Framework
OODA Loop
Observe, Orient, Decide, Act — faster than the situation changes.
- Best for
- Fast-moving, adversarial environments
- Time needed
- Continuous
- Origin
- Colonel John Boyd, USAF, 1970s.
OODA is a cycle: Observe the situation, Orient (interpret it through your context and biases), Decide, Act — then loop. The insight is that speed of iteration beats correctness of any single decision.
Use it when
- Competitive situations where the ground keeps shifting.
- Crises and incidents.
- Any environment where waiting for perfect information is losing.
Skip it when
- Long-horizon, stable decisions (career, marriage, house).
- When accuracy matters more than speed.
The steps
- 01
Observe
Gather raw information. What is actually happening right now?
- 02
Orient
The critical step. Filter through experience, model, and biases. Notice your biases.
- 03
Decide
Pick the best available action, not the perfect one.
- 04
Act
Move. Then immediately observe the new situation.
- 05
Loop faster than the environment
The point is cycle time, not any single loop.
A worked example
"A live product incident is escalating."
Observe: errors spiking on checkout. Orient: matches yesterday's deploy. Decide: roll back. Act. Observe again: errors falling. Orient: confirmed. Decide: post-mortem tomorrow.
Outcome
Contained in 12 minutes. Full analysis afterwards.
Where it quietly breaks
- Skipping Orient and going straight from Observe to Act — that's just reacting.
- Perfecting one loop while the situation moves on.
Run this on a real decision — in Compass.
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