I’ve recently moved into a new role focused on exercises and experiential learning in emergency management. Much of my career has involved supporting people develop skills and demonstrate what they’ve learned. Now, I’m approaching learning from a different perspective. Rather than focusing primarily on individual outcomes, I’m designing exercises that test an organization’s processes, systems, and capabilities. It’s been an interesting shift, moving from what an individual has learned to examining how an organization operates and where improvements might be needed.

One part of the process that interests me is what happens before anyone starts developing the scenario. It begins with conversations involving internal teams and depending on the exercise, external partners. What do they need to test? What are the essential steps in their processes? Who is responsible for what? And how will we know whether things are working as intended? These conversations help establish the exercise objectives and determine what we need to evaluate.

Only then do we start developing the scenario. Everything, from the injects to the scripts for actors, needs to connect back to those objectives. Each element should have a purpose and allow us to observe or evaluate something specific. It’s not just about creating a realistic exercise, but making sure we’re testing what we set out to test.

An exercise might reveal unclear responsibilities or gaps in a procedure. But identifying those issues is only the beginning. How do we turn those findings into improvements? Who follows up, and how do we know whether the changes have made a difference? For me, this is where organizational learning becomes particularly important. It’s about using what we’ve discovered to improve how an organization operates. Otherwise, we risk identifying the same issues the next time around.

My background in facilitation is also something I bring into this work. I’ve seen how much difference it makes when there’s an emphasis on psychological and emotional safety. That’s especially important during exercises where we may uncover things that aren’t working. Success isn’t about everything going according to plan. It’s about discovering what works, what doesn’t, and what needs to change. It’s better to discover a problem during an exercise than during a real emergency.

I’m curious about how instructional design models might strengthen my approach and create stronger connections between objectives, exercise design and evaluation. I’m starting to see my design identity as going beyond helping individuals learn. It’s also about supporting teams and their partners understand how they work together and make changes based on what they discover. I want the exercises I design to contribute to better preparedness.

Transparency statement: AI assistance was used to review grammar, refine phrasing, and improve sentence flow and clarity. The ideas and experiences shared are my own.