I’ve now created the following topics on Quora:
Please follow the topics to be notified when someone asks a question. Thank you.
Category: OODA
Links: John Boyd & The OODA Loop
Posted by – May 25, 2010
I’m asked so often about the meaning of “OODA Looper”. I’ve even been asked if it has any relation to “Oompa Loompa” (Dahl’s Charlie & the Chocolate Factory)!
So here are a few links about John Boyd and the OODA Loop:
- The Strategy of the Fighter Pilot at FastCompany.com – a quick introduction to John Boyd & his ideas.
- The Original OODA Loop Diagram – at Wikipedia.
- The Full Boyd @ The Commitee of Public Safety – Read the originals. Highly recommended.
- Social OODA Loop – a complex version of the OODA Loop by Curtis Gale Weeks
- OODA Loop @ The Committee of Public Safety – Some great posts that refer the OODA Loop. One of my inspirations for this blog.
- The Mind of War - by Grant T. Hammond – A biography of Boyd’s ideas.
What’s the F in the OODA Loop?
Posted by – March 27, 2010
OODA stands for Observe, Orient, Decide, Act.
There’s an F in the OODA Loop – its best kept secret. Perhaps John Boyd omitted it out of fear of being mistaken for a culinary maestro (FOODA, anybody?). Well, to be serious, it is present in the official diagram.
OODA -> F -> OODA
The F is present when an OODA Loop ends and another begins: Feedback.
So what is Feedback and why is it so important to the OODA Loop? The OODA Loop is an empirical construct. A user cycles through the loop, ending with Action, but they must begin the next loop by Observing the result of their Action in the Environment.
The Importance of Being Fed Back
Imagine a business providing a service for its customers, but ignoring their feedback. How can they satisfy their customers without listening to them?
I used to be averse to self-styled self-help gurus spouting cheesy advice, until I stumbled across Jamil Qureshi, a sports psychologist cum author, at the 2009 Emirates Airline Festival of Literature. His book, The Mind Coach, contains an epic passage that I have whole-heartedly embraced:
Turn Failure into Feedback
We tend to perceive our actions as either failures or successes. This is one reason why you may not see life as the learning opportunity it is. As soon as we see things as a failure, we take things personally. The learning opportunity gets lost in a fog of self-doubt and bad feeling. However, being turned down, rejected or refused doesn’t mean you’re inept, incapable or bad. It simply gives you feedback about how to do it better next time.
In fact, there is no such thing as failure, only feedback.
There Will Be Friction
In the absence of proper feedback, the second OODA loop will be operating on inaccurate Observation and its Action will therefore be out of tune with what was actually required by the environment. There will be Friction: a mismatch between the environment and the user’s mental conception of that environment.
It boils down to these points:
- You must observe accurately.
- You must be willing to accept the input you get. There’s no such thing as bad feedback or good feedback. Feedback is Feedback.
- You must Observe again to see if your Actions effected any change in the Feedback you get in the next OODA Loop.
Feedback will be your mantra. Feedback, Feedback, Feedback!
Strategy I – The Way
Posted by – July 6, 2009
- Image via Wikipedia
The definition of strategy remains elusive due to the diverse contexts in which we use the word, each of which is a topic in its own right:
- Political strategy
- Environmental strategy
- Military strategy
- Business strategy
But let’s attempt some general definitions:
1. Strategy is the Way.
In The Book of Five Rings
2. The Way is how we respond to anything and everything.
The keyword here is ‘respond‘ as opposed to ‘react‘. We Observe, Orient, Decide and Act – a single OODA Loop. The goal is to cycle through an OODA loop faster than the opponent. Indeed, in certain contexts (e.g sword-fighting) the Way can be practiced to such perfection that a response becomes a reaction – a fast OODA Loop programmed into muscle memory by sheer practice.
3. The Way has a direction.
A good strategy has an objective, which may change depending on the situation, but all loops and their variations must directed towards the success of that objective.
4. The Way is dynamic.
Not all our strategies turn out as planned, yet we deal with the changes; coping with changes itself requires a strategy. The nature and art of Strategy itself changes over time as we learn more about ourselves and the world we live in. Thus, we are eternal students of the Way.
