Do we want Congress and politicians to have fast OODA loops?

NO, not normally.

The argument can be made that there are few times when we want a Congress with a fast OODA loop.  The problem is that virtually every day we see our politicians OODA-ing their way through speeches, press conferences, hearings, etc all under the guise of acting fast to help solve problems. 

What we really have are 535 members of Congress, each with their own OODA loops and each trying to influence a larger OODA.  And each of these 535 loops are influenced by many dynamics, like:

• Election year politics and positioning
• The news media
• Blogs, and the whole new web 2.0 media phenomena
• The perceived crisis
• The scandal of the day
• Etc.

Do we really want a Congress with a fast OODA loop?  I say most of the time... NO.

Well, we don’t want and shouldn’t get a Congress with a fast OODA when there is a perceived, or worse yet, a concocted crisis, or the crisis of the day or week.  We see this all too often in this new media age.  Think back to the baseball steroid crisis for example.  What we witnessed for weeks were congressional hearings and a media circus all in the name of attempting to create a crisis and solve the problem.

The problem is that all too often these events result in the wrong laws being passed.  Fortunately, most of the time the end result is that Congress ends up “doing nothing.”

When do we want and need a Congress with a fast OODA loop?

The answer:  VERY few times! 

A National Crisis demands a fast OODA

In the weeks after 9/11 when the country needed to come together fast.  I won’t get into the politics of the Patriot Act, the need for a Department of Homeland Security, etc.  What was important in those critical weeks and months was that we had a nation, an Executive Branch and a Congress that operated FAST and with a fairly well-synchronized OODA loop.

Let’s look back at another 1986 crisis.  Those of us old enough to remember know exactly what we were doing when the Challenger space shuttle exploded at liftoff. What we probably don’t recall was that in the months before that fateful moment NASA was under great funding scrutiny and facing huge budget cuts.  Then, virtually overnight, the situation changed with Challenger explosion.  Within weeks Congress appropriated over $2 Billion to build a replacement shuttle ASAP.  Would the same thing happen today?  No.  We didn’t build a replacement for Columbia.  But in 1986 when Challenger exploded the National Security environment was different.  We were still in the Cold War.  We had to have a better space program than the Soviet Union. And virtually the entire country supported building a new space shuttle ASAP.  It also made us ‘feel better’ about ourselves and our capability to recover fast.

So, the bottom line is that we do not and should not have a Congress with a fast OODA loop EXCEPT when a national crisis demands it.

Our Founders created the greatest government structure they could envision which truly has withstood the test of time.  We can be grateful that this small group of 13 Founding fathers had a well synchronized OODA loop.

A Great Crisis Speeds Up the OODA Loop

A fighter pilot having a surface-to-air missile headed at him definitely speeds up his OODA loop. But the fighter pilot is one person taking action with one plane.  The organizational OODA loop is much more complicated with many people and many loops.

Let’s take a look at two organizations where crisis played a role in speeding up the OODA loop - one a government agency, the other a public company.

The Veterans Administration

First,  let’s look at the Veterans Administration (VA).  Most people probably perceived the Veterans Administration (If they even knew about it) as a slow moving typical government bureaucracy until that fateful day a little over a year ago when the VA announced that a laptop containing the social security numbers of all retired and ex-military personnel was missing and presumed stolen.  Suddenly, the VA vaulted to the top news on all print. web and TV news.  Not since Hurricane Katrina and the FEMA debacle had a little known government agency been suddenly vaulted into prime time news coverage and analysis.  Crisis and FEMA’s OODA loop?  Well, that’s another story.  Let’s stick to the VA’s OODA loop in response to crisis.

This what I would call a “sleepy hollow” agency was thrust into the limelight, and not in a good way.  We, the consumers of the news all got a heavy dose of education on identity theft.  Many security vendors in the business of securing laptop data quickly thrust their sales OODA loops into action on the VA and other government agencies.  And of course we also had Congress attempt an OODA loop spin-up on the matter.  Again, a subject for another time.

Virtually overnight, the Veterans Agency’s OODA loop accelerated to great speeds in dealing with governance, communications with millions of veterans (I got one of those letters), IT security, and fixing blame.  The net result - within months the Veteran’s Administration spent millions previously not in their budget to communicate with all veterans (probably the first letter I ever received from the VA in my 21 years of military service), and to secure all laptops, PC’s and servers in record time. 

This crisis had a good ending.  The laptop was found. Many security companies trying to sell laptop and related security solutions made some nice bucks solving the VA’s problems.  And, the VA crisis other government agencies accelerated their spending and implementation of secure laptop/pc solutions.   So net-net, the entire government’s OODA loop with regard to laptop security accelerated in record time.

Apple

Now, let’s take a look at a public company that we all know very well, especially after June 29^th of this year – Apple.   Apple didn’t experience a crisis, they created a crisis!  This  crisis was not for Apple, but for the entire mobile handset and wireless carrier industries.  When Steve Jobs stood on stage in January 2007 and demonstrated the iPhone promising it’s availability in six months the entire mobile industry was upended.

We still don’t know the final results of the iPhone, but we do know a few things:

• The iPhone is a game changing device.
• The carriers are rethinking their entire strategy.
• The handset providers are frantically working to deliver GUI and tough screen phones.
• Steve Jobs changed the rules forever and “Humpty Dumpty can’t be put together again”

Steve Jobs and Apple have OODA loops spinning faster than ever in many industries for what could be years to come.  Plus, we all know that iPhone 2.0 will follow in short order causing even more disruption.  Apple continually demonstrates its awesome OODA loop competence with sequential iPod product enhancements that customers “have to have”.  There is no reason that anything will be any different with subsequent the iPhone models.

If there is one company that can be singled out as having a near perfect OODA loop it has to be Apple.  I’m sure that when Steve Jobs stood on stage in January and promised the world millions of iPhones within six months that many organizational OODA loops inside Apple went into sheer panic speeds.

Steve Jobs is not only a visionary and a master at product design, he knows very well how to orchestrate the overall Apple OODA loop and internal loops to function as ONE well synchronized process.  Just as the iPhone product and its success will be hard to duplicate, so will Apple’s mastery of the OODA loop!

Successful Companies Operate as ONE Well-synchronized OODA Loop

Looking at a company form 10,000 feet the perfect company would have one well-synchronized fast-moving OODA loop.  

The reality is that most companies do not operate as one OODA loop.  it’s more like…

1.       The CEO’s OODA loop

2.       Sales & Marketing’s OODA loop

3.       Engineering’s OODA loop

4.       Business Development’s OODA loop

5.       And, if you are a startup, there’s that one OODA loop that can be either a nemesis or a valuable asset… the Founder’s OODA loop

 

Like five fighter pilots flying in formation, each pilot has to have their own OODA loop, yet the flight has its one synchronized OODA loop.

Pilots spend many years pr precision and team training to achieve this synchronized effectiveness.

Just like the five fighter pilots in flight, successful companies might have many internal OODA loops, but overall these loops are all tightly synchronized in timing and precision execution.  Overall, all the internal company OODA loops, from 10,000 feet up appear to be one well synchronized operation.

Observing 

It’s easy to conclude that the most difficult step in the OODA loop for a company is the final step, to ACT.  But looking at it from 10,000 feet, I would say that it is OBSERVE.  Why do I say that? 

Let’s start with an analogy.  The  successful fighter pilot who gets an indication that a surface-to-air missile has been fired at him knows exactly what the OODA loop means and he gets through the cycle of Observe, Orient, Decide, and ACT really fast.  Otherwise he is dead, or at least shot down!

Companies and startups are at war every day, but do they even recognize when the surface –to-air missile is fired at them from their competitor, or even more importantly, from their market or customers? 

Imagine your company as the pilot flying at 10,000 feet and getting an indication that a surface-to-air missile was just launched at it. 

Some questions:

1.       Would your company even know that a missile was fired or would they be in denial?

2.       IF they now that a missile was fired, what would be the reaction?

3.       Would your company act in a synchronized way, or would each department in the company perceive it differently? This  could be the sign of many OODA loops at different speeds within your company?  More on this later.

4.       Would your company see that a missile has been fired and be in denial concluding that it isn’t real, but just a “press release.”?

5.       Or, even worse yet, would your company be too dumb to not even realize that what was disguised as a missile launch is really a dud or a “spoof” and overreact ?

 

And finally, there’s the missile that someone who you don’t even perceive as your competitor launches and because your company isn’t thinking out of the box. Thus you don’t even notice the need to react.  The worse danger is not knowing what you don't know.

In today’s fast-moving Web 2.0 world, these might be the most deadly missiles.

So, who is observing in your company?   It’s not just the CEO’s job to observe what’s going on.  it’s everyone’s job! 

The US Air Force paid a lot of money to research why some pilots get shot down and why others don't.  The results of the study:  The pilots with the fastest OODA loops don't get shot down.

What is an OODA loop?  OODA stands for:  Observe, Orient, Decide, and ACT!

Just like the fighter pilot needs a fast OODA loop to keep from getting shot down, Any company, large or small, needs a fast OODA loop to be successful. 

Let's look at each of these four words...

Observe - Oftentimes, it's relatively easy to observe.  You observe the market as it changes.  You observe your competition. You observe technology as it evolves.  You observe how your product or service is being accepted by your customers.  You also might very well see new opportunities for alliances with new partners.

Orient - The next step gets harder.  As a result of observing, you probably have to orient.  What does this mean?  It might mean that you have to get to market faster with a new product or a new software release. It could mean that you realize that you really need a partner.  Whatever it means, you probably have to do something differently.

Decide - Now comes the hard part.  You have to decide what to do.  The Fighter pilot who sees a missile headed at him has no time to delay a decision if he wants to stay alive.  Likewise, you cannot delay making those hard decisions that are needed to make your company successful.

ACT! - For the fighter pilot this might be easy. For your company, this might very well be the most difficult step in the OODA loop.  While it oftentimes is relatively easy to observe, orient, and decide; acting can be the most difficult.  WHY?  Taking action moves beyond, talk and meetings and studies to ACTUALLY DOING SOMETHING, and most probably, doing something FAST!  Taking action might mean actually spending money.  Taking action might mean replacing someone.  Taking action might mean abandoning a service or product.  No matter how you look at it, taking action probably means changing the status quo.

The Bottom line:  The company with the fastest OODA loop wins!

Jim

I confess to being a Blackberry junkie.  I have used practically every model of the Blackberry since they first started coming out in the late '90s. 

I now use the Blackberry Pearl and try just about every application that I can download.  Many don't pass my test and I erase them within hours.

Recently, I discovered Talk-Now by iotum.  For business, this is by far the BEST application I have.  I use it all the time. 

Talk-Now makes the over-hyped concept of "presence" very real and very useful.

To see a Blackberry Cool review of Talk-Now click here.  The nine minute video is worth watching.

Jim