Crisis and Incident Management Exercises for Senior Leadership
CMLT & LIMT Exercises
Crisis and incident management exercises are most effective when they reflect how decisions are actually made under pressure. Our exercises are designed to test leadership decision-making, coordination, and communication in realistic, time-compressed scenarios.
Delivered remotely or in person, these exercises help organizations validate existing plans, identify gaps, and strengthen their ability to manage complex incidents that threaten people, operations, reputation, and financial performance.
Crisis Management Leadership Team (CMLT) Exercises
CMLT exercises focus on senior leadership and executive decision-making during high-impact, fast-moving crises. Scenarios are designed to create ambiguity, conflicting priorities, and limited information—conditions that reflect real-world crises rather than idealized tabletop discussions.
These exercises typically address:
• Strategic decision-making under uncertainty
• Legal, reputational, financial, and regulatory considerations
• Stakeholder and media response strategy
• Coordination with incident management, legal, HR, and security teams
• Executive oversight of operational response without micromanagement
The objective is to ensure leadership teams can maintain strategic control while enabling effective operational response.
Local Incident Management Team (LIMT) Exercises
LIMT exercises focus on on-the-ground incident response, testing how local teams manage events during the critical early stages of an incident. Scenarios are built around realistic operational disruptions and safety threats that require rapid coordination and disciplined execution.
These exercises typically assess:
• Initial incident recognition and escalation
• Tactical decision-making and prioritization
• Communications between site teams and corporate leadership
• Coordination with external responders and stakeholders
• Resource management and continuity planning
By testing LIMTs independently or alongside CMLTs, organizations gain a clearer picture of how local actions influence strategic outcomes.
Purpose of CMLT and LIMT Exercises
The exercises assess leadership judgement, escalation thresholds, information flow, and the interaction between corporate leadership and local response teams.
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01.
Assess crisis governance and decision-making structures
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02.
Test coordination between local and executive-level teams
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03.
Validate roles, responsibilities, and escalation protocols
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04.
Identify weaknesses in communications and situational awareness
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05.
Improve confidence and familiarity with crisis leadership roles
Integrated Design, Scenarios, and Outcomes
CMLT and LIMT exercises can be delivered independently or as fully integrated scenarios that involve both leadership and operational teams. Integrated exercises are particularly effective in testing how decisions made at the executive level are implemented operationally, and how timely and accurate information flows back to leadership as situations develop.
All exercises are scenario-driven and tailored to the organization’s operating environment, sector, and risk profile. Scenarios are designed to evolve over time, introducing new information, complications, and decision points that require participants to reassess priorities and adapt their response. These may include security incidents, severe weather events, supply chain disruptions, regulatory challenges, or reputational threats.
Each exercise concludes with a structured debrief and post-exercise analysis. This process focuses on identifying strengths, gaps, and practical areas for improvement across leadership decision-making, coordination, communications, and crisis governance. Organizations receive clear observations and recommendations that can be used to refine plans, improve training, and strengthen overall readiness.
Who These Exercises Are Designed For
CMLT and LIMT exercises are suited to organizations seeking to validate their crisis and incident management arrangements and improve leadership preparedness. They are commonly used by executive leadership teams, risk and resilience functions, security and operations teams, as well as legal, communications, and compliance professionals involved in crisis response.
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