(And How to Fix Them Before They Become Headlines)
Most organisations won’t fail because they didn’t write a policy.
They’ll fail because they didn’t know it wouldn’t work…until it didn’t.
That’s the uncomfortable truth beneath Australia’s CPS 230: compliance on paper isn’t enough. The standard demands that organisations prove they can operate through disruption.
The problem? Many teams believe they’re ready, but haven’t actually tested what that readiness looks like under real-world pressure.
Here are six common failure modes we’ve seen in CPS 230 implementation and how to turn each one into a source of strength using targeted, low-lift microsimulations.
1. The Phantom Plan
You have policies, but no idea if they work under pressure.
Many organisations have escalation charts and governance models in place, but in the heat of a real incident, confusion reigns. Who owns the first decision? Who informs the board? Can critical services continue while leadership hesitates?
Microsimulation Fix:
Run live-fire scenario testing. These simulations expose weaknesses in escalation paths, role clarity, and leadership coordination before a real crisis does.
2. The Black Box Vendor
You mapped your third parties, but never tested their failure.
Third-party risk registers are often well populated, but rarely exercised. What happens when a key provider goes offline? What if the disruption originates from their vendor?
Microsimulation Fix:
Scenarios like “Vendor Outage” and “Ripple Effect” bring your ecosystem dependencies to life. They reveal communication gaps, blind spots in fourth-party impact, and hidden fragilities in service continuity.
3. The Hero Fallacy
Your response depends on the one person who always knows what to do.
You know them: the person who “just handles it” during a crisis. But what if they’re on leave? Or unavailable when seconds count?
Microsimulation Fix:
Use team-based simulations like “Data Breach” or “AI Lies” to spread decision-making across departments. Capture how frontline, legal, and communications teams respond – and where resilience needs to be better democratised.
4. The Paper Drill
You ran a tabletop once last year. Nobody remembers it.
Traditional table-top exercises often check a box but fail to build real capability. They’re time-consuming, forgettable, and rarely repeated often enough to build confidence under stress.
Microsimulation Fix:
Replace or complement tabletop exercises with short, high-impact Microsimulations that can be run quarterly – or monthly – without disruption. These bite-sized experiences build organisational muscle memory and produce measurable progress over time.
5. The Reporting Mirage
You show activity, but not improvement.
You’ve done the work. You’ve tested. But what do you actually know about your team’s readiness? Are you within tolerance thresholds? Are risks being closed or just cycled?
Microsimulation Fix:
Use structured simulation outcomes to score performance against CPS 230’s specific requirements. Track readiness trends over time, surface new risks, and give your board the confidence that your resilience is measurable.
6. The Broken Loop
You test — but don’t learn.
Some teams run simulations. They even write reports. But nothing changes. The same issues resurface. The same delays happen. Testing becomes a formality, not a feedback loop. That’s not resilience – it’s rehearsal.
Microsimulation Fix:
Design scenarios with built-in learning loops: track decisions, gather response data, and surface where processes, people, or assumptions fall short. Use outcomes to inform remediation, update tolerance thresholds, and shape the next simulation. Each test becomes a stepping stone… not a rerun.
Fix the Failure Before It’s Real
CPS 230 means building trust – not just with regulators, but with your own leadership. And trust doesn’t come from plans. It comes from proof.
Microsimulations show you what will fail while the cost is still low.
Because the most dangerous failure mode is thinking you’re ready — when you’re not.
Want to see how your team holds up under pressure?
Book a free Microsimulation demo and put your plans to the test – safely, quickly, and meaningfully.
