Preparedness Month - Five ways exercising helps you move from rehearsal to reality
A photograph of the inside of an empty theatre, looking out from the stage to the seats.
By Marcus Bowen, VCS Emergencies Partnership capability development lead
In most walks to life, when you’re aiming for a good result in a challenging situation, preparation plays an essential role.
Outside work I’m involved in community theatre and perform with an amateur theatre group. The preparation for an audition, the hours in the rehearsal room and the drilling of both lines and choreography are the efforts and sacrifice we all make to ensure a smooth-running performance come show week.
In some respects it’s not dissimilar to the world of emergency response, which occupies my professional life. Here we call the rehearsing ‘exercising’, but whatever guise it takes, it’s being prepared.
September is National Preparedness Month. Emergency scenario exercises are one of our sector’s most effective ways to test a response to a crisis, and they’re also a great way of building trusted relationships with the people you’ll need to work with when the moment comes.
Below are five ways to use emergency exercises to strengthen relationships with the partners you’ll need to work alongside when something out of the ordinary happens.
1. Exercise internally, with others in your team, organisation, voluntary or community group
Every organisation needs to be aware of risks and ready to respond. You may already have a risk register listing the things most likely to happen, and ways to prevent them or reduce their impact. One of those ways is to have an internal response plan. Like in theatre, whether you are in the ensemble or playing the lead, every member of your ‘cast and crew’ should have a handle on the role they could play.
Exercising internally gives you a chance to work out the kinks and develop your plans in a safe space, before you’re put to the test by the real thing, reducing stress and internal conflict so everyone plays to their strengths and focuses on the wants and needs of the people you’re trying to empower and support.
TIP: No matter how familiar you are with exercising, there are always different aspects to focus on and improve. For example, how good is your approach to inclusivity and the management of diverse needs? The more you focus on a strategy for being adaptive to anything and anyone, the more flexible you’ll be.
2. Exercise with your whole network
Exercising with other organisations can expand your network, improve coordination, and introduce new perspectives that help you better understand our diverse and multi-cultural communities. We don’t always know our blind spots so engaging in a cross-functional exercise with local agencies, businesses and voluntary and community groups can simulate more complex, real-life situations.
Working with partners highlights what different organisations need from each other and reveals points where collaboration is essential, or could overlap. It won’t teach you how to respond to every single thing but it will help you reflect on your practices and planning through a new lens. To stick with that theatre analogy, it’s understanding and appreciating the skills of everyone involved, from set designers to lighting technicians, dressers and stage managers. The best performances happen when everyone’s expertise comes together on and off stage.
TIP: Exercises can be as simple or complex as you make them. They can be in-person or equally effective online, especially if people are strapped for time.
3. Targeted exercises to strengthen a particular relationship between two parts of your network
Chemistry is important. Just like a pair of leads might spent hours perfecting one scene, connections can be instant but more often they come from trust, knowledge and understanding between the players. When the stakes are high, as they are in emergencies, those relationships need to be well-established in advance.
Take time to think about your network’s strengths and weaknesses so you can reach out to those you might not know so well. This could be another way to exercise on a smaller more manageable scale, using a little-and-often approach. A small exercise focussed on a specific aspect or relationship can be as valuable as a large-scale comprehensive exercise that’s six months in the planning.
TIP: Map your networks and identify gaps or areas of weakness. Invite partners to take part or observe an exercise and give you feedback. If you’re struggling to get an invitation to an exercise, ask a partner if you can observe instead. It may give you the ‘in’ you need for an invite the next time.
4. Leverage ‘Train the trainer’ programs to lead your own exercise or empower others in your network to do the same
Use the VCS Emergencies Partnership’s free ‘Train the Trainer’ resource to train your network and encourage them to do the same.
Giving your partners tools to train others empowers them to think differently about common risks and different needs. It also positions you as a leader in community resilience.
Building a network of well-prepared partners is an important step in creating prepared and empowered communities.
TIP: The exercise doesn’t have to be complex but it does have to be relevant. The VCS Emergencies Partnership resource provides a range of examples you can pick from and adapt to your needs. Ask people to let you know how much training they’ve done as a result of your session so you can find out how far it has spread. It all helps make a case for doing more in the future.
5. Empower communities
Those of us working or volunteering in emergency response know there’s a system that kicks in when one happens, but there are plenty of things individuals can do to be ready, too.
Exercising directly with communities is a great way of building understanding of what to expect in an emergency, how someone can help themselves and where they might go for information or support. It’s also a great way of engaging people on how they can help others, leading to better ways of managing and making the most of ‘spontaneous volunteers’, in other words, people who come forward to volunteer in the moment.
TIP: Design an exercise that encourages communities to think about the diversity of needs they would have, the proactive steps they could take to meet them, and how to register for emergency alerts.
Preparedness is a process
Preparedness is gradual and achieved over time. Take advantage of Preparedness Month to plan a schedule to review, exercise or refine your emergency procedures in a rhythm that is manageable and helps you develop and strengthen your networks.
Making regular exercising a habit ensures plans are practical and poised in the wings ready for your team’s moment in the emergency spotlight.
Visit our ‘join the Emergencies Partnership’ page for more information about the benefits of joining our network, and how to sign up.
About the author: Marcus Bowen is the VCS Emergencies Partnership’s capability development lead. Marcus creates spaces for sharing best practice, learning from previous emergencies and building new skills across the partnership.