Shaping and Adapting: Unlocking the Power of Colonel John Boyd's OODA Loop

Abstract

A common misunderstanding and over-simplification of Colonel John Boyds ideas has crept in over time, leading to an increasing emphasis on absolute speed and efficiency over relative speed and effectiveness. This emphasis creates a mismatch between institutional training goals on the one hand, and individual mastery on the other. If this mismatch is not re-aligned, efforts to improve decision-making in general, let alone adaptability and innovation initiatives may miss the mark; despite millions of dollars and labor hours invested. Shaping and adapting will continue to occur, however it may be in spite of, rather than because of, the Marine Corps institutional efforts. The ability to innovate and adapt effectively in increasing uncertain, complex, and decentralized environment requires excellence in thought and in deed. Excellence in deed is acting on that intuition or insight; not simply acting for the sake of acting.

Open PDF

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Apr 26, 2015
Accession Number
AD1176044

Entities

People

  • Paul D. Tremblay

Organizations

  • Marine Corps University

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical
  • C4I
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Human Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Amplification
  • Command And Control
  • Control Systems
  • Education
  • Instructions
  • Learning
  • Marine Corps
  • Military Science
  • Neurons
  • New Jersey
  • New York
  • Personality
  • Psychology
  • Thinking
  • Training
  • Universities
  • Warfare

Readers

  • Military History of the United States in the 20th Century.
  • Systems Analysis and Design