Thinking Strategically Is Necessary

The city of New Orleans is encompassed by water-Lake Pontchartrain, the Mississippi River, and the Gulf of Mexico. The city is positioned an average of six feet below sea level and the city's safety has long 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 peaked at around 125 miles an hour. Katrina's front-right quadrant, which contained its strongest gales and peak storm surge, blasted the coast line causing a major levee in New Orleans to collapse and water to surge into the 17th Street Canal and the city to be immersed.

While being interviewed after Katrina struck New Orleans, Lt. Gen. Carl Strock, chief of engineers for the Army Corps reported, "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."

This situation could have been avoided had the proper authorities strategically considered the possibilities of a hurricane greater than a category three making landfall in New Orleans. Unfortunately neither the City of New Orleans, the State of Louisiana, or the federal government had the foresight to plan for such a disaster. They can not be excused for this ignorance, however, because others, like Joel K. Bourne, Jr., did. In his article "Gone with the Water" that was published in October of 2004, almost a year before Katrina hit, Joel predicted almost exactly the same doomsday hurricane scenario.

While being interviewed after Katrina about the state of Louisiana's attempts to upgrade the levee system, Lt. Gen. Carl Strock brushed off suggestions that recent federal funding decreases or delayed contracts for levee improvement made any difference on levee effectiveness in the face of Katrina's overwhelming power. Instead he highlighted a danger that many public officials had mentioned years before, which was that the levee system originally had not been designed to survive a hurricane of Katrina's strength.

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 involves the capability to develop scenarios that project a picture of the future. It involves constant attention and observation to the trends, patterns, and cycles that are going on around us continually and permit us to gather intelligence. Being observant, someone is is able to make educated and reasonable predictions about the future. With this intelligence 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 a course has been outlined, the object is to then mobilize and sustain an effort to reach your target objective. Hurricane Katrina demonstrated for us all a powerful lesson of how vital it is to become more strategic and pro-active.

Being a strategic thinker means having to take smart risks. It might mean having to go against the tide sometimes. It means that we might not have an immediate payoff in order to reap the rewards of a future event. Had anyone been willing and courageous enough to call for improved levees and to take more measures to prepare against the worst probable scenario, then thousands of people would not be destitute and homeless. Billions of dollars would have been saved.

While many fingers' can be pointed at different people or agencies or organizations 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.

When it comes to the future of Hurricanes, we are already seeing many projections. Forecasters report the Eastcoast could suffer many years of of relentless hammering and that this past year was only the beginning. So, while many organizations ought to be taking action, so should any individual who is involved in this process.

So you need to ask yourself a question. Are you being warned of future storms, or does the future look bright and promising?

As you contemplate your future in life and other areas, you can be more forward thinking and do things today that will provide advantages in the future. These things will put you ahead of the competition.

Christopher Leobald is a writer for ioVentures, Inc. Learn about strategic planning steps and join in the new strategic thinking conversation. CMOE has provided successful strategic planning for small business solutions for many years.