Inconvenient truth: Crisis simulations often get deprioritized last minute.

If you gather 1,000 security professionals in a room and ask them how easy it is to get people to complete a crisis preparedness exercise, not a single one will answer: "Very easy." It's somewhat of a known secret in the industry that crisis exercises tend to get deprioritized and pushed into the future. They require significant planning and the alignment of multiple calendars, often with very senior people. The goodwill is there but the schedules are busy.

So what is the result? When а crisis hits, most employees are unprepared. They are challenged by extraordinary and complex high-stress situations, because they haven't received the necessary training to handle them. This is critical when you consider how valuable every minute is during a crisis. A major disruption requires fast decision-making under pressure knowing that mistakes can have severe consequences. Information deficits become very prominent during a crisis, because big decisions need to be made as fast as possible but there is not enough information to make them. Managing disruptions effectively is fundamentally hard and requires training. Ideally lots of it.

96% of organizations worldwide have experienced major disruptions over the past two years. But how many have tested their crisis preparedness? 17% - a strikingly low number that tells us the plain truth. Most organizations are not prepared. And while they know they should prepare and plan for it, the demands of day to day operations tend to get in the way resulting in crisis exercises being pushed to something that will happen in the future.

Traditional crisis exercises vs. Micro-simulations: Let's compare

Crisis exercises are often deprioritized, but this is not because they are ineffective or unnecessary. Quite the opposite - they are recognized as very important. But still, they tend to be pushed into the future.

How do micro-simulations differ from traditional crisis simulations?

A personalized exercise experience… by AI

People tend to fall back on what they have practiced and exercised, which is why it's crucial that exercises actually get done. Anyone who's been through a real-life crisis knows that individual actions and agency play a big role. No job title is a guarantee that a person will respond adequately in a crisis. These labels often melt away, and the actual decision makers and fixers are individuals who can think under pressure or have specific experience with the specific type of situation.

Comparison Table

The user will be able to see in real-time how their response would affect the situation. This creates an engaging experience where people see the effects of their actions immediately in a safe environment where both skills and confidence can be improved through practice.

Personalized micro-simulations also actively engage the employees because they are specific. They are relevant to their work and given their short nature they get completed.

This builds muscle memory. When you work through real issues on a practical level, when you have the opportunity to test your skills and knowledge in a realistic simulation where it's safe to make mistakes, then you develop the ability to manage complex disruptions. By playing out scenarios relevant to their field, employees will be better equipped to respond in high-pressure situations.

Delivering results through AI-enabled exercising

Using AI's ability to adapt to the user, present challenges, and evolve scenarios in real time is exactly what makes it ideal to train people for unpredictable, high-pressure situations.

Human beings love challenges. They seek out challenges. People naturally seek out activities that are engaging and fun. And we tend to be motivated by rewards, competition and effective feedback loops. People pay for Escape Rooms because they are fun and engaging.

The AI-driven micro-simulations have several key gamification elements, the key one being tracking achievements and leveling up. The difficulty of the simulations is automatically adjusted as the user gets better. The challenge is to keep going and "level up." The scenario-based interactive challenges require users to solve problems under realistic constraints, and they also immediately see how well they did, what are their strengths and areas of improvement. This type of real-time feedback is exactly what helps them learn.

By turning crisis simulations into a 15-minute mini-game, we aim for a few things:

• Employees like the micro-simulations because they are short and they are fun.
• Retention and participation rates will climb
• Employees will be much better acquainted with their field, environment, and personal impact in the organization
• The ultimate goal: Employees will be better equipped to react in a real-life crisis.

It might be all fun and games, but the business case for AI-driven micro-simulations is very serious.

The business case for micro-simulations

Our challenge is simple. Most organizations go through a service disruption at least once in two years. And most organizations are not prepared, because the traditional approach keeps being pushed to sometime in the future.

AI-driven micro-simulations solve this challenge.

• Employees are prepared

  Micro-simulations focus entirely on practical skills and hands-on learning. They generate realistic situations, they amp up the pressure, and they require people to think and go into problem-solving mode.

• Employees build confidence

  Short but frequent simulations of real-life scenarios build muscle memory. Employees learn to react as if by instinct. They are also more confident because they have been through a simulated experience and know they know they have real capabilities which they have trained.

• Employees make better decisions under pressure

  While every second counts during a crisis, doing things fast is not enough. Things need to be done in an informed, considered way. By practicing with micro-simulations, employees learn how to assess situations, how to prioritize what needs to be done when, and how to make difficult choices.

In crisis management, there are no guarantees because the very essence of a crisis is that it is unexpected, unpredictable, and shifts the ground under your feet. But few people disagree that practice improves your chances of success.

The financial implications: A quick look

"What is the impact?" is the number 1 question in a crisis. X servers down, X service slow, X users unable to connect: all of this is translated into financial impact. Even reputational damage caused by a crisis is also translated into financial loss. Organizations can bleed both money and reputation during a crisis.

Incidents and disruptions are inevitable. One thing that always remains in our control is how we respond. Organizations that respond adequately to a crisis are able to limit downtime and losses. With micro-simulations, the employees present a stronger and resilient workforce that can respond effectively.

But this is not the only area where micro-simulations reduce costs.

Traditional crisis preparedness exercises often become "big projects". They require considerable planning and logistical coordination. They also take entire teams away from their work for long periods of time.

Micro-simulations require short participation. Only 15 minutes. The disruption to daily operations is close to non-existing. And they get done ultimately preparing the organization for disruptions and increasing the overall resilience.

The unpredictable nature of major disruptions is what makes them such a challenge. Conflicting information, missing information, constant surprises, failed plans and fixes is just hard by nature. Complex and highly dynamic situations like these require training and with micro-simulations we have a format that's fit-for-purpose.