Use OODA Loop Methodology to Fast Track Innovation Programs

Today’s article recommends the OODA Loop as an essential framework for getting innovation programs off the ground and building momentum.? The OODA Loop is a game changer for supporting decision making within ITIL and AGILE continuous service improvement methodologies. The OODA Loop helps you learn by doing.

Have you ever been tasked with what appears to be a monumental business or technology transformation initiative and don’t know how to start?? Or you have a brilliant innovation idea but leadership, stakeholders and peers in the organization are skeptical on the ROI or your team’s ability to execute on it. ? Supporting an innovation? program management office that has an impact to organizational culture can be difficult to get traction.? Another frequent problem with not getting started is analysis paralysis where you have so much information and too many potential courses of action to decide upon that it is easy to get lost, or to procrastinate difficult decisions until you’ve lost the competitive advantage that you could have had. ?

As a young officer in the Canadian Armed Forces? I was taught a framework for decision making.? It is called the OODA Loop and it is naturally about assessing data/information/intelligence, deciding on a course of action, executing on that course of action and assessing the results.? In a military context this is all about beating “the competition” by ensuring your ability to Observe, Orient, Decide, Act (OODA) is faster than your opponent’s ability to respond.? This gives you a competitive advantage because you seize the initiative, maintain momentum and are consistently keeping your opponent off-balance by making them react.

Is the OODA still relevant?? I think so, and I’ve used it consistently over the years as a basic framework to get out of analysis paralysis and kickstart the innovation process.? It gets you into motion and you learn by doing. To that effect I’m going to walk through the 4 step cycle in the way that my teams and I have utilized it in a business context.? If you would like to know more about the history and formal definitions of the OODA Loop I’ve included links to some great articles below.

What is the OODA Loop Model? ?

Essentially the model consists of four sequential steps that support effective decision making by putting ideas into action.? The four stages of the loop are:

Step 1. Observe - collect current information from as many sources as practically possible.

Step 2. Orient - analyze this information, and use it to update your strategy and implementation plans

Step 3. Decide - determine a course of action

Step 4. Act - execute and follow through

Then repeat the cycle. Go back to Step 1 to observe the impact of your first cycle and diagnose any changes to the situation.

How Do You Apply the OODA Loop within Innovation Program Management?

Step 1. Observe.? This is the research and observation phase of the cycle.? As an Innovation project management office it is where you want to do a broad diagnostic of the current situation.? You want to collect as much data, information and intelligence as possible so that you’ll be able to understand where the opportunities are.? Research can include grassroots, frontline surveys and engagement sessions; internal and external stakeholder interviews; executive strategic guidance and consultations; observations of trends in operational and financial reporting; and or sampling customer feedback through surveys or town-halls.? If you don’t get out into the business and poke around then it is unlikely you’ll find where the key issues and points of friction are.? Some other tools are a Gap Analysis, Competitive Research, and Industry and Market Trends.

Step 2. Orient.? Orient is the phase where you synthesize, analyze and prioritize all this information. ? Sometimes this means sorting the potential opportunities into small, medium and large project scopes.? Each opportunity must identify the critical Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that would be impacted as well as the quantity of effort and resources required to execute it (easy, medium, hard, very hard).? Some examples of KPIs that you may want to focus on are operational efficiency, customer satisfaction, customer NPS, team member engagement, profitability, revenue generation or process cycle time reduction. ? The outcome of this phase should be a prioritized list of opportunities that have enough information that you can determine an estimated project cost and return on investment (ROI).? Use this information to update your innovation strategy and program implementation plans.

Step 3. Decide. Ideally, deciding which project moves forward and when usually requires some broad and cross-functional collaboration between business units, finance, HR and the various stakeholders.? Priority initiatives should be agreed to and that includes which initiatives are deselected and on hold.? No company has unlimited resources and critical to your success is the ability to know what is going to move to Step 4 for action and which initiatives are deselected as cancelled, or on hold until future cycles.? The 1 or 2 priority projects should have fully flushed out business cases and project implementation plans that clearly describe scope, ROI and desired measurable outcomes. ?

Step 4. Act.? - Just F’in Do It right? Not so fast.? Action has to be governed effectively with control measures in place that will inform the next Observe phase.? Project governance and measures of success should be crisp and well understood by all of the project steering committee and stakeholders.? A formal Go/No Go decision ensures documented alignment across the team and with the sponsoring executive. ? Once you’ve got the green light then execute and follow through.? Just a quick top up on the need to follow through.? Part of step 4 is the need to support the team through the beginning of project implementation. ? Ensure the project kickoff goes smoothly and that communication is effective across all levels of the organization.? Sometimes a war room approach with essential subject matter experts and a project team coordinator can register defects and issues and quickly assist various project elements with resolution or work-arounds for any unforeseen implementation issues that arise.

and REPEAT!

Summary

Overall, remember that the OODA Loop is a cycle with clearly defined phases for activity.? Be purposeful and hold your program team accountable to moving through the cycle at a purposeful pace with speed that makes sense for your organization.? My recommendation is to force yourself to move through the 4 steps consciously and discreetly by leveraging AGILE sprints that are time bound with an appropriate duration.? Remember to make sure that you don’t get stuck in analysis paralysis. The OODA Loop is meant to be a cyclical, iterative process that continues to support decision making and action as a repetitive process. ?

Lastly, one approach that works well is to get permission to put your innovation program into execution mode is through recommending a pilot initiative or A/B testing based approach.? Start small and use the first cycle of the project to prove the project hypothesis and determine what is possible.? The OODA Loop framework works fantastic in these situations and can assist the team to rapidly course correct if/when the project goes off track.? If KPIs are being missed then the project team will either need to re-orient or to recommend? a decision to fast fail the project.

In summary, there are various decision-action frameworks that are available but leveraging the OODA Loop is a game changer if you are looking for something simple and effective that supports ITIL or AGILE continuous service improvement methodologies based on iterative evolution.

Thanks for reading this article and if you would like to know more about the OODA Loop there are links to some great articles below.

Background Definitions for Context:

The OODA Loop

Colonel John Boyd, U.S. Air Force, developed an iterative feedback model, what is now known as the OODA loop.? Boyd’s OODA Loop is often depicted as a simple four-stage linear cycle.? The cycle begins with an observation, which leads a participant to orient on possible options, then decide on an appropriate course of action, and finally act on that decision. At that point, the results are observed, and the cycle begins again. Success is a function of cycling through the OODA Loop faster than one’s opponent.

Learning by Doing

Learning by doing is the simple idea that we are capable of learning more about something when we perform the action.

For example, say you’re looking to play a musical instrument and were wondering how all of them sound and mix. In most other techniques, you’d be playing the instrument all by yourself in a studio. Learning by doing instead gives you a basic understanding of how to play the instrument and puts you up on a stage to play an improvised piece with other musicians.

Another way to think about this is by taking a more active approach to something as opposed to you passively learning about it. The argument is that active engagement provides deeper learning and that it’s okay if you make mistakes as you learn from those as well. This mentality brought forth a new name for this technique: experiential learning.

References

Looking for more history on the OODA Loop or Learning by Doing methodology? ?

The OODA Loop and the Half-Beat? article by Alastair Luft

https://thestrategybridge.org/the-bridge/2020/3/17/the-ooda-loop-and-the-half-beat

OODA Loops Understanding the Decision Cycle article by the Mind Tools Content Team - https://www.mindtools.com/a3ldgz1/ooda-loops

Learn how to use the OODA Loop in Cybersecurity - By Tony Sager

?https://csrc.nist.gov/CSRC/media/Presentations/The-Cyber-OODA-Loop-How-Your-Attacker-Should-Help/images-media/day3_security-automation_930-1020.pdf

Learn how the OODA Loop applies to Big Data & Analytics - By Bryan Harris

https://www.sas.com/el_gr/insights/articles/big-data/the-ooda-loop.html

What Is Learning by Doing And Why Is It Effective? - By Leon Ho

https://www.lifehack.org/898427/learning-by-doing

Glen Westerhof is founder of Mammoth Motion Corporation Operations Consulting and is an experienced Telecommunications and IT executive with 20+ years experience across telecommunications field services, IT operations, commercial security, smart buildings, retail, cybersecurity, data & analytics, business intelligence, digitization and automation.? He leverages his broad expertise to assist with business transformation, building a customer first culture and enhancing value.? He can be reached at?www.mammothmotion.com