Miniature mock disaster exercises are a small thing that can make a big difference in terms of an organization’s preparedness for emergencies. In today’s post, we’ll lay out the benefits of such micro exercises and discuss how to organize and conduct them.
Related on MHA Consulting: How to Be a Mock Jock: Advice on Facilitating a Disaster Exercise
The typical mock disaster exercise is a complex undertaking that must be planned far in advance and requires a lot of hours from a lot of people. These are the type of exercises I focused on in my two most recent blog posts, one on planning mock disaster exercises and one on facilitating them.
Such full-scale exercises are very important in terms of helping organizations prepare for disasters. However, full-scale exercises are only one of many types of exercises available to organizations that want to improve their ability to deal with disaster.
There is a whole spectrum of exercises companies can use to boost their readiness. Full-scale exercises lie at one end of the spectrum. At the other end of the spectrum are what we at MHA Consulting refer to as micro exercises.
In today’s post, I’m going to take a closer look at micro mock disaster exercises. I’m going to look specifically at:
As the old song says, “Little things mean a lot.” That is definitely true of micro mock disaster exercises in terms of how they can benefit your organization.
Micro mock disaster exercises are extremely brief disaster exercises that are typically included as agenda items during meetings being held for other reasons. A typical micro exercises lasts about ten minutes. It’s best if they are held fairly frequently.
A micro mock disaster exercise is primarily a thought exercise. As everyone is sitting in the meeting, the facilitator sketches out a scenario for the participants and asks them questions about what they would do in that scenario.
The participants think about what they would do and share their responses.
These discussions are very informal.
The micro mock disaster exercise is a low-stakes way of making people begin thinking about the high-stakes matter of disaster preparedness.
The following are some of the benefits of micro mock disaster exercises:
What is the role of the BC team in setting up and running an ongoing program of micro mock disaster exercises?
The role of the BC team in this activity is three-fold. First, the BC team obtains management buy-in and gets the program going, including suggesting the schedule and scenarios. Second, team members attend and perhaps facilitate the first exercises. Third, the BC team gradually withdraws to observer status, allowing the various teams to run their exercises themselves.
Many different scenarios are appropriate for mock disaster exercises. The scenario can either be a small situation looked at in its entirety or a small part of a large situation.
The trick is isolating and identifying challenges whose scope is appropriate for a discussion of 10 minutes or so.
Here are some possible scenarios a company might use for micro mock disaster exercises:
The following are some tips and ideas for conducting micro mock disaster exercises:
In one respect, micro mock disaster exercises are the same as the full-scale kind: Your organization will only be able to conduct them if management agrees.
A benefit of micro exercises is they only take a few minutes and can be slotted into meetings that are already being held for other reasons. This can make management more likely to give the okay.
In terms of persuading management that micro exercises are worthwhile, tell them about the benefits to the organization’s readiness as discussed above.
Mention that conducting micro exercises will help with audit and regulatory matters, if applicable.
Full-scale mock disaster exercises are irreplaceable, but a program of micro exercises can bring great benefits at a minimal cost in disruptions. By keeping such exercises short but conducting them often, you can make disaster preparedness part of the culture at your organization.
For more information on this and other hot topics in business continuity and IT/disaster recovery, check out these recent posts from MHA Consulting and BCMMETRICS: