Clear Message and Strong Delivery

Next we need to communicate our vision with clarity and passion. Exercises are great tools. So great in fact that their success has led to their widespread use. And like anything else, too much of a good thing can be bad. Exercises aren’t a new experience for most participants. They’ve been to more than they care to think about. Chances are, at least a few of the participants in every exercise have already participated in another exercise related activity in the past few weeks. This “over exposure” can lead to apathy in a planning committee. When someone is assigned to participate, regardless of the role, the default response will be: “do as little as possible so I can get back to my real job.” The upside is that most participants care a great deal about their jobs. They are engaged in their work because they believe it matters. This dedication to their work makes them sympathetic to any cause that will help them accomplish their mission. 

This is why communicating a vision can be so influential. As exercise designers it’s critical to show how the exercise will support them in their day-to-day jobs. We should be prepared, enthusiastic, and stubbornly determined to make this exercise impactful. As we lead the planning committee through the design process, we should impress upon them that all of their decisions matter. And we should demonstrate our design expertise by helping them make insightful choices throughout the process. We can overcome apathy by exuding confidence that the exercise we are designing represents a real opportunity to impact the preparedness or resilience of their organization and to find make a connection planning team members care about. 

If we create a thoughtful vision and communicate with passion how the planning committee’s efforts supporting the exercise improves their ability to do work that matters, then we’ve made it easy for them to choose to go the extra mile. Helping them see the “why and how” of the exercise’s design, and see how this work matters to us as much as their work matters to them, will certainly provide a nudge to do the right thing.