ExecuRead Blog
ExecuRead Home

Essential enhancements to Col. “Forty Second” Boyd’s OODA-loop October 27, 2014

The dominant parameter of Col Boyd's decision cycle or OODA loop is Time -- the decision-maker who goes through the OODA cycle in the shortest time prevails because his opponent is forced to respond to situations that have already changed and which are continuously changing.
 
To minimize the decision cycle time and the concomitant risk of being forced into a response-reactive-position, two areas invite training attention :
 
1.     In the Observation phase, the collection of data, particularly through reading, may be accelerated and qualitatively enhanced by advanced / speed reading skills to increase absorbtion rates, and techniques to filter incoming information -- to separate and extract mission relevant intelligence from information "fluff" and to triage time-sensitive intelligence. Additionally, faster reading rates produce accellerated absorption-capability of larger volumes of information and less risk of "big-picture" fragmentation and a failure to "join the dots".
 
2.     In the Orientation phase, the analysis and synthesis of data is only as effective as the degree to which the decision-maker can test and evaluate new information against a pool of existing knowledge. The inherent advantages of using an analyst with a year or more of deployment experience versus a new recruit cannot be overstated.  Notwithstanding this, advanced reading skills to increase general and background knowledge and the skills-ability to filter and select relevant subject knowledge, combined with the capability to absorb such information at faster rates, may accelerate the learning curve of acquiring subject knowledge and getting up to speed.
 
By enhancing the speed and scope of information acquisition, the decision-maker is able to make Decisions based upon the latest and most comprehensive intelligence, which has been analyzed against a substantial depth and breadth of subject knowledge. The resulting Action, the physical playing-out of decisions, thus enjoys the highest success opportunity as it is both the best response and the quickest response to the observation phase.
 
According to intelligence analysts within the US Marine Corps and Special Operations community this training enhancement to the OODA cycle and the enhanced speed of delivering mission relevant intelligence is saving lives on the battlefield.


Post a comment (* required field)

Name *
Email *
URL
Comments *
Anti-Spam Code

Please type the Anti-Spam code, seen on the image, into the text box below. This code is necessary to prevent spam.