Exercise management principles

Having placed the importance and relevance of exercises in their proper context with the rest of emergency management, we now need to look in more detail at some of the fundamental principles of exercise management.

 

Activity 4.1

Read

Reading 14: Extracts from Australian emergency manual: Training management, Chapter 9, paras 9.08 and 9.12–9.22.

  1. What do you think the key principles of exercise management are?
  2. Why is it important to have clear objectives? What are the consequences if the exercise objectives are ambiguous?
  3. Give an example of a situation where it may be useful to hold a scheduled follow-up exercise, and one where it would be useful to hold an unscheduled follow-up exercise?
  4. What could cause a failure to reach exercise objectives? What can we do to help minimise or prevent such failures?

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Exercise management models


Activity 4.2

Read

Reading 14: Extracts from Australian emergency manual: Training management, Chapter 9, Annexes B and C.



The two models presented in the reading may initially look dissimilar. If you examine them closely you will find, however, that they are complementary.

Model A presents a series of six simple and logical processes in exercise management. It also provides some limited outputs to each process. Model B, looks at the process of exercise management from a planning perspective, and provides a suggested time frame in which to design, prepare, conduct and validate two types of exercise. Model B also indicates the need for a policy meeting in the early phase of exercise management. This policy meeting should be the forum for carrying out the need and analysis activities.

The following table incorporates the information from models A and B and demonstrates their similarity. The table forms the basis for the work we will be doing during this Topic.

Model A

Model B

Outputs

Need

Policy Meeting

Policy including:

Definition of need

Analysis

Policy Meeting

Authority

Aim and Objectives

Agencies Involved

Resources/Budget

Select Exercise Type

Writing Team

Exercise Proposal

Design

Progress Meeting

(Exercise Writing Team)

Co-ordination

General Instruction

General Idea

Special Idea

Event Schedule

Conduct

Exercise Conduct

(Exercise Control Staff)

Briefings

Media Releases

Command and Control

De-brief

De-brief (Exercise Control Staff/Exercise Writing Team)

Analysis of Exercise

- Performance

- Objectives

- Design

Validation

Validation (All)

Follow up in:

- Training

- SOP

- Exercise Design

We can also represent this table as a composite exercise management model, integrating the two models into one.

Figure 4.2: Exercise management model


You will not be required to conduct an exercise as part of your assessment nor be asked to carry out the validation step. You should, however, have some knowledge in these areas and they will be discussed later.

 

 

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