COMMAND DECISION: CRISIS RESPONSE

Immersive leadership simulation for high-stakes decision-making

When disaster strikes, leaders don’t get the luxury of time. Command Decision: Crisis Response is an interactive eLearning experience that drops participants into the middle of a fast-moving crisis. Every choice impacts morale, logistics, public trust, and the outcome, making it a powerful way to practice leading under pressure.

The Challenge

Traditional training often teaches leadership in theory, but doesn’t replicate the stress and uncertainty of real-world crisis response. I wanted to build something more engaging, a scenario where learners could feel the weight of their decisions and see how small choices ripple through an entire organization.

The Solution

Command Decision is a replayable, branching simulation built in Storyline 360 with randomized “fog-of-war” elements. Learners must:

  • Make critical decisions under time pressure.

  • Balance competing priorities such as logistics, risk, and morale.

  • Adapt when unexpected “Black Swan” events change the game.

No two runs are the same, encouraging learners to try again, explore different paths, and see how various leadership styles play out.

Building Metacognition

A key design feature is the reflection cycle. Learners don’t just make choices; they get structured opportunities to review their decisions, reconsider alternatives, and evaluate what they might have done differently. At the end of the course, a personalized after-action review highlights:

  • Strengths — the best decisions the learner made.

  • Blind spots — questionable calls that created ripple effects.

This reflection loop encourages metacognition, the ability to think about one’s own thinking, and helps leaders internalize lessons for future scenarios.

Random Chance & Replayability

Crises are unpredictable, and the simulation mirrors that reality. Randomized events and branching storylines mean that:

  • Learners encounter different challenges each time they play.

  • Outcomes vary widely, with more than 1600 possible paths and endings based on choices and chance.

  • Replayability is built in; no two playthroughs unfold the same way.

This ensures leaders stay engaged and can experiment with new approaches in each run.

Why It Works

  • Immersive: Learners are in the seat of command, not just reading about leadership.

  • Reflective: Built-in metacognitive reviews deepen learning.

  • Unpredictable: Randomized events and multiple endings keep the training fresh.

  • Transferable Skills: While the scenario is framed around a natural disaster, the skills apply to military, corporate, and public-sector leaders.

My Role

I designed and developed the entire experience from instructional strategy and scenario writing to UI design, voiceover, and technical development. Tools included:

  • Storyline 360 (interactive development)

  • Affinity Photo, Designer, Publisher (visual design)

  • Clipchamp (voiceover and video)

Simplified FlowChart and walk-through

The learning experience in Command Decision: Crisis Response follows a structured yet highly dynamic flow that challenges learners to make leadership decisions under pressure while adapting to random chance and reflecting on past actions.

  1. Scenario Start
    Learners begin with an introduction that frames the unfolding crisis. They are briefed on objectives, oriented to the decision-making HUD, and immediately positioned as the key leader responsible for guiding the response effort.

  2. Choose Liaison
    Early in the scenario, learners select a liaison to serve as their primary channel of communication. This choice subtly shapes the tone of later interactions and influences how information is received and trusted throughout the simulation.

    1. An example of this would be if your chosen liaison is very skilled in logistics and one of the black swan events happens to be about logistics, their status as liaison might help to soften the blow.

    2. On the other hand, if your liaison was known to be very weak in logistics, they may actually make the situation worse.

  3. Black Swan Event #1
    The first major challenge arises in the form of a Black Swan event. Each occurrence is randomized, with 17 possible outcomes. Learners must quickly decide how to respond, balancing risk, resources, and morale.

  4. Reflection #1
    After navigating the first Black Swan event, learners pause for guided reflection. They are reminded of the decision they made and given an opportunity to consider how that choice is already shaping the unfolding situation.

  5. Black Swan Event #2
    A second randomized Black Swan event occurs later in the scenario, again drawing from the 17-event deck. The learner is once more asked to evaluate incomplete or conflicting information and make a high-stakes decision under uncertainty.

  6. Reflection #2
    With two major crisis events behind them, learners are guided into deeper reflection. They see how decisions from both Black Swan events interact and begin to imagine the cascading consequences of their earlier leadership.

  7. Levee Scenario
    The culminating challenge involves a critical decision about reinforcing a failing levee. Learners choose one of three options: send a team to physically inspect the levee, send a drone to take a video of the levee, or wait until they have more information. Each choice has the potential to be correct or incorrect, but outcomes are weighted to make two options more likely to succeed than the third. This structure emphasizes that in crisis response, even good decisions can falter, and leaders must adapt.

  8. After-Action Review (AAR)
    The experience concludes with a structured review. Learners see highlights of their strongest leadership moments, questionable decisions, and reflections on how their Black Swan event responses influenced the overall outcome. Replay is encouraged, as the randomized elements ensure a fresh experience with each attempt.