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  • Writer's picturethe black dragon

The OODA Loop and Agile Project Management

Updated: Jan 22, 2023

Reflections on the OODA Loop.

The OODA loop, (Observe, Orient, Decide, Act), is an iterative process, similar to some Project Management "Agile" techniques.


Colonel John Boyd of the US Air Force devised the method to survive air combat operations, where decision making occurs in an iterative cycle. The ultimate objective is to get inside the decision making process of the opponent and gain an advantage.


OODA loop implementation relies significantly on trust, competence and empowerment to be really successful in terms of desired outcomes or outputs.


Many organizations and teams disrupt their own OODA loop through the lack of empowerment or ability to not revert to traditional management techniques, (an example of "getting in their own way" or "returning to basics").


With the above said, when you effectively deploy this kind of methodology within your own project teams, you will reach a tipping point where the competition contributes to your success by undermining their own tactics or strategy. The opposition begins to "second guess" their own actions by sowing doubt or manifesting too many similar options.


A natural outcome of this will be to revert to traditional (micro)-management or create a bureaucracy that stifles executive functioning.


Team sports, and rugby in particular, are a great (and intense) example of where OODA coaching could shine (and maybe does not).

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