Earthquake for General Business

Earthquake Tabletop Exercise for General Business

This exercise is part of our catalog of tabletop exercises for general business.

Scenario Overview

Participants are the management team for a fictional organization when an earthquake suddenly rocks the region and immediately disrupts normal operations. Power is lost, employees are injured, and the building must initially shelter occupants in place while leadership works to assess conditions and stabilize immediate safety concerns.

As the situation develops, the team must manage panicked employees, medical issues, and uncertainty about the condition of the facility. When evacuation becomes possible, there are missing people to account for, deadlines that still need to be met, and employees who are shaken and uncertain about next steps.

This exercise challenges business leaders to respond to a sudden natural disaster while balancing life safety, communications, operational continuity, and the early stages of recovery with the facility no longer fully functional.

Why This Scenario Matters for General Business

Businesses depend on facilities, employees, systems, and communications to operate effectively. An earthquake can disrupt all of these simultaneously, creating immediate life-safety concerns, facility damage, and operational uncertainty.

This exercise helps leadership teams evaluate how they would respond when a regional disaster impacts their workplace, interrupts normal operations, and creates pressure to make quick decisions about safety, communications, and recovery.

Exercise Objectives

  • Evaluate leadership decision-making during a regional earthquake.
  • Discuss shelter-in-place versus evacuation decisions for employees.
  • Review employee accountability, injury response, and medical support needs.
  • Assess communications with employees, customers, and stakeholders.
  • Examine operational challenges created by facility disruption and power loss.
  • Identify priorities for business recovery following a sudden disruption.

Typical Participants

  • Executive leadership
  • Operations management
  • Facilities leadership
  • Human resources
  • Communications or public affairs staff
  • Environmental health and safety personnel
  • Business continuity or crisis management team members

Exercise Format

Conduct-It-Yourself Tabletop Exercises are structured, discussion-based simulations designed to help organizations test their response to disruptive events without the time and cost of a fully facilitated exercise. Participants are placed in the middle of a realistic scenario as it unfolds and must work through decisions, priorities, and consequences as a leadership team.

Each downloadable exercise package includes everything needed to conduct the session internally, including facilitator instructions, exercise overview materials, participant forms, a detailed scenario script, and a ready-to-run PowerPoint presentation that guides the scenario and discussion. The materials are designed so organizations can conduct the exercise as delivered or customize the storyline and supporting materials to reflect their own operations, facilities, and planning objectives.

Most exercises are designed to be conducted in approximately 2 to 4 hours. A typical agenda includes an exercise overview and scenario briefing, the facilitated disaster simulation discussion, group review and preparation for debriefing, and a structured post-exercise discussion to capture lessons learned and improvement opportunities.

Exercise Focus

  • Shelter-in-Place
  • Evacuation
  • Business Recovery

Related Tabletop Exercise Scenarios

Organizations exploring this scenario may also find these exercises useful:

Looking for a Facilitated Exercise for Your Business?

Many organizations choose to run their exercises with an experienced facilitator to guide discussion, introduce evolving scenario developments, and capture improvement opportunities.

If you would prefer a professionally facilitated tabletop exercise tailored to your business, learn more about our consulting services.

Explore Facilitated Tabletop Exercises for General Business

Purchase & Download

This exercise is delivered as a downloadable package that includes facilitator instructions, scenario materials, and structured discussion prompts to guide the exercise.

SKU CIYGB006
$595.00