Strategic Planning with the OODA Loop - Observe, Orient, Decide, Act Framework

OODA Loop - Observe, Orient, Decide, Act is a technique that enables better strategic planning in business.

The OODA Loop stands for Observe, Orient, Decide and Act. The technique was developed by the United States Air Force as a method for fighter pilots to engage the enemy in dogfights. The OODA loop is now used in business strategy as a method for quick innovation.

Decision-making occurs in a recurring 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 than an opponent, can thereby get inside the opponent's decision cycle and gain the advantage.

Boyd developed the concept to explain how to direct one's energies to defeat an adversary and survive. Boyd emphasized that the loop is actually a set of interacting loops that are to be kept in continuous operation during combat. He also indicated that the phase of the battle has an important bearing on the ideal allocation of one's energies.

Boyd's diagram shows that all decisions are based on observations of the evolving situation tempered with implicit filtering of the problem being addressed. These observations are the raw information on which decisions and actions are based. The observed information must be processed to orient it for further making a decision.

There is much filtering of the information through our culture, genetics, ability to analyze and synthesize, and previous experience. Since the OODA Loop was designed to describe a single decision maker, the situation is usually much worse than shown as most business and technical decisions have a team of people observing and orienting, each bringing their own cultural traditions, genetics, experience and other information.

In order to win, we should operate at a faster tempo or rhythm than our adversaries--or, better yet, get inside the adversary's Observation-Orientation-Decision-Action time cycle or loop. ... Such activity will make us appear ambiguous (unpredictable) thereby generate confusion and disorder among our adversaries--since our adversaries will be unable to generate mental images or pictures that agree with the menacing as well as faster transient rhythm or patterns they are competing against.

The OODA loop's original purpose was in military combat, but it has been adapted for business and public sector planning.

Other Strategic Planning Frameworks

4P's Marketing Mix - Seven S (7S) Management Framework - AIDA - Attention, Interest, Desire, Action - Buying Process - Ansoff's Matrix - Product-Market Growth Matrix - Expansion Strategy - BCG Growth-Share Matrix - Bass Diffusion Model - Product Adoption and Innovation - Blue Ocean Strategy - Choice Model for Decision-Making Behavior - Competitive Advantage - Core Competence - Collective Learning in the Organization - Cost-Benefit Analysis - Delta Model - ERG (Existence, Relatedness, Growth) Theory of Motivation - Experience Curve - Framing Effect on Psychology and Marketing - GE (McKinsey) Matrix - Growth Phases - Predicting Industry Evolution and Change - OODA Loop - Observe, Orient, Decide, Act - PDCA (Plan, Do, Check, Act) - The Deming Cycle - PEST Analysis - Political, Economical, Social, Technological, Environmental, and Legal Factors - Perceptual Mapping - Brand Marketing - Porter's Five Forces - Product and Marketing Positioning - Product Lifecycle (Industry Lifecycle) - Root Cause Analysis - SWOT Analysis - Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunties, Threats - Technology Adoption Curve - Value Chain -