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The OODA loop (observe, orient, decide, act) is a decision-making model developed by United States Air Force Colonel John Boyd. He applied the concept to the combat operations process, 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.
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 (plan–do–check–act) cycle which requires early commitment.
The OODA loop has become an important concept in litigation,[1] business,[2]law enforcement,[3] management education,[4][5]military strategy and cyber security, and cyberwarfare.[6] According to Boyd, decision-making 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.
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."[10]
^Clarke, Richard (2019). The Fifth Domain: Defending Our Country, Our Companies, and Ourselves in the Age of Cyber Threats. Penguin Press. p. 81. ISBN978-0525561965.
^Hankins, Michael W. (2021). Flying Camelot: The F-15, the F-16, and the Weaponization of Fighter Pilot Nostalgia. Battlegrounds: Cornell Studies in Military History. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. pp. 134–135. ISBN9781501760655. OCLC1245345653.
Dreier, A. S. (2012). Strategy, Planning & Litigating to Win: Orchestrating Trial Outcomes with Systems Theory, Psychology, Military Science, and Utility Theory. Boston, MA: Conatus Press. ISBN978-0615676951. OCLC917563752.
Owen, Jillian; Burstein, Frada; Hall, William P. (2004). "Knowledge reuse in project management". In Linger, Henry; Fisher, Julie; Wojtkowski, Wita; Wojtkowski, W. Gregory; Zupančič, Jože; Vigo, Kitty; Arnold, Josie (eds.). Constructing the Infrastructure for the Knowledge Economy: Methods and Tools, Theory and Structure. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers. pp. 443–454. doi:10.1007/978-1-4757-4852-9_33. ISBN0306485540. OCLC55877281.
Richards, Chet (2004). Certain to Win: The Strategy of John Boyd, Applied to Business. Philadelphia: Xlibris. ISBN1413453775. OCLC57207751.
