Lessons From a Fighter Pilot for Businesses and Leaders

A fighter pilot thrives on the threshold of uncertainty and risk. In combat, a combination of factors makes even the best-equipped pilot vulnerable. A combination of intelligence, execution, and feedback enable a fighter pilot engage or disengage an enemy.

Coincidentally, these are the same things that are needed by businesses or leaders who also thrive on uncertainty and risk, in situations where decisions need to be made quickly and correctly, and executed nimbly.

Let's look at one concept that has enabled the fighter pilots gain advantage in challenging situations.

The Observe, Orient, Decide, and Act (OODA) Loop

If I didn't tell you that this term originated in the US military, you could mistake it for business jargon! And, you will be mostly right. The term, which originated in the US Air Force, has been used in other fields outside of military, and very rightly so. You might be amused to know the concept has been used in F-16 and later fighter jets since the 1970s.

And, it is not much different from business methodologies we use today, or any such tools of decision-making and execution.

The four component of the OODA loop and its analogy in business are:

• Observe: Collect data about the enemy aircraft via various mechanisms and tools. Very similar to the intelligence we gather in businesses.
  
• Orient: Interpret the data as it pertains to the pilot, and all the experience and perspective the pilot has. This is very critical since misreading of the data could mean engaging the enemy or not. In business, we tend to collect a lot of "noise" data. But interpretation of this data could open up choices we need to make. Misreading the data, based on experience and perspective (or lack thereof) could send the business in a wrong direction.
  
• Decide: Based on the intelligence and orientation, decide which of the choices the pilot needs to make - engage, flee, keep observing, anticipate, and so on. Not so different in business world.
  
• Act. Take the chosen path.

The process doesn't stop when the pilot has acted. The loop iterates again based on new intelligence from the altered situation.

Timing is key, but not everything

John Boyd, who developed the OODA loop, was nicknamed "Forty Second Boyd" for his skill in gaining advantage in air combat in a short time.Timing is critical in military situations, given that your life depends on not only the decision and action, but how quickly you can make the decision and act upon it. However, you can't sacrifice other aspects for timing, else you will risk getting into a worse situation than when you started.

By rule, all startup companies start from a position of disadvantage, and need to gain advantage by not only the right decisions, but act upon it, and sustain that - all in a short time. The one way to do it, learning from OODA loop, is to create a constant feedback, decision, and action cycle, adapting every time there is a change in situation.

This also can be applied to almost any aspect of business, where agility and adaptability is key.

The human factor

While the entire cycle can be automated, remember that it is finally humans that decide to act. Like a fighter pilot who has many tools at his/her disposal, the experience and perspective, and finally the ability to decide and act can't be ignored. And, while at it, we can refine our data collection mechanisms to weed out data that's not relevant or contextual.

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