensive and workable during an actual crisis.

Be Clear About Your Exercise Goal

Next, define your goal. One example would be to educate the team about the challenges a specific crisis poses to identify any needed procedures. Goals can range from typical to comprehensive. Possible goals for its tabletops include:

  • Identifying and understanding current plans.
  • Testing policy gaps.
  • Determining if they are feasible.

Specific objectives define a scenario, ensure that participants share a realistic expectation of the exercise, provide a way to organize the teams and form the basis for the after-action report.

Create the Scene

The scenario is based on the company’s objectives. First, for example, what location are the participants in? What is the plan designed to test? What decisions are the participants being asked to make? Is the press reporting on the situation at this time? What variable does the team have to work with?

Tabletop Exercise Participants

When planning a tabletop exercise, you’ll want to ensure all the organization’s key elements are represented, with backups in place for unavailable individuals. This is, first and foremost organizational training, not individual training. I suggest the following roles be present for the most vigorous exercise.

Partakers

As a partaker in a tabletop exercise, you should be willing to insert yourself into the conversation and embrace the objectives of the scenario presented. Staying engaged is vital. Partakers will be staff and management crucial to the company’s business continuity. Different scenarios may include a variety of people from a variety of departments participants for various scenarios. More is better when going through tabletop scenarios.

Drivers

Drivers often control the pace of the exercise. When driving tabletop exercises, they are responsible for moving the discussion as needed and engaging participants who may be less vocal, focusing on drawing out solutions from the group. The driver conducts the exercise as a neutral third party who helps a group increase its effectiveness by improving its process. Once the participants are in place, the driver presents the scenario and begins to inject updates.

Evaluator

Evaluators document the outcomes of the tabletop exercise. They highlight the positive actions they see and areas flagged for improvement. Evaluators most likely also develop the After-Action Report, which details lessons learned and recommendations for future planning, training and exercises.

Spectator

A tabletop exercise spectator is typically in the room to passively follow the proceedings and provide an additional perspective about topics outside your participants’ direct purview or expertise. If you invite spectators, make sure they know they can answer questions or give feedback as appropriate when prompted by the larger group.

Develop Scripts and Data Injects

Once the design team determines the scenario, it can move into designing the script, and data injects new information that the participants must consider.

Plan the After-Action Report

Do you have someone on staff with good observation, note-taking and writing skills? You might consider writing an after-action report with comments and recommendations addressing areas of assessment, gaps, and corrective actions to be taken to correct. Follow-through at this point is vital in making the company’s preparedness plans changes. Are there any other issues you would like to discuss that were not raised?

Regular tabletop exercises will help illuminate problems lurking on the pages of the plan. There is a lot to gain from these exercises, and they will help you improve your responses if you find yourself in a crisis.

Elizabeth Lampert is a PR strategist, Tabletop facilitator and crisis communications counsel at Elizabeth Lampert PR. She can be reached at Lampert@elizabethlampertpr.com