Exercise Management

This chapter addresses the basic principles of exercise management. It begins by identifying the key personnel that will be involved in planning the exercise and taking part. These include the Exercise Director, Exercise Managers, Exercise players, Exercise controlled players, Exercise umpires, Exercise assessors, Exercise observers/chaperones, facilitators, Exercise driver inputters, and Exercise Health and Safety Officers. The chapter then looks at the exercise structure and how that is developed to deliver the aims and objectives. It differentiates between controlled play and free play exercises. Controlled play exercises effectively guarantee that all the objectives will at least be addressed. However, controlled play exercises tend to restrict the freedom of players and some spontaneity is lost in running with ideas and testing the flexibility of the plan. Meanwhile, free play exercises in which the basic scenario is given to players and their actions determine future events are very exciting and stimulating for players. The chapter also considers Exercise Control, the exercise communications network, the exercise order or programme, the players' information pack, and the Debrief Schedule.