All models are wrong, some models are useful.

George E. P. Box

“Observe, Orient, Decide, Act” (OODA) is a simple decision-making model developed by US Air Force Colonel John Boyd. The concept is straightforward: Every entity in a competition is executing these four phases, the side that can execute them more quickly and accurately ¹ will win. “OODA” is a useful shorthand for discussing human decision-making and is commonly used in military circles.

Of course, this simple phrase masks an enormous amount of complexity regarding the amount of information observed, the participant’s ability to orient, the quality of decision-making, and the actions available to execute. It is this simplicity that gives the phrase its strength. Because the model is so simple, it is true at every scale: engagement to engagement, battle to battle, campaign to campaign. Strategic decision-makers are looking at the forest while tactical decision-makers are looking at the trees, yet they’re all executing an OODA loop for their relative scope and scale.

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