Blog Article/Post Caveat (Read First Please: Click the Link)
Hey, don’t assume this stuff is written in concrete because this is simply me trying to gain perspective and understanding to the Boyd OODA loop, patterns of conflict, so all of the following is my learning curve. Take it for what it is, an attempt at understanding.
As I begin my studies of the Boyd Loop one particular characteristic glares its beady red eyes out from the pages and tells me that Boyd, and therefore the rest of us, should pay attention to the orientation in the OODA loop. Colonel Boyd talks about how the orientation process in the loop provides us the information/data necessary to perform observation and the resulting decisions in any given situation.
It is a bit like the recent cortex columns article where the outer world stimulates our senses triggering our inner world to extract like and similar past data to achieve appropriate perceptions of the current moment as well as shape the possibilities of like future moments. It creates mental images, views, impressions, perceptions, hence patters that match the activities of the outer world, reality.
Then we must consider that orientation drives the observation and decision process while all three effect the actual actions to be taken, be what they may according to the situation in the moment. How do we do that, i.e., “Reality-based Training: exposing individuals to ‘a variety of situations— whereby each individual can observe and orient himself simultaneously to the others and to the variety of changing situations’ in order to achieve ‘similar mental images or impressions....by repeatedly sharing the same variety of experiences in the same ways’.”
Orientation is the stage where we make sense of the sensory input in relation to what is known, what you as the operator knows and what does that mean? It means that you must encode the data of your adversary, their environment, the conflict environment, his culture and cultural beliefs (Yes, criminals have a culture, they have beliefs and they also have philosophies too). It is about knowing things, if your spidey sense tingles, if you observe someone who is making you feel that tingle and if you have no clue as to what, who, why and how that makes the spidey sense tingle then how can you orient and decide but instead you hesitate or worse assume nothing is wrong thus exposing yourself to the danger.
Implicit Orientation: “It allows you to exploit variety/rapidity while maintaining harmony/initiative, and hence permit you to get inside the adversary’s loop, magnify his friction and stretch out his time and also deny them the opportunity to cope with events/efforts as the situation unfolds.”
I quote, “The second O, orientation - as the repository of our genetic heritage, cultural tradition, and previous experiences - is the most important part of the OODA loop since it shapes the way we observe, the way we decide, and the way we act.”
In order to accumulate the appropriate knowledge and understanding to fuel our orientation processes we have to expose ourselves to all varieties of information and experiences then continually match up, the process of our cortex columns to the outer world data input and the inner world data extract, our mental and physical orientation toward the changes that occur naturally in every moment of every situation.
Colonel Boyd said it best when he stated, “we must continue the whirl of reorientation, mismatches, analyses/synthesis over and over again ad infinitum as a basis to comprehend, shape, and adopt to an unfolding, evolving reality that remains uncertain, ever-changing, unpredictable.” It in and of itself describes our inner mind cortex column processes to the “T.”
refer to “necessity-of-ooda-loop.png”
Orientation – Boyd considered orientation the most important part of the OODA Loop process as it affects observations, decisions, and actions. According to Boyd, “Orientation is an interactive process of many-sided implicit cross-referencing projections, empathies, correlations, and rejections that is shaped by and shapes the interplay of genetic heritage, cultural tradition, previous experiences, and unfolding circumstances”.
Observations are interrelated to Orientation; Orientations are interrelated to Observations, Decisions, and Actions; Decisions are interrelated to Actions; Actions are interrelated to Observations. Multiple systems can be interrelated together as systems of systems.
“ … orientation is an interactive process of many-sided implicit cross-referencing projections, empathies, correlations, and rejections that is shaped by and shapes the interplay of genetic heritage, cultural tradition, previous experiences, and unfolding circumstances … “
Bibliography (Click the link)
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