Testing your crisis plan is a critical part of crisis communication, business continuity preparation – and a major step toward resiliency. Hennes Communications can design and conduct cost-effective crisis drills that simulate actual crises, testing your staff’s readiness and ability to respond.

Tabletop Crisis Drills

Tabletop crisis drills simulate crises in a conference room setting. Typically, a tabletop drill can last anywhere from 2-4 hours, followed by a “debriefing” in which all participants note the lessons learned, capturing these impressions while fresh in their minds so that strengths and vulnerabilities can be accurately assessed.

After the drill is completed, we prepare a full report, focused in particular on the team’s readiness to respond to the flood of inquiries that would realistically occur during a crisis. Also considered and assessed:

• Did team members have the appropriate tools to communicate and did they use them?
• Were they proactive or reactive?
• Did they follow the guidelines established in the Crisis Communication Plan, or in the heat of the moment were they inclined to “wing it” instead?
• Was the tone appropriate?
• Did they keep all critical members of the team informed?
• Did they effectively prioritize inquiries and respond accordingly?

Short of waiting for an actual crisis, a tabletop drill is a cost-effective way to evaluate an organization’s crisis communication plan while there’s still time to address needed improvements.

Functional Crisis Drills

Much more elaborate than tabletop drills, functional crisis drills include both participants and actors simulating reporters, government officials, members of the public and others who might be involved in an incident. This type of drill unfolds in real time, with emphasis on realism.

Having a business continuity and/or crisis communication plan in place is good. Testing that plan is better.

Contact us today and speak to one of our crisis planning specialists.