Booz Allen’s Scenario-Based Exercises Help Prepare Eastern North Carolina for Dramatic Regional Growth

Responding to BRAC and Grow the Force actions, the firm facilitates constructive discussions among diverse stakeholders to help reach collaborative solutions.

In the Fort Bragg region in eastern North Carolina, Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) and Grow Force actions are causing enormous changes. A 25,000 spike in personnel, an influx of equipment from nearby Pope Air Force Base, and a revamped mission will dramatically impact the area’s economy, workforce, and infrastructure.

“It’s a complex, emotional endeavor involving many stakeholders,” says Booz Allen Hamilton senior associate Ron Hill. “Potential changes to Fort Bragg’s mission and footprint will have a tremendous impact on the economy, housing, water, transportation, environment, types of jobs available, schools, public works, and much more.”

The Fort Bragg BRAC Regional Task Force (RTF), a regional entity created to address the BRAC mission and the community’s growth, partnered with Booz Allen to plan and execute a day-long collaborative event to build stakeholder relationships and establish steps for the regional transformation.

To address the challenges arising from such a massive change, Booz Allen used a scenario-based exercise to evaluate the issues, develop potential solutions, create partnerships, and write an action plan for implementation. Based on a traditional tabletop exercise (TTX), the scenario-based exercise helps focus projects, illuminate problems, and provide a clear understanding of the next steps.

“A TTX is based on a plan, procedure, or other document to be tested, often addressing a contingency or potential action,” senior associate Will Healy explains. “It gets stakeholders together—sometimes for the first time—to collaborate on a solution, generate buy-in, and build partnerships.” The TTX is guided by a trained facilitator who identifies objectives, develops exercise scenarios, and performs post-exercise analysis.

A scenario-based exercise is a “what if” analysis that uses scenarios to point towards possible outcomes and then assess those outcomes. “It’s like a TTX in that both are facilitated sessions using similar techniques, but the scenario-based exercise can be used for a broader set of circumstances,” Healy says. Its framework provides a manageable environment in which stakeholders can break down a complex problem, address issues as a collaborative group, and develop coordinated solutions.

Healy adds, “The scenario is used as a desired end state that is shared by the participants. It’s used to explore pathways to success, potential obstacles, and priorities.”

The Booz Allen team organized and led the scenario-based exercises, including developing preliminary objectives; helping stakeholders create action plans and future scenarios using TTX and data capture methodologies; and crafting after-action reports.

“By leveraging our contacts and working with the RTF, we engaged key stakeholders from the community surrounding Fort Bragg, the state, the Army, educators, industry, developers, DoD, and environmental organizations,” Healy says. “We’re helping people with diverse priorities work together on each common problem to get to a single, defined end state.”

Using Scenario-Based Exercises to Ensure Stakeholder Buy-In

BRAC implementation is an intricate endeavor that requires an understanding of installation mission, regional capabilities and constraints, support delivery methods, resources, and other factors.

Questions from stakeholder communities impacted by the North Carolina BRAC are complex and numerous: What are the growth and economic impacts to each county surrounding Fort Bragg? How many schools will be needed for the community, and where should they be built? Where should new neighborhood development be located? Where will the workforce come from and who will pay for new roads and infrastructure upgrades?

To help participants find answers to those questions, the Booz Allen team’s scenario-based framework included several key elements:

A structured planning process that engages local, state, and federal decision-makers and service HQ functional leads in developing exercises
Facilitation by trained Booz Allen personnel who assist stakeholders in working through issue-driven questions
Multiple sessions to engage stakeholders, share perspectives, create a dynamic environment, and focus on particular issues or functional areas
Robust data collection using existing templates and processes as a baseline

The scenario-based exercise process gives stakeholders a set of constraints to develop a construct—whether it’s a plan, an organization, or an agreement—and evaluation criteria to test plans or procedures in a controlled environment. The constraints enable stakeholders to develop positions and justify their positions with facts. By involving stakeholders in the process, the scenario-based approach also ensures they have ownership over the solutions.

Stakeholders can have differing objectives and measures for success. But in reality, they often have far more in common than they think, such as a mutual commitment towards a healthy environment and continued economic growth. The details of an issue or the perspective of the stakeholder may be the only real differences between individuals or organizations.

By focusing on the common problem—i.e., the “scenario”—stakeholders can develop strong working relationships where none had previously existed. By supporting each other in the attempt to achieve a common objective, they build a bond that can serve as a foundation for the future. Once relationships are formed, they can begin to develop potential solutions to bigger problems.

“The vast majority of problems we encounter in a scenario-based exercise are entirely workable,” Healy says.

Today, the stakeholders participating in the scenarios have moved closer to implementing the BRAC to the mutual satisfaction of all participants. Milestones achieved include:

Improved communications between the organizations involved
Identification of specific actions for stakeholders
Identification of key issues with possible solutions
Improved understanding of both installation and community objectives and processes to achieve them

The Booz Allen team has completed the after-action report for the BRAC RTF, which focuses on the development of a regional planning authority; a comprehensive regional plan for sustainable economic growth; and a set of local and regional partnerships for BRAC and Grow the Force Actions.

story posted August 11, 2008