OO and DAnine days beforeAs it usually happens, we find ourselves in a conundrum. When managing…OODA and Intention

Mental models2022I use the term “mental models” a lot, and so I figured…Retained and immediate mode2021At the core of the OODA loop is the concept of a…The ability to make predictions is an astounding quality of retained-mode systems. Unlike the imaginary immediate-mode beings, we can start seeing what might be. And we humans are blessed/cursed with the ability to go one step beyond that: we can imagine alternatives. We create multitudes of “what might bes”. This is where the true significance of the Decide step becomes evident — we need to choose among the many things that “might be” to pick the Action that will do … what?

Intentionality and meaning2022So far, I’ve been talking about intention as a fairly straightforward, singular…Stakes2022Why is it that we are attached more to some intentions and…The Suffering of Expectations2020I have been thinking about the relationship between expectations and suffering, and…Turns out, we have preferences. We want some alternatives more than others. In our minds, the possible futures aren’t equal. A way to think of it is that we have a preference toward a certain state of the environment that we are imagining, as compared to our perceived current state. Instead of having just one model of the environment, we carry two: “what is” and “what should be.” The sum of our preferences manifests as intention, or our desire to move “what is” toward “what should be.”

Understanding2022Touching infinity2022

The ODA and OODA stances2023Organizations operating in the OODA stance focus on bettering their mental models.…Micro and macro jank2021If our team’s OODA loop runs just a tiny bit slower than…Oodles of OODA loops2021Our discovery of the inner OODA loop was cool, but I bet…Every team is born and continues to exist around some objective. The objective itself may change over time, but it is the presence of this objective that holds the team together. This team, with some understanding of the environment — “what is” — sets out on a journey of applying intention, to influence the environment toward some state, or “what should be.” From this perspective, the OODA loop is about steering — shifting the environment into some desired state.

The OODA Loop2021One of the lenses for which I tend to reach frequently is…The OODA inside2021Because of the way we humans are wired, the expectation gradient is…Being Strategic2022It all begins with intention. There’s something in our environment – the…Whoa, this is kind of a big insight, isn’t it? We’ve been walking around the OODA loop for a bit now, and — boom! — here we arrive at this moment. What is the point of the OODA loop if not saying: “Hey environment! I have some ideas about you. Let’s dance.” Within an OODA loop, intentionality is always present. There is no need for the OODA loop without it.

The model underneath2021It will probably not come as a surprise to you that we…Jankless2021As we Orient, examining our prediction error and updating our model of…This whole steering business doesn’t come without downsides. Most individuals and certainly many teams don’t have the “what is” and “what should be” models clearly separated. One of my friends has a habit of pointing out the distinction, occasionally blowing people’s minds. This lack of separation commonly leads to the “what should be” model influencing the Observe and Orient steps. When Observing, we tend to filter out things that shouldn’t be there, and when Orienting, fit things that should be.

Prediction errors and jank2021It seems that the retained mode is our way to compensate for…Guess what that does to our prediction error rate? That’s right. The more we the “what should be” model bleeds into our “what is” model, the higher is the error rate.

How to think and what to think2023We act on what we think, so “what to think” is close…We live in a world where it’s hard not to notice the instances of conflation of “what is” and “what should be.” From conspiracy theories to magnetic personalities creating “reality distortion fields” around them, to filter bubbles, we are surrounded by them. We even have a term to describe some of these instances: cognitive biases.

Cutting or highlighting?2021Talking with one of my wise colleagues, we arrived at this neat…Blueprint, Compass, and Remodeling2022Reflecting on some vision work that I’ve been doing recently, I am…The expectation gradientthe same dayThe conflation of “what is” and “what should be” is not the…The compounding effects of OODAlinks here, 2021The filter/fit cycle is the most moderate of the three. It goes…The cost of opinionlinks here, 2022As a second step forward, let’s recall the tale of two models:…A problemlinks here, 2022I touched on this notion of intention a bit in one of…How to get trappedlinks here, 2022Once you’re armed with the two pictures of reality – a “what…At the same time, this conflation can be productive. A team believing that they can ship a product may indeed ship a product, despite the overwhelming odds. Had they not mixed their “what is” and “what should be,” they would have seen right through their silly naivete at the start and folded early. Lucky for them, the environments are steerable – they can shift to “what should be” under certain conditions. The trick of any team lead is to recognize and hold the delicate balance between productive and unproductive blending of “what is” and “what should be.” Another friend of mine calls this balancing “dancing with delusion,” and I love how well it captures the nature of the process.