Book Review: Ahead of the Curve

Ahead of the Curve is a guide to applied strategic thinking by Steven J. Stowell and Stephanie S. Mead. This book provides excellent tools for team members and leaders at all levels and in any size organization to become more effective strategic thinkers.

The authors draw you into the book by sharing examples of people who have utilized strategic thinking effectively. This allows readers to apply the learning to real life situations. The book educates us that strategic thinkers aren't, or shouldn’t be, found solely in company boardrooms but throughout every level in an organization, team, or group.

The roadmap or model shared in Ahead of the Curve has been extremely helpful to me as I strive to make effective decisions in both the personal and professional areas of my life. The "strategic dashboard" is a section of the model that provides guidance in one of the more challenging but highly impacting areas of thinking strategically. That highly area is the ability to work on the right things or effectively "acquiring the target" thereby increasing the ability to be successful.

Having had the personal opportunity to experience the content of this book through participation in the workshop conducted by the authors as well as having facilitated the Applied Strategic Thinking workshop, I can enthusiastically state that I have greatly improve my strategic thinking abilities.

In addition, Leaders have expressed how the model and the details found in this book have helped them and their efforts to stay ahead of the many curves that come rushing at all of us in our business and personal lives.

The future is rushing at us at what seems to be an ever increasing speed. With the help of the authors’ applied strategic thinking model and guidance found in Ahead of the Curve, we can stay in control and turn the steering wheel before we’re at risk of sliding off the road through the curves life brings our way.

While we won’t be able to tell the future, the model and guidance in this book can help us be more adept at making decisions that result in bigger and better results. After all, including the word "applied" in the book’s title isn’t an accident; it’s all about applying those things that can put us "ahead of the curve". I highly recommend this book!

Steve Nielsen is a former director of the FedEx Leadership Institute and has over 28 years of experience in the area of Operations and Organizational Development.

Click here if you would like to learn more about Ahead of the Curve or the applied strategic thinking program.