Observe, Orient, Decide, Act
The OODA Loop is a four-stage framework that was initially designed by Pilot Colonel John Boyd of the US Air Force, to help fighter pilots to win during air-to-air combat if they were ever caught in a dogfight matrix. Maneuver warfare is a strategy used in the military that emphasizes disrupting the enemy’s decision-making skills to defeat them more quickly. The primary goal in the OODA loop is to minimize an individual’s or organization’s reaction time.
The main take away is that to win and to beat the competition, you want to find an advantage to be faster. This interactive technique can also be applied to different areas of your life such as situational awareness, office, business opportunities, martial arts, school and team sports, or training while on the gun range, etc. OODA stands for Observe, orient, decide, and act.
“The reason why it’s called the OODA loop is that it because this is a cycle. You’re looping through the cycle on a regular basis. As soon as you move through the cycle and you finish with an action, you start again and observe. The reason being is that as soon as you act, as soon as you do something, you are actually changing the environment around you and you have to start again by reobserving, etc., and you cycle it through it over till you won.” Mike Gastin, “OODA Loop-Winning in Business and Life.”
- Observe – This is the date collection phase from different sources. Take in as much as you can. What’s the approach and method you will take to implement the decisions? What is your plan of action?
- Orient – This is the analyze and filter stage. You are taking the information that you are observing, and you are decomposing it down to its pieces so you can understand them and thinking of ways to reconnect those pieces. What is the current situation? What is the reason you want to change? How bad do you want the change?
- Decide – This is the Actionable insights stage. Where are you currently at relative to where you want to go, or exact path you want to take?
- Act – This is the execute the decision stage to and determines if the action was correct. Follow the plan and routines and record the progress. How are you going to handle challenges and setbacks? Have accountability.
“This OODA loop implementation relies significantly on trust, competence, and empowerment to be successful in terms of desired outcomes or outputs. When you effectively deploy this kind of methodology to whatever you are working on by yourself or working with a team, you will reach a tipping point where the competition contributes to your success by undermining their own tactics or strategy. The opposition begins to “second guess” their own actions by sowing doubt or manifesting too many similar options.” – The Black Dragon
Resource: “The OODA Loop and Agile Project Mgmt.” -The Black Dragon.