Physical incident planning and tabletop exercises
Give leaders a clearer plan for physical-security incidents
Clarify crisis roles and communications before your teams need to use them. Infinity Cyber Advisors (ICA) helps develop or review physical incident plans, with an optional discussion-based tabletop exercise focused on agreed leadership decisions.
MIS
CISSP
CHISL
CPHIMS
CDH-E
Will Long Sr. · Founder
MIS · CHISL · CDH-E · CISSP · CPHIMS
Nearly 40 years in IT & cybersecurity
Former VP & CISO, Children’s Health System of Texas
Tim Pelikan · Co-Founder
Credential details pending confirmation
30 years in cybersecurity & data risk
Interviews & industry conversations
Coffee With Closers
Cybersecurity With Discern
“ICA provides distinctive security professionals who excel at building strong client relationships, demonstrate exceptional organization, and deliver practical, risk-based consulting recommendations to our clients.”
Michael Cox, CIPP/US
Chief Privacy Consultant & Founder, SoCal Privacy Consultants
Partner endorsement of ICA’s advisory work
Resolve the handoffs that make crisis coordination difficult
Corporate security may know how to escalate a concern, while HR, facilities, and executive leadership have different assumptions about what happens next. A written plan can leave important questions unanswered: who convenes the leadership team, who approves employee communications, and who handles decisions when the usual owner is unavailable?
This service fits organizations with unclear crisis coordination or a need to practice leadership decisions. The focus is the point where responsibilities cross teams. Planning makes those handoffs explicit; a tabletop gives participants a structured opportunity to discuss how they would use them as a scenario develops.
Build the plan around decisions your teams must make
Crisis roles and escalation
Develop or review the responsibilities of participating teams. Clarify who receives the initial report, who escalates it, and which decisions require leadership approval. Identify gaps in ownership and agree how they should be addressed in the plan.
Communications and approval paths
Work through how information reaches decision-makers and affected internal audiences. Clarify message ownership, approval responsibilities, and coordination between security, HR, facilities, and leadership. Your organization supplies its existing communication channels and approves the proposed arrangements.
A scenario with a defined purpose
Agree a physical-security scenario and the decisions the exercise should explore. A useful objective might be examining escalation after a reported threat at a workplace. Scenario details and discussion prompts should match the participants’ responsibilities and the planning questions you need to resolve.
Facilitated discussion and improvement actions
When a tabletop is included, participants talk through their decisions as new scenario information is introduced. The discussion captures unclear assumptions and coordination gaps. Those observations inform an after-action improvement plan that leadership can use to assign follow-up work.
Leave with materials your organization can use
Agreed outputs may include an incident plan or updates to existing materials, exercise materials for the selected scenario, and an after-action improvement plan when an exercise is included.
The plan should make crisis roles and communication responsibilities understandable to the people expected to use it. Exercise materials should connect the scenario to the agreed objectives. Improvement actions should explain what needs attention and identify proposed owners for your organization to approve. The engagement defines the format and depth of each output rather than assuming every project includes every item.
Scope the planning project before the exercise
Begin with the coordination issue you want to address. Identify the sponsor, participating teams, available plans, and decisions that need clarification. Agree whether the work is planning-only or includes a facilitated tabletop.
Before delivery, confirm the scenario, objectives, participant responsibilities, review process, and specialist resources needed. Existing policies and operating arrangements provide the starting point. Plan development, discussion preparation, and any exercise follow the agreed scope. Additional scenarios, teams, or follow-up work require a scope agreement.
Participation and approval stay with your organization
Corporate security, COOs, HR, facilities, and executive leadership are the primary audiences. The work is most useful when participants can explain current practices and make or sponsor decisions about their responsibilities.
ICA’s role is scoped planning support and, where agreed, discussion facilitation. Your organization provides relevant materials, selects participants, validates operating assumptions, and approves plan changes. Internal owners remain responsible for implementing improvement actions and maintaining the plan as personnel or arrangements change.
A discussion-based preparedness engagement
This service covers incident planning and discussion-based tabletop work. Live armed or tactical drills, emergency response, and technical or site assessments are outside this engagement. A tabletop explores decisions and coordination; it does not establish that a site is secure or guarantee performance during an actual incident.
FAQ
Questions about planning and tabletop exercises
Can we begin without an existing incident plan?
Yes. The scope can cover developing a plan or reviewing existing materials. Starting with roles and communications helps identify what needs to be documented before deciding whether an exercise will be useful.
Is a tabletop exercise required?
No. The catalog model is a planning project with an optional facilitated exercise. Planning-only work may fit when responsibilities first need agreement. Tabletop packaging and delivery resources are confirmed during scoping.
Who should take part?
Include the people responsible for the decisions under discussion. Corporate security, HR, facilities, and executive leadership may each have a role. Select participants against the objectives rather than including every department automatically.
What do participants do during a tabletop?
They discuss a hypothetical physical-security scenario, explain proposed decisions, and examine coordination as additional information is introduced. Participation is discussion-based. Participants do not carry out tactical actions or simulate an armed response.
How do we choose the scenario?
Start with a coordination concern your leadership team needs to resolve. Agree the scenario and objectives together, including which teams and decisions are in scope. Scenario selection should serve the planning need.
What determines the project’s cost and duration?
The extent of plan development or review, participating teams, scenario preparation, and optional facilitation shape the engagement. Fees, schedule, deliverables, and practitioner availability require agreement before work begins.
Put your crisis coordination questions into a working plan
Bring the roles, communication handoffs, or leadership decisions that need clarification. Discuss a planning project that gives your teams usable materials and, where appropriate, a structured way to examine them together.