Crisis Simulation Playbook:

Put Your Crisis Response Plan to the Test

A crisis is coming.

No matter your company’s foresight, you will encounter a crisis at some point in time, whether
it’s external, like an economic or environmental issue, or internal, such as a product defect.
Anticipating crises and developing a comprehensive crisis communications strategy is
critical, but you also need to pressure test that plan to make it truly effective.

Just as schools and businesses run periodic fire drills, your company should rehearse
its crisis communications plan to test and develop its effectiveness and pinpoint
gaps in advance so you have time to address them. Even a thoroughly developed crisis
communications plan won’t be helpful if it gets no further than employees’ computer screens.
Your management team and employees need to see how your strategy will play out in a
realistic scenario to truly understand how the plan will work.

Crisis simulation exercises provide context and practice to allow your people to prepare for
a real-life crisis and get comfortable with the pace and uncertainty inherent in every
crisis. This playbook will provide tips for making your exercise as realistic — and
successful — as possible, as well as how to make the most of your simulation by
analyzing and evaluating your response.

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What Is a Crisis Simulation and Why Is It Important?

During a crisis simulation, a customized crisis scenario is presented, and a company’s

designated response team must use its crisis communications plan to respond accordingly.
Ultimately, a crisis simulation tests your company’s ability to manage a serious incident, from
a natural disaster to a product defect to employee misconduct. These exercises don’t only give
you the opportunity to practice executing your crisis response strategy; they also allow you to
critique and address any weaknesses in your plan.

These exercises can vary from desktop exercises — where

delegates sit around a table to discuss the scenario — to
full-scale simulations that involve mock press conferences,
breaking news, and other real-time developments. A full
crisis simulation generally lasts for one to two days to test
all dimensions of the response, while a tabletop exercise is
typically a four- to five-hour-long session.

A crisis simulation typically features a facilitator who leads

the crisis management team through the scenario. As the exercise progresses, the facilitator
reveals more details, complications, or new challenges to call for a possible response, based
on the actions that have been taken. A debriefing at the end allows the company to identify
any missteps or gaps in the response plan.

Conducting regular crisis simulations is essential to make sure your company is prepared to
face critical incidents of all kinds and emerge stronger on the other side.

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7 Tips for a Successful Crisis Simulation

1. Conduct simulations regularly

Hold a practice scenario at least once a year, but preferably twice. Over time, factors —
such as your leadership team, your department structure, the tools you have to drive your
response (like new "owned" social media platforms, for example), and potential vulnerabilities
— can change and evolve. Conducting simulations regularly can help you identify any new
weaknesses and ensure your company is always ready for a true crisis.

2. Choose an appropriate difficulty level

There’s a delicate balance to achieve when determining the difficulty of the scenario you
choose. A challenging simulation will ensure that your crisis communications team learns
how to react in a crisis and builds confidence in their response. However, if the
scenario is too hard and the team fails to respond appropriately, the team may
instead experience a decrease in morale and confidence. The simulation should
provide valuable lessons without pushing your team past their breaking point.

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3. Have a third party implement the scenario

To get the most value out of a crisis simulation, it can be helpful to have a third party plan and
implement the scenario. This guarantees that the company is reacting to an unknown issue
and all company decision-makers can practice their response in real time. Third parties also
have more bandwidth to create a detailed and realistic scenario that includes elements such
as mock media reports, TV packages, social media feeds, and investor reaction. In addition,
third parties can help coordinate large-scale practice sessions, even with teams distributed
across multiple cities, countries, and time zones.

4. Make the scenario as realistic as possible

Reacting to a set of facts listed on a document or in a PowerPoint presentation can certainly

start a discussion, but it probably won’t spark the type of response that would be necessary
in a true crisis situation. With that in mind, your crisis scenario should be as realistic as
possible, including external factors and complications, such as simulated news updates,
social media commentary, government or regulatory inquiries, share price impact, and
tangible reactions and inquiries from all stakeholders. The more realistic you make the
scenario, the more value your team will get from the exercise.

5. Reveal information on a rolling basis

Like in a real crisis, information should be revealed on a rolling basis, rather than all at once.
The scenario unfolds as information is revealed step by step on a schedule that mirrors the
information phases of a real crisis, from initial confusion and scarcity of facts to information
overload. This will mimic the stressful environment, along with conflicting or incomplete
information, that an actual crisis would create.

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6. Involve all relevant and affected stakeholders

The simulation should involve leaders and teams from all affected areas of the company. For
instance, instruct the communication and PR team to work from its crisis communication
plan and resources, including using templates to create messages, draft statements and
press releases, compose social media updates, advise management, brief spokespeople and
take calls from journalists.

Instruct participants to take the situation seriously and interact as they would if the scenario
was real and if each decision made had real consequences. That means you won’t be able to
script the entire scenario from the beginning; it will need to adjust and evolve based on the
decisions your team makes.

7. Simulate press conferences and interviews

A company spokesperson is a critical component of your crisis response team. Ideally, your
chosen spokesperson can clearly deliver a message with authority and credibility. That usually
means it is someone on the leadership team, as they have already established trust with the
public and have experience issuing statements and speaking with the media.

However, even if your spokespeople are experienced and well spoken, it is usually worth it to
test and practice their communication skills through mock media events. It can be helpful
to have outside trainers to role-play journalists, so you can simulate press conferences and
ambush interviews in real time.

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 Analyzing and Evaluating Your Response

Just as important as going through the simulation is debriefing after the exercise is complete.
After each test run, the crisis communications team and management should analyze the
plan’s strengths and weaknesses. Consider the following:

· How strong was your prepared messaging? Does it need any adjustments based
on what the simulation revealed?

· Were all key decision makers available and involved? Does anyone need to be
added to the crisis communications team?

· Were all team members confident in their roles? Do any roles need to be clarified
or adjusted?

· Was the chain of communication effective?

· Was the company’s speed of response satisfactory?

Your crisis communications team members should also meet quarterly to determine if the
plan needs updating. For instance, an acquisition, geographic expansion, major new product
introduction, or strategic partnership could all create new risks and vulnerabilities, requiring
updates to the preparedness planning process.

Crisis simulations are an essential element of crisis preparedness. ICR helps companies
develop in-depth written plans, processes, materials and tools, and provides crisis simulation
training and coaching for company spokespeople. If you need help conducting a crisis
simulation or developing a crisis communications plan for your business, please get in touch.

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