If your team is running exercises where everyone is just going through the motions, you’re missing some key blind spots in your processes. In this replay episode, Rick Christ, a senior consultant at Crisis Prevention and Response, Inc. and a FEMA Master Exercise Practitioner, lays out his seven deadly sins of crisis management exercises. From focusing on shiny objects to exercising too big, Rick covers the mistakes you might be making and how to avoid each one moving forward.

Resources mentioned:

• “The 7 Deadly Sins of Emergency Management,” presentation by former FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate

Some of the key takeaways include: 

• Many times, we do exercises to make us look good, instead of exercising to failure. We need to make sure we’re conducting exercises that show us our blind spots and shortcomings so we can make them better, not so we can practice what we already do well.

• Focus on small scale drills and functional exercises. When you’re running through an entire scenario, it takes forever to organize and you lose a lot of opportunity to fine tune the details. Run one section of the scenario several times, and iterate on it each time.

• Looking at your risk assessment regularly is what will keep you on top of the game. It will show your capabilities, what you need to focus on in exercises, and how the news and weather are going to affect your business that day.

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Vanessa Mathews, host

Vanessa Mathews is the founder and chief resilience officer of Asfalis Advisors, where they are focused on protecting the legacy of the leaders they serve through business resilience. Before becoming an entrepreneur, Mathews developed global crisis management and business continuity programs for government and private sector organizations to include Lowe’s Companies, Gulfstream Aerospace, and the Department of Homeland Security.

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Jon Seals, producer

Jon Seals is the editor in chief at Disaster Recovery Journal, the leading magazine/event in business continuity. Seals is an award-winning journalist with a background in publication design, business media, content management, sports journalism, social media, and podcasting.

KEYWORDS: emergency management, disaster preparedness, FEMA, disaster training, scenario exercises, crisis management