Steve Gadsdon: Designing high-pressure scenarios with creativity

Steve Gadsdon has over 30 years of operational and civil protection experience in the fields of firefighting, urban search and rescue, technical rescue, rope rescue and water rescue. 

Until his retirement from the UK Fire and Rescue Service in 2024, Steve served in a range of operational, command and leadership roles. He has designed and delivered major national and international exercises, including EU MODEX Lot 3, where he serves as chief exercise controller. 

Before coming up with a scenario, Steve asks one simple question: what is this likely to turn into? More importantly, in how many ways could this go wrong?

The exercises train responders for situations that deviate from a standard plan and prepare them for events unfolding in unexpected ways. ‘It’s not going from A to B, even if that’s more convenient. That does them no justice, no favours whatsoever’, he explains. ‘We have to let them make mistakes and then see if they can drag those mistakes back by themselves, because that's the best learning opportunity.’

He adds that while technical skills can be taught, exercises must test real-world reactions because human emotions are involved. These exercise simulations are designed to enhance coordination, interoperability, cooperation and communication skills, such as liaising with local authorities and managing interactions with affected communities. ‘Maybe there's a bit of a civil disturbance outside your base of operations or people might try to cross the hazard line. We have people turning up with memorial flowers, trying to get into buildings where their loved ones were.’ Because reality is unpredictable and full of surprises, Steve injects such elements into the scenarios to keep things as realistic as possible. This practical role-playing is crucial; from the outset, participants ‘stop calling it an exercise and start calling it a mission’.