The Most Successful Think Strategically

Strategic Thinking

New Orleans is encompassed by water-Lake Pontchartrain, the Mississippi River, and the Gulf of Mexico. The city lies an average of six feet below sea level and the city's safety has always been guarded by one of the world's most complex levee systems.

On August 29, 2005 at 11:00 a.m., the brute force of Hurricane Katrina came ashore near the Louisiana-Mississippi border. The storm's strongest winds were about 125 miles an hour. Katrina's front-right quadrant, which contained its most powerful winds and peak storm surge, exploded into the coast line causing a key levee in New Orleans to give in and water to flow into the 17th Street Canal and the city to swamp.

While being interviewed after Katrina hit New Orleans, Lt. Gen. Carl Strock, chief of engineers for the Army Corps answered, "It was fully recognized by officials that we had Category Three [hurricane] level of protection. As projections of Category Four and Five were made (for Katrina), officials began plans to evacuate the city. We were just caught by a storm whose intensity exceeded the protection that we had in place."

Was there an opportunity for the City of New Orleans, the State of Louisiana, and for the federal government to have avoided this situation? Had anyone of these groups taken the time to strategically consider the possibilities if a hurricane greater than a category three made landfall and what might happen with the current levee system? If none of these groups were thinking about it, strategic thinker Joel Bourne was. In October 2004, National Geographic published an article titled Gone with the Water by Joel K. Bourne, Jr. This article was published almost a year before Katrina hit, which brought reality to Bourne's insightful doomsday hurricane scenario for New Orleans. This is a textbook example of being ahead of the curve.

Had any of these groups truly thought strategically and used their strategic intelligence sources about the levee system, then they would have spent more time preparing for "the worst probable scenario." This means as a strategic thinker, you consider both the positive and negative outcomes that may come as you develop your strategic ideas. Try not to spend time thinking about the "worst possible scenario" because this opens up the process to anything, because "anything" is possible. Instead, try to focus on what is most probable. Probability means that there is a likelihood that it will happen and therefore it should be included in your strategic preparation.

Through in-depth research and analysis of Strategic Thinking, it is possible to go beyond the normal broad organizational, government or corporate strategy and bring Strategic Thinking to the individual level. Strategic Thinking entails the ability to create scenarios that give an idea of the future. It entails constant attention and observation to the trends, patterns, and cycles that are going on around us continually and allow us to gather information. Being observant, a person is able to make educated and reasonable predictions about the future. With this knowledge the individual can be ahead of the curve and chart a course to advance, improve, prepare or protect the individual or organization for future events. Once you have outlined a course, the key then is to mobilize and sustain an effort to reach your target objective. Hurricane Katrina taught us all a vivid lesson of how essential it is to become more strategic and pro-active.

So what does it mean to be a strategic thinker? It means you have to be smart about the risks you take or sometimes not doing what everybody else is doing. It also means that you will not always see the benefits immediately from your strategic planning. Perhaps no one acted in New Orleans because the potential disaster was simply too vague and too distant to cause any real concern. If someone had been brave and had the foresight to demand an improvement in the levees and other preparations, lives, money, and homes all would have been saved.

While many people can be blamed for the failure of the levee system, the key now is to take a more pro-active and strategic approach to other obvious problems that exist.

In the case of to the future of Hurricanes, we are already seeing many projections. Forecasters report the Eastcoast could be in for decades of relentless storms and that this last year was only the beginning. So, while many agencies ought to be taking action, so should any individual who might be included in this process.

Strategic Thinking is something %everyone% can and should be doing. Strategic Thinking is not reserved for a CEO, Corporate Executive Team, or high-level political leaders. Applied Strategic Thinking is about each person taking a more creative, pro-active, and intelligent approach to the future. An approach that will help the individual arrive to a strategic position that will bring success against the changing times and situations that they will face in the future.

As you contemplate your future in life and other areas, you can strategize better now which will help out immensely in the long run. These things will put you Ahead of the Curve.

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