Two facilitated tabletop exercises tested a national property investor and developer’s newly formed crisis management team and its plan in a controlled, no-fault setting.
THE CHALLENGE
A national property investor and developer manages a portfolio of commercial, retail and residential assets, where reputation and market confidence matter as much as the physical assets. It had set up a Crisis Management Team drawn from its executive leadership, with primary and alternate members, and a Crisis Management Plan was in place. The team, however, had not yet been tested against a realistic crisis scenario, so its capability was theoretical rather than proven. Without practical testing, decision-making, communication and coordination might not hold up under the pressure of a real incident. The organisation wanted to move the team from planning to demonstrated readiness in a controlled, confidence-building environment.
OUR APPROACH
Agilient designed and delivered a crisis management exercise program tailored to the property sector, led by senior consultants to support peer-level engagement with the executive. The method aligned with ISO 22301:2019 and followed five phases: planning, document review, scenario development, facilitation and reporting. Planning and document review grounded the exercise in the organisation’s existing Crisis Management Plan and governance arrangements. Agilient then developed a bespoke crisis scenario relevant to the organisation’s risk profile. Two separate 90-minute tabletop exercises were facilitated on the same day, one for the primary team members and one for the alternates, so that capability was tested across both groups. Exercising both groups gave the organisation depth and redundancy in its crisis capability. The sessions were run as facilitated discussions rather than high-pressure simulations. This encouraged open learning, allowed strengths and procedural gaps to surface in a no-fault setting, and helped build cohesion within the team.
THE OUTCOME
The organisation gained a clear baseline of its crisis management capability and a plan for improving it.
- A tested Crisis Management Plan, exercised by both primary and alternate team members
- Identified strengths and procedural gaps, captured in a no-fault environment
- A post-exercise report with a prioritised roadmap of actionable recommendations
Related services: crisis management consultants, business resilience programs, exercising and testing. Sector experience: building security consultant. To discuss a similar project, contact Agilient.