The OODA loop is probably one of the most misunderstood, improperly explained, and misapplied concept, in firearms and tactics today. Do we really understand it? If we do understand it, are we utilizing this understanding to increase performance? By taking a fresh look at Col. Boyd’s work, we might be able to speed up our response to a threat with little effort.
John Boyd was an extremely important figure in a number of disciplines in the decades between 1950 and 1990. Boyd was not just a fighter pilot in the U.S. Air Force. He was an instructor, mechanical engineer, strategist, and a philosopher on modern combat. His thoughts on combat revolutionized the U.S. Marine Corps and to some extent the U.S. Army. One concept he developed was that of the OODA Loop.
OODA stands for Observe, Orient, Decide, and Act. For the most part the acronym is depicted with the words in a circle, or a wheel configuration (Fig 1.). Unfortunately this is a gross over simplification of an extremely important work. OODA has been misinterpreted by many. When OODA is mentioned in books and training classes it is usually glossed over with no appreciation of how understanding this concept can be used to speed up our responses.
In actuality the OODA Loop is much more (Fig. 2)
This loop or cycle visually depicts how a human reacts or responds to any stimulus. This loop can be used on both the individual and organizational level. If we look at an individual officer and offender’s interaction during a gunfight we find two loops competing against each other. As the offender performs an action, the officer has to recognize, and then counter that action. This then forces the offender to recognize the officer’s response and respond to it. Whoever is continually able to travel through this cycle faster, will be in a position of advantage.
I believe that a gunfight is not a competition of skill but a competition for time. The first side to put effective rounds inside their target usually wins. We must seize the initiative to shape the gunfight, with the goal of overwhelming the opponent. Forcing the other side to react 1 or 2 mental steps behind where we currently are in the fight.The objective of any conflict is to cause chaos within your opponent; to cause his decision making ability to collapse in on itself.
In order to fully understand what this loop or cycle means, we have to analyze each component. By understanding what role each part of the cycle plays, I believe we can implement drills and blocks of training that speed up that portion of the cycle.
The term Observe is a little misleading. It encompasses all of the human senses. Basically this component is how you recognize the world around you. By detecting a stimulus as early as possible we allow ourselves time to determine whether it’s a threat or not.
Orientation is the most important and yet misunderstood part of Boyd’s cycle. Orientation is how you perceive what you are observing. Is the object a threat? A friend? An unknown? This perception is colored by numerous variables. Variables like genetic heritage, cultural pre-dispositions, personal experience, and knowledge. These variables explain how 2 people can see the same thing yet only one may sense it as dangerous. By interpreting what your senses have detected, you have oriented yourself to that stimulus. Orientation is important because it shapes the way we observe, decide, and act.
Only after we have detected something and oriented ourselves that it is a possible threat, can we come up with a course of action to react to that stimulus. The Decision phase is where we have to decide what to do about that stimulus. Decision making can occur in different ways. One way is for all appropriate courses of action to be reviewed, and the preferred course of action is then selected. This style of decision making tends to occur when we are put in unfamiliar situations. Another decision making technique is more automatic, when a certain stimulus is detected we react without having to deliberate. Basically unconscious competence; this decision making model occurs when we have experience or training in the situation we find our self.
Once a course of action is selected the cycle moves to the Act phase. The act phase is simply the physical performance of the selected response. We see that whatever courses of action the officer chooses he starts the process all over again. He continually loops through this process of observe, orient, decide, and act.
The entire loop is performed at the speed of thought. If we look at figure 2 we notice that “implicit guidance and control” link observation and action. This means that when someone has an extremely strong grasp on the event taking place, they can forgo the orientation and decision phase. Allowing the individual to only observe and act. This can only happen if the individual has a deeply intuitive understanding of one’s relationship to the rapidly changing environment. The goal is to develop skills that willallow “implicit guidance and control” during a use of force encounter. We can acquire this skill set through training.
The OODA Loop is used continuously throughout any activity that humans perform. Be it driving, interacting with friends, business dealings, or gun-fighting. The OODA Loop is important because it defines how all humans react. Since the loop is universal, we can use it for the whole range of police responses. This includes pursuit driving, defensive tactics, and firearms training to name a few.Therefore, we can use knowledge of Boyd’s cycle to create drills that shorten reaction or response time.
Current use of force training seems to concentrate on the action phase, with a slight nod to the decision phase. We spend countless hours standing in front of paper targets punching small holes in them. This action is usually prompted by “Threat!”, “Gun!”, “Shoot!”, “Bust ‘em!” or some other type of prompting by the instructor. There is little thinking involved here, merely a response to a verbal cue from the instructor. Force on Force or video systems (FATS or PRISIM) allow for some decision making, but the student already knows something is going to happen during the scenario. We spend little to no time on observation or orientation. Any advantage we can acquire in observing and orienting will allow a tempo that outpaces a foe’s ability to react.
To win a fight, be it with hands, impact weapons, or firearms, we must operate at a faster tempo than our opponent. By reacting quickly and aggressively we can disrupt our opponent’s OODA Loop. By increasing our reaction speed, we can actually slow down our opponent by causing chaos. If the opponent can’t orient themselves to our actions or decide on an effective counter in a timely manner; their process will collapse into confusion and inaction. The OODA Loop allows us to read our environment and take advantage of opportunities.
If we develop blocks of training that deal with observation, orientation, and decision making we can speed up our response. This will allow us to become more aggressive, more quickly; allowing us to overwhelm our opponent. We don’t just hand a pistol to a new officer and tell them to “figure it out”. We shouldn’t do it with observation and orientation either.
Can we teach officers how to be good observers? Or are the good observers self taught through years of experience? The problem with the self taught method is the length of time it takes before an officer becomes proficient. This learning curve can be even longer in departments that aren’t as busy as the larger ones.
It is easy to become overwhelmed by too much visual stimulus. The key is to pick up the important cues and disregard the non-relevant. Too much irrelevant information can actually be harmful. If we are actively trying to observe every single detail about everything, we are spending too much time on non-threats. More emphasis should be on pattern recognition. Pre-contact cues are patterns. “Felony stretches”, target glancing, or any number of other pre-contact cues are all patterns that indicate some level of possible resistance.
Blocks of training, such as visual scanning and being able to pick up pre-contact cues should be taught to all officers. This can be done in a number of ways.Watching dash board cams and surveillance photos are a good source of training materials. Also photos of suspects carrying concealed are valuable. Megan Jaegerman and Robert Gallagher, a retired NYPD Detective, have produced a diagram for spotting concealed weapons that would be useful(Fig 3.). Getting officers to be able to pick up target glances, shifts in weight, or an ever so slight movement towards a concealed weapon is important if that officer wants to be able to speed his response. The use of video allows the cues to be slowed down or even paused to fully dissect the movements.
We have to be able to recognize aggressive behavior in people as early as possible in an incident. In order to perceive violence and threats to our well being, I believe we have to be exposed to it. This can be accomplished in a number of ways. One way of doing this is through the use of scenarios and drills that include full contact sparring with padded equipment like Redman, or High Gear suits. In order to be able to identify violent behavior and violent cues, a person must experience realistic violence first hand. The trick here is to provide useful and relevant training, without injuring the students.
We have to break the Hollywoodidea of violence ingrained in the latest generations of Americans. Our students have to understand that violence doesn’t just happen on the big screen or in video games. How many new officers, just out of the academy, do you know that have not been in a fight? Yet they are entering a profession where there is a possibility of getting shot at. There is an even greater probability of getting punched. The aim here is to accustom officers to extremely violent encounters. The ultimate goal is to have officers embrace violence, and respond with it when appropriate.
Another possible way to improve this orientation to violence; is through some type of partner drills like Tony Blauer’s emotional climate training. These drills happen when two officers stand facing each other at extremely close range. One officer plays the bad guy while the second student acts as the police officer. The suspect slowly moves his body in threatening gestures towards his partner. This allows the student to pick up a multitude of pre-contact cues at a slow pace. Several repetitions of this allow the officer to orient or perceive which gestures are threats to his safety.
Improving decision making skills is an article unto itself. For the purposes of this article, the goal is to twofold. First, to make sure the level of force decided on is appropriate. It’s important to note that it may be more important to select the first option that works, rather than wasting precious time deciding on the best response. This is a concept known as satisficing vs optimizing. Second, we have to increase the speed that the decision is made. In order to make a decision on employing force, it is imperative that students understand the use of force implicitly. This understanding must include state law, case law, and department policy.
There are several decision making models. I believe the most appropriate model for Law Enforcement is the Intuitive Decision model. In extreme laymen’s terms intuition is recognizing something without consciously knowing how we do the recognizing. It is not some magical ability or ESP. Instead it is merely recognizing a pattern and making appropriate decision without conscious thought. Intuitive decision making allows an officer to make extremely fast decisions, and to quickly implement a course of action.
The ability to recognize these patterns greatly depends on our experience level. Veteran officers with lots of experience have far greater success getting an intuitive feel for a situation, than a rookie officer would. We can’t afford to just wait for our first gunfight to gain experience and to learn from our mistakes. We have to find a way to gain experience before hand. The good news is that it is possible to improve our intuitive decision making ability and to gain experience through training.
One way to increase experience is through the use of written scenarios or Decision Making Exercises (DMX’s). These scenarios in paragraph form should be group exercises that encourage critical thinking, and not just simple shoot or no shoot situations. These scenarios should be incidents that require a full appreciation for the rules on use of force. This allows actions that take place in seconds, to be dissected and discussed for several minutes. By doing this type of training in groups, it allows officers from different backgrounds and schools of training to offer different responses or solutions to the same problem. The thinking behind these exercises is that if an officer has already thought out his response, he will be leaps and bounds ahead the first time he comes across the situation when it is for real.
Decision making exercises force students to make tough decisions. They allow multiple repetitions of similar incident types. These repetitions build experience. A good DMX takes a story and builds to a dilemma. This dilemma can be solved by any number of correct solutions. Group participation should not only be encouraged, it should be forced. Putting a student on the spot and forcing him to make a decision on the use of force, ensures all participants perform the required critical thinking. DMX’s reinforce an appreciation for the importance of pre-contact cues or patterns.
As previously mentioned the action phase is already being trained for. We spend an inordinate amount of time and resources on this single phase of the response. It is important to remember that tactics and techniques are constantly being refined. Lessons learned through the military, competition, and law enforcement arena are constantly evolving. The problem here becomes one of balance. It is important to balance the acquisition of new techniques and skill sets that are applicable to the job,against learning new techniques simply because they are taught by the latest “Rock star” instructor or school. On the other hand there is great danger in turning a simple style or technique into a rigid dogma that is not to be questioned or criticized.
With the current state of training budgets across the country I think there are great possibilities in developing these new training methods. By supplementing the diminishing ammunition and training budgets with low cost decision making exercises, and observation skill development we should be able to maintain or even improve our officer’s ability to respond to a threat quickly, effectively, and appropriately. By first understanding all phases of the OODA loop we can create blocks of instruction that strengthen a student’s ability to meet, engage, and defeat an opponent. By embracing chaos we win.
Figure 3
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PowerPoint Presentation – The Essence of Winning and Losing John R Boyd, prepared
by Ginger Richards, 2010