Exercise debrief

It is not our intention to teach you how to conduct a debrief. Rather our aim is to provide you with guidance in relation to the arrangements for and outcomes you should be seeking from an exercise debrief: Debriefing questions should provide very clear feedback on what actually happened relative to what was expected to happen.

There are basically two types of exercise debrief: informal/immediate post-exercise (sometimes called a “Hot Wash-up”) and a more formal debrief generally conducted some time after the exercise and often supported by a draft post-exercise report.

Hot wash-up

 

An informal debrief should be held as soon as practicable after the exercise. This may be before exercise participants and control staff have stood down from the exercise.

You will probably have reasoned we need to obtain feedback whilst the exercise is still fresh in the minds of the participants.

But, what if we cannot physically run a face-to-face debrief immediately after the conclusion of the exercise. How can we help ensure that we capture all the information we are after?

We should be asking participants to put their views and comments in writing immediately post-exercise. This written information can then be collated and used to produce a draft post-exercise report for discussion at a subsequent formal debrief. Another method is to get each agency/organisation involved in the exercise to conduct their own “ Hot Wash-up” when they return to their own headquarters/operational base etc. This information can then be used during the formal debrief to be conducted later.

Remember that people often find it easier to answer a ‘tick and flick’ questionnaire than write open-ended answers. The production of a questionnaire will also allow the exercise coordinator to guide the recipients in the direction of the questions he or she needs answering.

 

Formal debrief

 

Formal debriefs are generally held some time after the exercise. They should be designed to answer the same questions as informal debriefs and can be used to table a written draft post-exercise report for endorsement by the participants and for obtaining their agreement to rectify any organisational weaknesses.

 

 

Activity 5.8

Refer back to Reading 14 - Australian emergency manual: Training management, Chapter 9, paragraphs 9.17–9.21.

  1. What are the sorts of questions that should be answered in an exercise debrief?
  2. Consider your own exercise. What debrief questions you might like answered?
  3. Prepare a draft debriefing questionnaire.
  4. When and how can we advise details of exercise debriefs to the exercise participants? You will need to provide this information in your assignment so think now about how you might organise your own debriefs

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