Podcast #7 Part 1 -Elevating Tabletop Exercises with RL Leader

Traditional tabletop exercises have a reputation for being, well, a little dry. Picture it—stale slides, scripted injects, and facilitators who may or may not be able to keep an audience engaged. But what if we could change that? What if tabletop exercises felt more like high-stakes crisis simulations, pulling participants into a dynamic, unfolding story rather than another box-checking exercise?That’s exactly what we’ll explore today with Erik and Brian) of RL Leaders—a team that has brought Hollywood-style immersive storytelling to national security exercises for years. Now, they’re bringing that expertise to the private sector. We’ll talk about why production value and narrative arcs matter, how they’ve successfully used these techniques in the Intelligence Community and DoD, and what’s next for executive tabletop exercises. And to prove it’s not just talk, we’re putting them to the test. We’ll take a real executive-focused tabletop module from one of our ArmorText & Crowell & Moring Cyber Resilience guides and let them reimagine it—showing us firsthand how better storytelling can make all the difference.