OODA on your Ability to do OODA

The late US Air Force Col John Boyd said that in any conflict, protagonists do four things: each one Observes the situation, Orients themselves towards several possible courses of action, Decides on a specific choice, and takes Action.

Action creates a new situation, which requires another iteration of the OODA loop. Which leads them to Observe the new situation, and iterate through another OODA loop. The side that is able to do this faster will be able to dictate the tempo of the battle, keep the enemy off-balance and overwhelm his opponent.

While development work is not exactly warfare (although sometimes it sure does feel like it), OODA is very useful to reformers. It’s basically the idea of taking stock of the situation, including where key players stand with regards to the reform; discerning opportunities for getting these key players to move favourably, deciding on the right intervention, and then taking action.

Immediately followed by evaluation: how did our actions change the situation? And on to another OODA round.

These ideas are not exactly new to development reform. One may see elements of OODA in Problem-Driven Iteration, Thinking and Working Politically, and other schools of development thought.

The internal change agent, aside from applying OODA to his advocacy, can also look inward and use it to improve his own style. How does he deal with limited information? How does he analyze the situation)? How does he make Decisions? How well is he executing his own decisions?

Taking time to do this internal assessment is important, because innovators have to learn to improve the way they OODA. Chances are, the innovator who is better informed can make better decisions; but even in cases where everyone sees the situation in the same way, people will Orient and Decide differently. The game of chess illustrates this clearly: everyone starts with the same board - nothing hidden, perfect Observation. But as the game goes on, the player who can Orient and Decide better soon gains advantage and eventually wins. So innovators should always seek to improve their capacity for all stages of OODA.

Like fighter pilots, innovators can nurture the ability to constantly know what’s going on, then make necessary adjustments to achieve their reform goals. Like fighter pilots, innovators should constantly improve their own capabilities to operate.

#OODA #Innovators #iterative #adaptive