On August 29, 2005 at 11:00 a.m., the full fury of Hurricane Katrina came ashore near the Louisiana-Mississippi border. The storm's strongest winds slammed the coast at about 125 miles an hour. Katrina's front-right quadrant, which contained its most dangerous gusts and peak storm surge, blasted the coast line causing a major levee in New Orleans to collapse and water to flood the 17th Street Canal and the city to be immersed.

During interviews 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."

Did the City of New Orleans, the State of Louisiana, and the federal government have the ability to avoid this catastrophe? Not one of these groups thought strategically ahead to the future. No one planned for what would happen if a hurricane larger than category three hit the city or how it would effect the current levy system. But others were thinking about it. Joel K. Bourne, Jr. published an article in National Geographic in October of 2004 titled "Gone with the Water". His nearly prophetic doomsday hurricane scenario became reality almost a year later. Joel Bourne, strategic thinker, is a perfect example of someone 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 involves the ability to develop scenarios that paint 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 information. Being observant, someone is 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 a course has been outlined, the goal is to then mobilize and sustain an effort to reach your target objective. Hurricane Katrina demonstrated for us all a vivid lesson of how essential it is to become more strategic and pro-active.

As seen by the Hurricane Katrina disaster, if you want to be a strategic thinker, you can not always hop on the bandwagon and do what everybody else is doing. It means being ready to take smart risks, even when it means foregoing instant payoffs for the long term benefits of a predicted event. If anyone had been willing to risk breaking from the popular opinion and calling for improved levees in New Orleans, billions of dollars would have been saved and thousands of people would still have homes.

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.

When it comes to the future of Hurricanes, there are already many predictions. Forecasters report the Eastcoast could suffer many years of of relentless hammering and that this last 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 taking into account what are the most probable scenarios for your personal strategic initiatives?

As you are contemplating your future in work and other areas, you can strategize better now which will help out immensely in the long run. These things will put you in front of the rest.