| Title : "Strategic Thinking or the Lack of It".Business,Organizing,Blogs The city of New Orleans is encompassed by water-Lake Pontchartrain, the Mississippi River, and the Gulf of Mexico. The city rests an average of six feet below sea level and the city's security has long been protected by one of the world's most amazing levee systems. On August 29, 2005 at 11:00 a.m., the unexpected ferocity 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 most damaging winds and peak storm surge, assaulted the coast line causing a major levee in New Orleans to break and water to surge into the 17th Street Canal and the city to drown. When questioned after Katrina struck New Orleans, Lt. Gen. Carl Strock, chief of engineers for the Army Corps said, "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. All of these groups had the opportunity to utilize their strategic intelligence sources in order to think strategically and to prepare for "the worst probable scenario" with regards to the levee system. Strategic thinkers evaluate both the positive and negative possibilities that accompany all choices. As they develop strategic ideas, they try to avoid concentrating on "the worst possible scenario", because it becomes too hard to predict what will happen, because literally anything is possible. Instead of being overwhelmed by thinking about anything and everything, they 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 involves the ability to create scenarios that paint a picture of the future. It involves continual attention and observation to the trends, patterns, and cycles that are going on around us continually and allow us to gather information. Being attentive, 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 illustrated for us all a shocking lesson of how important 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. With regards to the future of Hurricanes, we have already seen many predictions. Forecasters suggest the Atlantic seaboard could be in for decades of relentless hammering and that this previous year was only the beginning. So, while many organizations should be taking action, so should anyone who could 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 family 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 competition. What is Strategy? Find out by joining in the conversation of new strategic thinking. CMOE has delivered small business strategic planning solutions to many successful companies. Learn the strategic planning steps that you need in order to become successful by visiting their blog. |
