Crisis exercising is using simulated scenarios that are designed to replicate real-life crisis situations. They’re done to help people and organisations prepare and respond to these emergency situations, when or if they actually happen.

We run exercises that test national level plans to make sure that every level of government, industry partners and the private sector are crisis ready. An exercise can be as simple as a planning group discussing an emergency plan. Or it can be as complex as a major, multi-agency event, involving several organisations and participants.

Our National Crisis Exercise Program

The National Crisis Exercise Program allows us to:

• Evaluate the effectiveness of our crisis response plans
• Identify areas for improvement across government, states and territories, industry and community organisations
• Improve capability
• Develop strong working relationships
• Work towards continuous improvement of our plans

The National Crisis Exercising and Lessons Capability (NCEC) designs and conducts two exercises each year. Other government agencies may conduct their own exercises too and we offer support where possible. 

Lessons management

Lesson management is a process of collecting, analysing and identifying learning opportunities from events and exercises.

This information is helpful because consecutive, concurrent and compounding hazards, as well as new risks, are creating an increasingly complex crisis management operating environment in Australia. 

We conduct lesson management processes following the activation of our national plans. This allows us to identify opportunities for improvement.

We use the OILL Methodology to conduct Lesson Management processes. OILL stands for:

• Observations
• Insights
• Lessons identified 
• Lessons learned 

The information we gain from these lessons help us move together towards more effective problem-solving.

Crisis exercise support

We have resources and guides if you’re seeking support to design and conduct your own crisis exercises including:

Australian Institute for Disaster Resilience Handbook on Managing Exercises or email NCEC@nema.gov.au to request the Exercising Toolkit which provides a range of templates and resources.

If you’re seeking support to conduct lessons management processes please refer to the Australian Institute for Disaster Resilience Handbook on Lessons Management. You can also email NCEC@nema.gov.au to request the Lessons Management Toolkit.