Every Client Is Different
There is no universal preparedness plan at Visum.
One of the most important moments in Visum’s growth came during a large training exercise involving a high-level federal law enforcement team and a local SWAT unit. Gizzi’s team played the role of hostage takers inside a building, creating a multi-day scenario involving an unknown number of hostages and adversaries. At the end of the exercise, one of the instructors approached him.
Gizzi says the first step is always the same: sit down with the client and understand what outcome they actually want.
“We take every client and we sit them down and we say, what is it you want to gain from this training?”
The scenario then gets built around that answer.
A police department preparing for traffic stops has different needs than a hospital security team, firefighter, military unit or organization preparing for a natural disaster. “We customize everything to the very last little tiny detail.” That may mean role players, vehicles, travel, a specific environment or a completely custom scenario. But realism has to be controlled.
“He was like, ‘Hey, run me through what you think they did right and they did wrong.’”
That question stayed with him.
“This guy who’s been doing this for 15 years is asking me what I think they did right and wrong.”
For Gizzi, it was a turning point.
“Scenario-based training is a very thin line,” Gizzi says. “You do too little, and it’s not realistic. You do too much…”
“That was a huge milestone.”
It was the first time he really felt that his experience had earned the room’s respect.
The point is not spectacle.
“We not only want to make sure that the client is happy, but we want to make sure they learn something. That’s really what it comes down to, is learning.” “Scenario-based training is a very thin line. You do too little, and it’s not realistic.”
That idea also informs the way he leads. Early in his career, Gizzi spent time around special operations teams and noticed something that contradicted the rigid hierarchy people often associate with the military. “It didn’t matter what your rank was, didn’t matter how long you had been there,” he says. “If you had an opinion on how to do something, they wanted to hear it. Because your view may be the right way.”
In that environment, the reason was obvious. “That’s life or death.”
He brought the same philosophy into Visum.
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