Dave Snowden: „A Lamb in Wolves’ Clothing“
Dave Snowden:
There is a standard version of the OODA loop. You have probably seen it. Four boxes arranged in a circle, Observe, Orient, Decide, Act, with arrows connecting them sequentially. Sometimes the boxes are colour-coded. Sometimes there is a fifth arrow looping back from Act to Observe, to emphasise the iterative character of the thing. This version appears in leadership programmes, agile frameworks, complexity workshops, and management consultancy decks worldwide. It is used to argue that fast iteration beats slow planning, that adaptive organisations outcompete rigid ones, and that cycling through the loop faster than your competitors gives you a decisive advantage.
All of this is broadly true. It is also almost completely unfaithful to what John Boyd actually built.