Handbook of exercises for transportation sector personnel

Executing Process

At this point the exercise has been fully developed and is executed, with the Controlling Process monitoring the events. All activities related to the Executing Process have been determined in the Planning Process and documented in the Master Sequence of Events List (MSEL).

Only minor variations from the planned exercise are possible during the execution. The Exercise Director, Controllers and Evaluators may decide to shorten the exercise, change an aspect for safety reasons, or eliminate equipment because of malfunction or confusion about its use. In general, all changes should be avoided except for safety-driven concerns. Otherwise, deficiencies in planning, training or equipment should be noted by the evaluators and included in the Improvement Plan.

The time of exercise play precludes plan modification once the exercise is underway.

The Controlling Process

Roles of Exercise Staff: Controllers, Evaluators, Facilitators

The purpose of this section is to explain how the controllers or facilitators keep the exercise on track by providing the necessary injects and other critical information to the participants, so that participants can continue to work the problems that are presented in the exercise. The following glossary defines the roles of the various exercise staff members.

Controller	In an operations-based exercise, controllers plan and manage exercise play, set up and operate the exercise incident site, and possibly take the roles of individuals and agencies not actually participating in the exercise (i.e., in the Simulation Cell [Sim Cell]). Controllers direct the pace of exercise play and routinely include members from the exercise planning team, provide key data to participants, and may prompt or initiate certain participant actions and injects to the participants, as described in the Master Scenario Event List (MSEL), to ensure exercise continuity. The individual controllers issue exercise materials to participants as required, monitor the exercise timeline, and monitor the safety of all exercise participants. Controllers are the only participants who should provide information or direction to participants. All controllers should be accountable to one senior controller. (Note: If conducting an exercise requires more controllers or evaluators than are available, a controller may serve as an evaluator. However, this typically is discouraged.)
Controller/Evaluator Debrief	The Controller and Evaluator (C/E) debriefing provides each controller and evaluator with an opportunity to provide an overview of the functional area they observed, and to discuss both strengths and areas for improvement. The lead evaluator should assign one or more members of the evaluation team to take detailed notes of the C/E debriefing discussion.
Evaluator	Evaluators, selected from participating agencies, are chosen based on their expertise in the functional areas they will observe. Evaluators use exercise evaluation guides to measure and assess performance, capture unresolved issues, and analyze exercise results. Evaluators passively assess and document participants’ performance against established emergency plans and exercise evaluation criteria, in accordance with HSEEP standards. Evaluators have a passive role in the exercise and only note the actions/decisions of participants without interfering with exercise flow, except for safety concerns.
Facilitator	Facilitators work with the participants to verbally create a course of action before participants execute the course of action for that learning station. They do not direct the participants in a correct course of action, but rather solicit their ideas and suggestions as the plan develops, and point out the ramifications of the potential courses of action the participants develop. Where necessary, they provide additional information about the scenario to compensate for artificialities that may be adversely impacting the participants’ decision-making. They must be subject matter experts who are respected by the participants.

The controllers or facilitators control the tempo and volume of injects during exercise play. In a full scale exercise controllers give general descriptions of the circumstances and allow the participants to develop and execute their plan. In a facilitated exercise the facilitator interacts with the participants as they develop their plan, and does not permit play to begin at that learning station until a plan that meets the exercise objectives and follows established plans and departmental standard operating procedures (SOPs) has been developed. Thus, the controller in a full scale exercise notes deficiencies that have occurred during play, while the facilitator notes the issues that required redirection or rethinking by the participants.

The controllers or facilitators should note any deviations from the expected responses to the exercise scenario problems, such as work being done by a different element than anticipated or different strategies being employed. For example, lacking a hose connection, one fire department truck company used its water fire extinguishers to decontaminate CBRNE victims.

Communication must be established among the controllers or facilitators, especially if they are geographically separated, or if a Sim Cell is involved. A personal cell phone, RACES radio operators functioning as shadows, radios on their own separate exercise frequency, or runners may be used to establish the communications links. The purpose is to coordinate the tempo of activities or make adjustments in exercise play that are noted by the controllers or facilitators at different points of the exercise space.

The evaluators are there in a passive capacity to collect as much information as possible about the participants’ efforts to find solutions to the problems. The evaluators will have pre- identified items or activities that should be observed during play. Evaluators, controllers and facilitators need to have a detailed operational understanding of the participants’ standard operational procedures, as well as of those plans that are being exercised.

All exercise participants are part of the safety team, and there is a responsible safety officer who will have included a safety message in the exercise documentation. However, the controllers/facilitators and evaluators are in a unique position to note safety plan violations or developing unsafe conditions during play. This group should be reminded immediately prior to exercise play of that unique position, and that they should intervene as necessary to ensure safe operations during the exercise. Exercise play may be stopped to prevent or address a safety problem. Any safety issues that were observed during the exercise should be included in the Controller/Evaluator Debrief.

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