Resources & Links to Learn More About OODA

This is meant to be a living, breathing, evolving post to continually update links and resources to help my readers learn more about John Boyd's OODA. 

from Art of Manliness

I continue to publish blog posts that reference or dig deeper into US Air Force Colonel John Boyd's OODA framework. (This label is a link to all such blog posts on The Illinois Model, several of which are also linked below.)

It seems that enough readers feel my posts are the equivalent of jumping into the deep end of the pool. I rarely spend time introducing OODA, or give the foundational background. While I do post warnings about this purposeful omission of introductory narratives, it's only fair that I curate a post like this to share that foundational knowledge.

I'd also like to open this up to others who have recommendations on OODA, however I deserve (& reserve!) the right to separate them from my own suggestions and endorsements.

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Lou's recommendations - I've read or listened to all of these. What sort of guy links to stuff he hasn't inspected himself? 

• BLOG: "OODA loop" on wikipedia. Of course wikipedia is going to have an overview. Doesn't everyone start there???
• BLOG: The Tao of Boyd: How to Master the OODA Loop. This "Art of Manliness" article is probably one (1) of the best online resource for OODA. Author Brett McKay cites, links to, and pulls from many of the same resources here.
• BLOG: OODA LOOP: What Can You Learn From Fighter Pilots About Making Fast and Accurate Decisions. Shane Parrish keeps up the "Farnam Street" reputation.
• BOOK: Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War.  Robert Coram's book is probably the most read book on Boyd. He gets into the political environment within the US Air Force in which Boyd operated...and how Boyd got his work done. This is more biography than exploration of OODA.
• PODCAST: #101: Robert Coram. This is an "Art of Manliness" podcast interview with author Robert Coram. At a quick 40 minutes, it's a summary of the summary.
• BOOK: Science, Strategy, & War: The Strategic Theory of John Boyd. Frans Osinga dives deep into Boyd's study and influences. It gets into how various other strategists impacted Boyd's theories and work. This is a much more academic read than Coram's book; it touches on various fields of science, cultures, and war. I HIGHLY recommend reading Coram's book BEFORE Osinga's.
• PAPER: Destruction & Creation. This is a seven (7)-page paper written by John Boyd in 1976. While it's not OODA material, it certainly gives a peak into Boyd's thinking, terminology, and perspective.
• BLOG: 40 Years to Draw a Loop? The "Gouge on John Boyd's OODA Loop. A short blog post by Brian "Ponch" Rivera on the timeline/evolution of Boyd's thinking. You might be surprised how much more there is to Boyd than OODA. 
• BLOG: Survivalist's Guide to Situational Awareness and the OODA Loop.  An article on a prepper/survivalist blog. Very readable with its lack of pretentious corporate jargon. Appreciate the acknowledgement of how mental models work, and the micro & macro aspects of OODA, specifically orientation. 

Most of the above links get deep enough into the weeds to get you more squared-away than most of those business blogs will on OODA. Something about how those mainstream blogs pervert the hell outta Boyd's work that frustrates me! 

Be sure to come back. There's certainly something I've accidentally omitted, or will come across in the future. {most recent edit: 27 NOV 2019}

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Lou's writings - Like I said, you might be lost with these probes into OODA's dark corners without first having a basic comprehension of Boyd's work. 

• Mental Models & Thinking Models. Is OODA a mental model or thinking model? You decide. 
• Hot Wash Debrief: OODA + Cynefin. My review of a Cognitive Edge workshop that integrated two (2) prevailing frameworks in complexity. 
• OODA: Framework of Frameworks. Connections are often more important than the parts themselves. That's why I spend so much time exploring the overlaps, spaces in-between, and relationships...as opposed to deep detailed dives into the dots. 
• When Teaching the OODA Loop is a Waste of Time.  No one can "use" OODA. Success comes from deep and broad contextual understanding, and not whether you know about Boyd's OODA or not. 
• OODA: Magic, Mental Models, & Fake Orgasms. Feedback matters. As does Orientation Symmetry. This gets into Incestuous Amplification, Implicit Guidance & Control, and other less discussed aspects of OODA.
• OODA: Hidden Adversaries. What if we didn't always try to confuse or disorient our adversaries, but instead saw disorientation or mismatch as an adversary itself? Few are talking about this application of OODA. 
• OODA: Perception, Velocity, & Harmony. What's the difference between speed and velocity? Maybe we should also consider harmony and alignment over absolute speed. 
• COMPLEXIFY: To Fix the Perversion of Over-Simplification. This begins my apology to my readers and students for teaching them some bastardized version of OODA...and for not better understanding it myself before opening my pie hole. 

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What would you add to the list above? 

If I find it worthy, I'll add it. 

If not? .... You'll figure it out. 

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Lou Hayes, Jr. is a criminal investigations & intelligence unit supervisor in a suburban Chicago police department. With a passion for training, he studies human performance & decision-making, creativity, emotional intelligence, and adaptability. Follow Lou on Twitter at @LouHayesJr or on LinkedIn. He also maintains a LinkedIn page for The Illinois Model.