The OODA Loop.

I came across an interesting acronym in Thomas Friedman's Sunday op-ed in "The New York Times."

Friedman says that the U.S. military trains its fighter pilots in something called the OODA Loop. OODA stands for Observe, Orient, Decide, Act.

Friedman sums up the essential of the OODA Loop this way: "The idea is that if your OODA Loop is faster and more accurate than the other pilot’s, you’ll shoot his plane out of the sky."

It occurred to me that it would be wondrous and splendid in our business if more agencies made sure that it followed OODA principles.

If people were given time to OBSERVE how a client or a brand works.
If they were charged with understanding a brand's ORIENTATION in its market.
If only then would we DECIDE what the brand needed to define itself and to stand apart.
Only after we OOD-ed,
would we ACT.

Sometimes it seems to me, we ACT before we OOD.

And as we all know, that's backwards.