We often hear about disasters and incidents happening all over the globe, distressing the lives of individuals, shaking entire cities, affecting businesses and the economy. Crises do happen, and it is not a question of whether a crisis will happen, but rather, when it will happen. Though there is no way to know what, exactly, lies ahead of each person and company, there are some measures people can take to become better prepared for the unexpected. Organizations would benefit tremendously,

• If everyone, especially at the management level, knew their individual roles in a crisis and understood how they fit in with the roles of others;
• If there was a way that the management team could test its response in the face of danger without any true danger to people or the organization;
• If leaders would feel experienced and confident in their ability to cope with any challenges caused by serious incidents and interruptions.

These needs inspired the birth of ICE - the Crisis Management solution from CoDimensions, designed to prepare the management of organizations, both individually and as a team, to address crisis situations.

The Immersive Crisis Exercise, or ICE, provides you with everything that a real crisis would throw at you, thus immersing the team in a custom-crafted scenario specifically prepared for the needs of a particular organization.

Media coverage by news stations, phone calls from disoriented employees, interactions with paramedics, emergency response units, and reporters - all these give the sense of a real-life crisis unfolding… except for one thing: it isn’t a real crisis. It only feels like it’s real, which allows you to gain invaluable experience without any true danger to you, your company, or its reputation.

Continuity Dimension’s Immersive Crisis Exercise (ICE) is an engaging crisis management simulation designed to exercise your organization's ability to manage disruptive crisis events.

ICE provides your management team with a non-threatening way to exercise their Crisis Management responsibilities, the business processes around it and gain a lifelike experience of their team’ performance in a crisis. It will reveal strengths and weaknesses in the current state of organization's preparedness, provide leaders with the means to do due diligence, and receive assurance that their team will be able to perform, should a crisis occur.

During the exercise, the management team works from one room, the Command Centre, and the simulation team is placed in a different location. The executives play under the BLUE flag, managing the crisis, while the Simulation Team, playing under the RED, trying to make their job as challenging and as realistic as possible.

When the game begins, the Simulation Team makes the first move. A breaking news report is broadcasted live into the Command Centre. Moments later, the Simulation Team  unleashes a flood of telephone calls and other messages: from emergency services, worried relatives, media, employees, and other parties. Participants get engaged in fast-paced, dynamic interactions with multiple stakeholders.

Everything that happens in the Command Centre is carefully designed, custom-tailored to the culture of the company, and approved by the sponsoring executive. At all times, professional facilitators are there for help and direction. When the game is over, there is an opportunity to review things learned and to provide feedback, during a debriefing session.

The benefits of ICE are numerous and address the needs of various stakeholders. Just to list a few:

• Gain Crisis Management experience in a non-threatening way
• Gain skills in managing information and prioritizing issues during a crisis
• Mold individual players into a cohesive team capable of managing crisis

• Demonstrate progressive thinking and an approach to crisis preparedness

• Build Crisis Management competencies and capability in a controlled near-to-real crisis environment

• Assure stakeholders of crisis preparedness through independent validation of capability
• Receive peace of mind coming from a positive experience of handling a life-like crisis

How does ICE work?

 

When you engage in the CoDimensions, you are truly testing the capabilities of your Team in a true-to-life simulation of what may occur. To exercise your Team, you don't need to spend months and months planning and provisioning.  In a matter of weeks we can set up a crisis simulation and you can drill your Team. 

 

Here is what we do:

 

• We will customize the scenarios to your business. We will design breaking news your team to watch on TV and other key injects and tailor them to your company and your Business Continuity/Crisis Management Plan. 
• We will put in place a simulation team knowledgeable about your BCP, and arm them with specific injects  designed by you and us that will test all aspects of your      plan.
• We will provide our portable command center for both the simulation team and the CMT, so that you don’t  have to worry about the technological side of the event. All the    communication lines, phones and servers will be in place, ready to  exercise your Team.
• We will train your Team in a lifelike crisis simulation saturated with breaking news reports, calls from the police department, fire department, and other parties      involved in the crisis.
• We will spend time after the event with your BCM team to analyze how you performed against your own standards and to discuss weaknesses identified in your Business      Continuity Plan.
• We will invest time with your management team members to debrief them on the strengths of your Crisis Management Team and to answer their questions.

 

So, get the confidence that your Team is ready to execute your crisis plan. Put them on ICE!

 

 

 

 For more information, please contact us.