If not designed or facilitated properly, an exercise can lack focus and resolution, leaving participants to wonder what exactly was accomplished during the exercise. Therefore, it is paramount that exercises are designed to focus on issue areas that require concrete decisions over a limited period of time. For example, an exercise dealing with a simulated smallpox outbreak that unfolds over time might involve a discussion period dealing with movement restrictions in which participants are asked one or more questions such as, "Should schools be closed at this point?" Participants should then be given a limited amount of time to discuss this issue and make a decision. It is the facilitator's job to keep the discussion focused on the issue area and the specific question(s) at hand and to ensure that at the end of discussion, participants have collectively made the decision(s) they were tasked to make. Exercises can be designed to have multiple such issue area discussions as the scenario unfolds.