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The OODA loop (observe, orient, decide, act) is a decision-making model developed by
United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Air force, air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its ori ...
Colonel John Boyd. He applied the concept to the
combat operations process Combat operations area - process is undertaken by armed forces during military campaigns, major operations, battles, and engagements to facilitate the setting of objectives, direction of combat, and assessment of the operation plan's success. T ...
, often at the operational level during military campaigns. It is often applied to understand commercial operations and learning processes. The approach explains how agility can overcome raw power in dealing with human opponents.


The OODA loop

As can be seen from the diagram, the OODA loop includes continuous collection of feedback and observations. This enables late commitment, which is an important element of agility. This is in contrast to the
PDCA PDCA or plan–do–check–act (sometimes called plan–do–check–adjust) is an iterative design and management method used in business for the control and continual improvement of processes and products. It is also known as the Shewhart cy ...
(plan–do–check–act) cycle which requires early commitment.


Use in law and business

The OODA loop has become an important concept in
litigation A lawsuit is a proceeding by one or more parties (the plaintiff or claimant) against one or more parties (the defendant) in a civil court of law. The archaic term "suit in law" is found in only a small number of laws still in effect today. ...
, business,
law enforcement Law enforcement is the activity of some members of the government or other social institutions who act in an organized manner to enforce the law by investigating, deterring, rehabilitating, or punishing people who violate the rules and norms gove ...
, management education,
military strategy Military strategy is a set of ideas implemented by military organizations to pursue desired Strategic goal (military), strategic goals. Derived from the Greek language, Greek word ''strategos'', the term strategy, when first used during the 18th ...
and
cyber security Computer security (also cybersecurity, digital security, or information technology (IT) security) is a subdiscipline within the field of information security. It consists of the protection of computer software, systems and networks from thr ...
, and
cyberwarfare Cyberwarfare is the use of cyberattack, cyber attacks against an enemy State (polity), state, causing comparable harm to actual warfare and/or disrupting vital computer systems. Some intended outcomes could be espionage, sabotage, propaganda, ...
. According to Boyd,
decision-making In psychology, decision-making (also spelled decision making and decisionmaking) is regarded as the Cognition, cognitive process resulting in the selection of a belief or a course of action among several possible alternative options. It could be ...
occurs in an iterative cycle of "observe, orient, decide, act". An entity (whether an individual or an organization) that can process this cycle quickly, observing and reacting to unfolding events more rapidly and/or more effectively than an opponent, can thereby get inside the opponent's decision cycle and gain the advantage.
Jamie Dimon James Dimon ( ; born March 13, 1956) is an American businessman who has been the chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of JPMorgan Chase since 2006. Dimon began his career as a management consultant at Boston Consulting Group. After earnin ...
, chairman and CEO of
JPMorgan Chase JPMorgan Chase & Co. (stylized as JPMorganChase) is an American multinational financial services, finance corporation headquartered in New York City and incorporated in Delaware. It is List of largest banks in the United States, the largest ba ...
, has said he uses the OODA loop in scenario evaluation.


Criticism

Some scholars are critical of the concept. Aviation historian Michael Hankins, for example, writes that "the OODA loop is vague enough that its defenders and attackers can each see what they want to see in it. For some, the OODA concept's flexibility is its strength, but for others it becomes so generalized as to lose its usefulness." He concludes that "The OODA loop is merely one way among a myriad of ways of describing intuitive processes of learning and decision making that most people experience daily. It is not incorrect, but neither is it unique or especially profound."


See also

*
Decision cycle A decision cycle or decision loop is a sequence of steps used by an entity on a repeated basis to reach and implement decisions and to learn from the results. The "decision cycle" phrase has a history of use to broadly categorize various methods o ...
*
Double-loop learning The concept of double-loop learning was introduced by Chris Argyris in the 1970s. Double-loop learning entails the modification of goals or decision-making rules in the light of experience. In double-loop learning, individuals or organizations not ...
*
Feedback loop Feedback occurs when outputs of a system are routed back as inputs as part of a chain of cause and effect that forms a circuit or loop. The system can then be said to ''feed back'' into itself. The notion of cause-and-effect has to be handle ...
* Improvement cycle **
DMAIC DMAIC or define, measure, analyze, improve and control (pronounced də-MAY-ick) refers to a data-driven improvement cycle used for optimizing and stabilizing business processes and designs. The DMAIC improvement cycle is the core tool used to driv ...
**
PDCA PDCA or plan–do–check–act (sometimes called plan–do–check–adjust) is an iterative design and management method used in business for the control and continual improvement of processes and products. It is also known as the Shewhart cy ...
*
Learning cycle A learning cycle is a concept of how people learn from experience. A learning cycle will have a number of stages or phases, the last of which can be followed by the first. John Dewey In 1933 (based on work first published in 1910), John Dewey desc ...
*
Maneuver warfare Maneuver warfare, or manoeuvre warfare, is a military strategy which emphasizes movement, initiative and surprise to achieve a position of advantage. Maneuver seeks to inflict losses indirectly by envelopment, encirclement and disruption, while ...
*
Mental model A mental model is an internal representation of external reality: that is, a way of representing reality within one's mind. Such models are hypothesized to play a major role in cognition, reasoning and decision-making. The term for this concept wa ...
*
Nursing process The nursing process is a modified scientific method that is a fundamental part of nursing practices in many countries around the world. Nursing practice was first described as a four-stage nursing process by Ida Jean Orlando in 1958. It should ...
*
Problem solving Problem solving is the process of achieving a goal by overcoming obstacles, a frequent part of most activities. Problems in need of solutions range from simple personal tasks (e.g. how to turn on an appliance) to complex issues in business an ...
*
Situation awareness Situational awareness or situation awareness, often abbreviated as SA is the understanding of an environment, its elements, and how it changes with respect to time or other factors. It is also defined as the perception of the elements in the envi ...
*
SWOT analysis In strategic planning and strategic management, SWOT analysis (also known as the SWOT matrix, TOWS, WOTS, , and Situation analysis, situational analysis) is a decision-making technique that identifies the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, ...
*
United States Army Strategist United States Army Strategist or Functional Area 59 or FA59 is a Structure of the United States Army#Plans Development, functional area of the United States Army. While the U.S. military and Army has had strategic thinkers throughout its history, ...


References


Bibliography

* * * A supposed five-slide set by Boyd. * * * *
PDF of the dissertation version
* * * *


External links


The John Boyd Library
(archived documents by Boyd) {{DEFAULTSORT:Ooda Loop Feedback Intelligence analysis Management cybernetics Strategy Systems analysis United States Air Force