Part 2
The OODA loop is the decision cycle of observe, orient, decide, and act, developed by military strategist and United States Air Force Colonel Joh Boyd. Boyd applied the concept to the combat operations process, often at the operational level during military campaigns. It is now also often applied to understand commercial operations and learning processes.
Remember that the Loop is not a concept by itself. It is mingled with everything else: Situational Awareness, Fight or Flight, your past experiences, and your personality.
The Loop is not normally noticed in everyday life with things that are not as stressful as a life threatening experience. We all do it over and over many times a day. Knowing this gives us an opportunity to see it for what it is and try to manipulate it to our advantage from a security standpoint. The Loop is used in business and many other aspects of life but we use it in a defense/security view.
Again, OODA is Observe, Orient, Decide, Act.
Here is a brief description of the process.
Observe The initial stimulus triggers a response.
For example, you are in a dark room and a TV set goes on unexpectedly. It gets your attention and you look in its’ direction – whats that?
Orient Identification of Stimulus
Oh, that’s the T.V. and that’s the Seinfield show.
Decide Decision to Act / Choice of Action
I’ve seen that episode – I’m going to change channels.
Action The physical act of carrying out the decision. You reach out and change the channel to another show.
Let’s talk about Orient or recognizing the stimulus and moving to a place, mentally or physically, to where you can act. “If he does this then I’ll do this” part of the action. Planning is the key.
If you are in Taco Bell and it’s the middle of summer and a guy walks in with a hoody covering his head, then you make an assessment. ”That’s weird” you have observed. “If he goes to rob the store I’ll get behind concealment and draw my weapon. When I see he has a weapon I’ll shoot him.” Now you have addressed the Orient and Decide part of the Loop. You are now ahead of the game simply by a little planning.
Whenever I go to a restaurant I try to get a seat close to an exit and where I can see the entrance. In doing this I want to orient myself for a problem. I’m near an exit if needed. I’m facing the front door if a problem comes in that way. I’m trying to be able to skip the orient step in the event of a problem.
When our circumstances change, we often fail to shift our perspective and instead continue to try to see the world as we feel it should be. This is also called the normalcy bias. This the inability to adapt to reality because what you are watching (a man with a gun!) is not the way it should be. Some experience this with disasters or with their economic status. Being honest and being prepared can be your new normalcy bias.
Preparing by pre-positioning yourself, or equipment, or gear is manipulating the orient step of the Loop and possibly eliminating the step and speeding up your Loop process.
Being oriented to the threat is a combination of things. It’s physically being in the best place possible, but it’s also mentally being prepared and having a plan. By having a pre-planned course of action before the OODA process begins eliminates or removes two of the steps from the four step OODA sequence. And these steps can only be removed through training. Specifically, training designed purposefully to remove those steps. This is a fixed sequence of events and if this sequence is started or engaged, it follows through from start to finish. But going through each step quickly is what you’re looking for.
The two steps that can be removed through this training are, Orient and Decide, leaving only Observe and act. This effectively cuts the fixed time sequence of the OODA loop in half. Through training, both physical and mental, these steps are addressed again and again at ever increasing speed so that when engaged in combat, there will be complete and immediate action without thought. The phenomena referred to by trained and experienced operators as “The Calm of Combat.”
We are always in this Loop. But in reality, we should always be orienting.
Observation is important because overcoming the normalcy bias can be challenging. It’s important to see the possible threat or the actual threat for what it is as soon as possible. But the Orient step is the heart of the Loop. We create and destroy mental models as we prepare for the worst and hope for the best. But we must be able to orient if the situation does not fit our mental model. Re-orienting until we are prepared to decide and act is the difference between a win or a loss. This is why orienting is so important.
Once we orient and move to decide we are taking an educated guess about which model will work. If we are in combat, that flow of information is very fluid so the change in orientation can be almost constant. In a defense situation it can be similar but not as fluid. Sometimes you are able to go from orient to act and skip the decide step.
The OODA Loop can be a very useful tool in training and in understanding and planning your defense.
Semper Paratus
Check 6
Burn
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