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Tabletop Exercises: Three Sample Scenarios

Six tips and three scenarios to get you started on a tabletop exercise

Segment 2: An employee discovers a box in the lobby with a handwritten warning that it contains anthrax. Management decides to evacuate the building again. Calls come in from concerned family members, and local TV crews arrive. Meanwhile, the sprinklers in the data center have caused the company's e-mail and Web servers to stop working, which means the company's e-commerce site is down.

Segment 3: A woman calls the newspaper claiming to be the wife of an employee who's just been laid off and who has left printouts about anthrax scattered in his home office. The newspaper calls the company with this information. The health department is on scene. The company's call center (at another location) is swamped with calls from customers who can't place orders at thewebsite.

Segment 4: The police apprehend a suspect. The health department determines that the box did not contain anthrax and the building is safe. Some employees are afraid to come back to work.

Based on a suggestion by Rad Jones, academic specialist at Michigan State University's School ofCriminal Justice and former director of security and fire protection for Ford Motor.

Scenario 2 An explosion at a nearby chemical plant releases deadly toxins

Segment 1: An explosion occurs at a chemical plant two miles from headquarters. Local news media are reporting that an undetermined number of the chemical company's employees have been injured or killed, and officials are trying to determine to what extent deadly toxins have been released into the air. No one is sure what caused the blast.

Segment 2: Area hospitals are crowded with people reporting breathing difficulties, and public health officials are encouraging people all over the city to "shelter in place" as aprecaution. Headquarters is currently upwind of the explosion. The company needs to decide what to tell its employees to do but isn't sure whether it has the legal right to tell people not to leave. People are speculating that terrorists caused the explosion.

Segment 3: The company tells employees not to leave the building, but many do anyway, saying that they don't trust what they're hearing and that they need to get home and take care of their families. The security guards at the front door also want to know what to tell people on the street who want to take shelter in the company's lobby. The cafeteria reports that it has already sold out of lunches.

Segment 4: The immediate danger passes, and authorities say the explosion was an accident. Several employees have been hospitalized, and others are upset that the company cafeteria did not have more supplies on hand.