Tabletop Exercises for Mine Emergency Response TraintheTrainer Center

Tabletop Exercises for Mine Emergency Response Train-the-Trainer Center for Educational Technologies® Wheeling Jesuit University

“Mine operators’ emergency response plans (ERPs) must be treated more than just more paperwork. ERPs should be developed collaboratively. . . and revised based on mine-specific drills and tabletop exercises. ” - West Virginia Governor’s Independent Investigation Panel, 2011

Tabletop Exercises • Are discussion-based exercises. • Offer a low-stress environment for examining roles and responsibilities. • Typically highlight plans, policies, procedures, and interagency agreements. • Are a good way to acquaint personnel with emergency responsibilities and with one another.

Tabletop Exercises • Take advantage of varied experiences and diverse perspectives. • Are facilitated by a trainer who presents the scenario, moderates discussion, monitors pace, and poses questions. • Ask participants to respond based on plans and procedures used by their organization as well as their knowledge and experience. • Are relatively inexpensive.

Successful exercise programs have engagement and resources that provide for the exercise cycle. Improvement Planning Evaluation Conduct Exercise Cycle Foundation Design & Development

To provide a foundation: • Review plans and assess needs. • Establish buy-in. • If needed, identify a planning team, establish a timeline, and allocate resources. Improvement Planning Evaluation Exercise Cycle Conduct Foundation Design & Development

To design and develop an effective tabletop exercise: • • • Define scope and purpose. Determine objectives. Compose scenario. Coordinate logistics. Plan exercise conduct and evaluation methods. Improvement Planning Evaluation Exercise Cycle Conduct Foundation Design & Development

To conduct an effective tabletop exercise: • Clearly explain to participants what is expected. • Introduce the scenarios. • Select and ask discussion questions. • Facilitate problem solving. • Control the pace. Improvement Planning Evaluation Exercise Cycle Conduct Foundation Design & Development

To effectively evaluate a tabletop exercise: • Be familiar with the mine’s plans and procedures and exercise objectives. • Take notes during the exercise to help you facilitate an exercise debrief. • Conduct an exercise debrief. Improvement Planning Evaluation Exercise Cycle Conduct Foundation Design & Development

To follow up a tabletop exercise: • Assign responsibility to and track progress of any adopted recommendations or follow-up actions. • Build assessment of any improvements into the next exercise. Improvement Planning Evaluation Exercise Cycle Conduct Foundation Design & Development

Participants • Facilitators present the scenario, moderate the discussion, monitor the pace of the exercise, and pose questions to the participants. • Participants respond to situations presented in the emergency scenario based on current plans and procedures used by their organization as well as their knowledge and experience. • Sometimes evaluators may assist the facilitator by observing and recording key issues discussed during the exercise.

Facilitation • Prepare. • Set the stage. • Explain. Success largely depends on participants understanding what is expected of them. • Present the scenarios. • Facilitate problem solving and draw answers and solutions from participants by steering them in the right direction without giving them the answer.

Exercise Debrief • Note problem or gray areas that require further clarification. • Allow participants to give feedback on the exercise and the decisions they made. • Record any recommendations for improvements or after-action items decided upon by participants.

Exercise Debrief • Review exercise objectives to determine whether they were met by the exercise. • Note any creative problem solving beyond current plans and procedures. • Determine whethere were any lessons learned that are suitable for sharing with other responders or other mines.

Development of these slides was supported by Grant Number 1 H 75 OH 009822 -01 REVISED from the CDC-NIOSH. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the CDC-NIOSH.

Mining and Industrial Safety Technology and Training Innovation Center for Educational Technologies® Wheeling Jesuit University http: //mistti. cet. edu/