Q: You know, Bill, I've never really been all that attracted to the Boyd loop and yet a lot of TOC people are. For some reason I find myself nodding off whenever I read about it (not in your Strategic Navigation book specifically, but in general).
Can you take one last shot at convincing me why I should learn more?
Well, when you nod off, I certainly hope that you're getting some quality rest! I've often said that I thought my books could be a sure cure for insomnia, but now I have first-hand testimony confirming it!
Far be it from me to force any kind of thinking on anyone. If it doesn't intrigue you, then it probably wouldn't be worth your time and effort to study it. I can suggest one reason why that might be the case, however. From what little I've seen, most people come directly to the OODA loop (observe-orient-decide-act) without any foundation for how or why it was developed, or what it can (and has) done. So let me make just three points about Boyd and his OODA loop.
First, the OODA loop is like the tip of an iceberg. It's a potential entry point into something much larger in scope than TOC alone---systems thinking. It forces one to consider factors well beyond what one typically focuses one's attention on. This happens primarily in the "observe" and "orient" steps. The OODA loop is just an expression of a larger philosophy that Boyd propounded called maneuver warfare. Don't be deceived by the term "warfare." Though Boyd's application of his philosophy (and the OODA loop) was primarily military-oriented, it didn't take long for perceptive people to see the transferability to ANY competitive environment at all, for example business or even sports. (I recently wrote a white paper on the application of maneuver warfare to the sport of American football.) So, what intrigues me about Boyd and the OODA loop is that they represent a gateway to a meta-level consideration of systems, of which TOC is only a part. A really excellent book---relatively short, easy-to-read, and full of valuable information advice---is Certain to Win, by Chet Richards. Chet was one of Boyd's early colleagues and understands the Boyd philosophy as well as anyone out there. More importantly, he can express it in an eminently readable way.
Second, Boyd's personal history alone is fascinating. I first learned about him when a friend and respected colleague recommended the book Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War, by Robert Coram. Owing to my former military career, it piqued my interest. The story of how Boyd evolved his philosophy through his life experiences was so engaging that I read the whole book in three sittings over two days. Perhaps the most fascinating part for me was that as he was evolving the philosophy, he was using it in an organizational setting---the Pentagon---to beat the defense bureaucracy at its own game! The part describing how then-Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney called Boyd in secretly in November 1990, after General Schwarzkopf had presented his battle plan for Operation Desert Storm, was a revelation to me. Apparently, Schwarzkopf had proposed a frontal assault on the Iraqi Army in Kuwait that anticipated 10,000 or more casualties. For Cheney, this was unacceptable. He called in Boyd, who essentially steered the battle planning toward maneuver-thinking, and the result was the famous "left hook" that bagged the entire Iraqi Army and half of the Republican Guard (with only 179 casualties). After reading Boyd's story and Richards' book, the relevance to TOC and the thinking process popped out at me so vividly that I could not ignore it. I was already 3/4 through the draft of Strategic Navigation at that point, and I went back a rewrote much of it to incorporate the Boyd philosophy.
Third, Boyd was a "prophet without honor in his own land." He was an Air Force officer---and independent thinker---reviled by most of his Air Force colleagues...but embraced with a passion by the U.S. Marine Corps! In one of the strangest turns of fate, at Boyd's funeral, when he was interred in Arlington National Cemetery, there were only two Air Force officers present---one a major from the Pentagon who had known of Boyd only by reputation, the other a 3-star general who was the "designated Air Force representative" at the funeral. There were dozens of Marines and Army officers there, and a Marine Major General delivered a eulogy for an Air Force colonel---unheard of! What's more, the Marines have erected a life-size bronze statue of John Boyd in the entryway of their "Marine University" at their Quantico, Virginia, base where all warfare doctrine is taught. A statue of an Air Force officer in a hallowed Marine hall---heaven forfend! There had to be something special about Boyd for that to happen---and in truth, there was.
So, rather than try to send you diving back into MY words on Boyd, let me suggest that you enter the building on the ground floor. Go directly to the source first---Coram's book. Then read Richards' book. And, Clarke, if you're half as sharp as I think you are, you'll see an immediate, resonating connection between Boyd's philosophy and TOC...and especially with the thinking process and the OODA loop.
