How to Make Better Decisions Using the OODA Loop ｜ FRIDAY FIELD NOTES
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
191.34642
Summary
In this episode, Ryan talks about the importance of being able to make decisions and adjust when things don't go your way. Being a man is all about making decisions and adjusting as quickly as possible when things go wrong.
Transcript
00:00:00.000
You're a man of action. You live life to the fullest. Embrace your fears and boldly chart your own path.
00:00:06.020
When life knocks you down, you get back up one more time. Every time.
00:00:10.480
You are not easily deterred or defeated. Rugged. Resilient. Strong.
00:00:15.500
This is your life. This is who you are. This is who you will become.
00:00:19.760
At the end of the day, and after all is said and done, you can call yourself a man.
00:00:24.720
Gentlemen, what is going on today? My name is Ryan Mickler, and I am the host and founder of this podcast.
00:00:31.040
Glad you're here. Glad you're tuning in. We've got three different shows a week.
00:00:35.200
We've got our Tuesday interview show where I interview some of the world's most successful men.
00:00:39.260
David Goggins, Jocko Willink, Grant Cardone, Andy Frisilla, Tim Kennedy, Dakota Meyer, Pete Roberts.
00:00:48.100
So if you would, make sure you subscribe so you never miss a powerful conversation with one of these men
00:00:53.160
and some of the upcoming conversations that we have. In addition to that, we've got our Wednesday
00:00:57.540
show, which I co-host with Mr. Kip Sorensen, where we're fielding questions from our Facebook group,
00:01:04.080
which can be found at facebook.com slash groups slash order of man. And also from the iron council,
00:01:09.280
our exclusive brotherhood, which can be found at order of man.com slash iron council.
00:01:14.880
And then we've got our third show. This one you're listening to right now, which is your Friday field
00:01:18.440
notes. And you're going to get to hear some of my thoughts from throughout the week on a topic that seems to be
00:01:22.960
a reoccurring trend, something that continues to pop up in our Facebook group and other social media
00:01:28.220
profiles and inside the iron council. And the thing that I want to talk with you about today is
00:01:32.140
learning to make decisions, because I think part of what being a man is all about is being decisive
00:01:38.220
and making the correct decisions. And when we make incorrect decisions, adjusting as quickly as
00:01:44.780
possible and getting back on track, we'll get into that in just a minute. Before I do, I want to get
00:01:50.020
into and mention our show sponsors. Uh, I talked about it earlier in the week, I believe how it's
00:01:55.840
starting to cool off a little bit here in Maine. And if you want to stay dry and warm, I would check
00:02:01.320
out what origin Maine has to offer in the department of hoodies. Some of the most unbelievably soft,
00:02:07.280
comfortable hoodies that you're ever going to find. Uh, also their boots. If you guys don't have a pair
00:02:12.800
of origin boots yet, you're wrong. You need to get a pair of origin boots. These things are absolutely
00:02:17.800
amazing over the past several weeks. I've been on the phone quite a bit. And one of the things I do
00:02:22.900
when I'm on the phone is I walk around my property and one lap around my property is just slightly over
00:02:28.140
a mile. And, uh, over the course of the past several weeks, I put on tens of, uh, of miles. I think I'm
00:02:36.640
up to close to, I want to say like 14, 15, 16 miles, uh, in, in just walking laps while I'm on the phone
00:02:44.560
and it's wet, it's rainy, uh, out here. It's kind of muddy a little bit. And, uh, my boots are holding
00:02:49.960
up nicely. So if you want to keep your feet warm and dry, check out origin boots, you can do all
00:02:54.920
that at origin, main.com and use the code order or D E R at checkout, because on a pair of boots,
00:03:02.040
you're going to save quite a bit when you do that origin, main as in the state main.com. And then use
00:03:07.080
the code order or D E R at checkout. All right, guys, that's it again today. I want to talk with you
00:03:13.660
about being decisive. I said earlier that I think one of the things that makes a man, a man is his
00:03:18.140
ability to filter all of the information at hand, uh, and then being able to make an accurate and
00:03:25.440
well-researched decision, but to do it in a way that is, is efficient, that is effective. Of course,
00:03:33.500
the effectiveness is important. And also the timing as well. Uh, if you're sitting on the fence and,
00:03:38.220
and collecting all this data and, and never actually putting anything into play and never actually
00:03:43.460
making decisions, uh, you're going to get lapped, you're going to get passed up and you're going to
00:03:47.060
be passed up by those men who are able to be more decisive than you. And I believe that speed of
00:03:52.600
implementation, uh, is a key metric, a key skillset, a key ability in being able to be successful.
00:04:00.300
And I've got a framework that's not mine, uh, but one that I've implemented in my life that has
00:04:05.280
drastically, drastically helped me improve my ability to, uh, make decisions to be decisive and then
00:04:12.580
making the correct decisions. And that's called the OODA loop, which is an acronym OODA loop, uh,
00:04:19.080
created by air force retired, uh, Colonel John Boyd. And, uh, he used this, this framework or this
00:04:26.820
process to be able to, uh, use it better when it came to aerial combat and his operations in the
00:04:33.160
military. And a lot of LEOs and military members have picked up this framework and used it in order to
00:04:40.420
make effective decisions and then crush the enemy or combat the enemy or accomplish the mission at
00:04:45.620
hand. But it's, it's very applicable in our lives as well, whether you're in military combat or you're
00:04:50.960
simply trying to get a promotion at work or, or get yourself a date or reconnect with your wife or
00:04:55.540
connect with your kids. If you want to do that again, your ability to be decisive, to make decisions
00:05:00.760
quickly and to make the right ones is very, very important. So this isn't going to be a long drawn
00:05:05.560
out thing for you today, because it is very, uh, it's succinct, it's clear, it's articulate. And, uh,
00:05:10.900
I think you guys will get it here very, very quickly. And there's only four steps. So the first one
00:05:15.300
again, in OODA loop, OODA is to observe the very first thing you need to do when you're beginning
00:05:20.580
to make decisions or you're find yourself in a situation, maybe it's an unfamiliar or uncomfortable
00:05:25.520
situation is to actually observe what's happening. Uh, Lieutenant Colonel Dave Grossman talks a little bit
00:05:33.480
about our, uh, physiological response to threats and circumstances and situations. And in a lot of
00:05:40.540
ways, our bodies are designed to hone in on these things that will keep us safe and protected. And
00:05:46.620
yet we lose focus on everything else that's going on around us and not being able to have our head on
00:05:52.020
a swivel and observe everything that's happening poses a whole nother set of risks that you need to be
00:05:58.060
aware of. So when you are trying to decide and make decisions about your family dynamic or your
00:06:03.400
career aspirations, you really need to step out and be objective in, in looking around and seeing
00:06:10.300
what is happening around you. What is going on? What is happening? What is the objective? Who are
00:06:15.900
the people? What are their objectives? What is it they want to accomplish? What do you want to
00:06:19.660
accomplish? What is happening around you? The better that you get at observing objectively. And I say
00:06:26.080
objectively, not subjectively, it's very easy for us to be inside of a situation and get emotionally
00:06:32.840
wrapped up and tied up into this thing, and then make a decision based purely on emotions, which we
00:06:38.900
know is not always going to be in fact, more often than not, if we're doing it that way, it's not going
00:06:43.880
to be in our best interest. So be as objective as possible and observe what's happening, what you want
00:06:50.520
to accomplish, how you want to get this thing done, what direction you're trying to move towards,
00:06:54.980
and you're going to have a more successful time moving through this process. So again, Oh,
00:06:59.020
the first O is observe next to orient. All right. Now you come back to reality, right? You've,
00:07:05.340
you've taken yourself out of the situation. You've given yourself a 30,000 foot view.
00:07:09.940
You've observed everything that's going on around you. And now you're orienting yourself to the
00:07:15.640
situation. So inside of this circumstance that I found myself in, whether it's a dangerous encounter,
00:07:21.060
a natural disaster, uh, an uncomfortable conversation, uh, or maybe not an uncomfortable
00:07:26.440
conversation or a client appointment or whatever, whatever it is that you're trying to do. Now you
00:07:34.140
come back into reality out of consciousness and you put yourself in the scenario. Okay. Now you're
00:07:42.560
starting to orient in order for these things to happen and these little pieces to move and everything
00:07:47.060
to be in the right place. What do I need to have in place? What assets do I need? What resources do I
00:07:54.740
need? Uh, what, what do I have at my disposal? What potential threats are, are, are, are visible
00:08:02.980
and present? And what's the priority of dealing with those threats? If you're dealing with, for example,
00:08:08.760
a new project at work, you know, that you have an objective, your boss has come down. He's given you
00:08:14.460
an objective in the task, you know, what you need to accomplish. Now in the second stage, it's
00:08:20.740
orienting. Okay. In order to accomplish this new task, I'm going to need to enlist, uh, these
00:08:27.080
individuals. I'm going to need these resources. I'm going to need this research and documentation.
00:08:33.420
Uh, the threats that are out there is I have competitors, uh, who, who are there. We we've already
00:08:38.600
poured a lot of money into this. I've got this timeframe that I need to meet. And I don't think that
00:08:43.200
that timeframe is going to work. So now you're just starting to move the pieces of the puzzle.
00:08:47.880
You're looking at this as a chessboard and, and, and, and really putting the objective there and
00:08:53.460
then moving all the pieces or finding out where those pieces go so that you can successfully, uh,
00:08:59.740
accomplish the task at hand. Now, when you're looking at a chessboard and we'll use this analogy
00:09:04.640
as we continue to go on with this thing, the third component of this is to decide. So now you've
00:09:10.340
observed, you've looked around and you figured everything out to the best of your abilities.
00:09:15.620
You've oriented yourself to the situation. You know, which way you're going, you know,
00:09:21.180
from where you're coming, you know, what threats are potentially, uh, going to be present and how
00:09:26.340
you might deal with those. Now you're faced with multiple options, right? You're always faced with
00:09:31.840
multiple options. When you're having a difficult conversation, do I take this route? Do I take this
00:09:36.000
route? Do I appeal to this person, uh, this way? And this other person, this way, you always have
00:09:41.360
multiple paths to choose from. And I think this is where a lot of guys get hung up is they do this
00:09:47.500
loop as the OO loop, right? So it's like constant observation and orientation, then back to observation
00:09:54.600
and orientation, observation, orientation, and they never get onto this third component,
00:09:59.280
which is to decide very simply to decide. And this is an act and it's a habit and it's a skillset.
00:10:07.460
It's something that you can improve and something that you can get better at. And the better that
00:10:12.120
you are at deciding based on the facts that you have and the information you have at hand, the better
00:10:17.100
you are going to be, the more action you're going to take, the further you're going to advance.
00:10:22.340
Now you're not always going to get it right. And you're not always going to have all the information.
00:10:26.380
Even if you go through the OODA loop, which is again, first step, observe second step, orient.
00:10:32.200
Even if you go through that just right, you're not going to have all the facts at hand. And you need
00:10:36.920
to learn to be okay with that. You need to learn because we're not talking about brain surgery here.
00:10:41.940
We're not talking about solving all of humanity's largest crises here in the next two or three days
00:10:49.440
or week or however long it's going to take you to decide. We're talking about a simple strategy.
00:10:54.600
strategy. And by the way, guys, you aren't bound or tied into the strategy. We're going to get to
00:10:59.460
that in a minute. You aren't bound to the strategy that you choose. Let's say that you do decide
00:11:04.020
something, a course of action, course a, we're going to go down this path. Well, a lot of guys
00:11:09.720
won't choose because they're worried that if course a is the wrong route, that they're perpetually stuck
00:11:14.580
on course a, that's not true at all. It's not true at all. You can back, you can come back,
00:11:20.140
you can backtrack a little bit. You can step off that path onto a different path, but frankly,
00:11:24.460
you're not going to know which path is going to be best for you entirely until you start walking
00:11:29.520
that path until you start moving. And that's the fourth component of this. The fourth component is
00:11:35.060
to act is to be bold is to exhibit some, some level of, of courage and decisiveness and take action.
00:11:44.080
Simple. This is not complicated stuff. I mean, I've been talking for what, 10 minutes now, granted,
00:11:51.860
I know this is a lot easier said than done. It's always easier to talk than it is to actually do,
00:11:56.920
but I'd like you to consider in what situations have you struggled to make decisions? Is it having
00:12:03.480
a conversation with your wife? Is it deciding what career you want to pursue? Uh, is it deciding where
00:12:09.480
you want to live or if, and when you want to ask a woman for her hand in marriage, or if, and when you
00:12:15.520
want to ask for a promotion or where you want to take this project or your list of priorities within
00:12:21.320
business, there's these thousands and thousands and thousands of decisions and choices that we need
00:12:27.460
to make on a daily basis. And your ability to use this OODA loop or some other framework that works
00:12:33.680
for you is going to spell the difference between success and failure between weakness and
00:12:39.200
strength, between those men who get things done. And those who simply talk about getting things
00:12:45.300
done. Don't get stuck. Don't do this paralysis by analysis, use the OODA loop, figure it out,
00:12:53.840
observe what's happening around you, observe what you want to accomplish. Try to be as objective as
00:12:59.260
possible. Don't allow yourself to, or your ego to get in the way or your emotions to cloud your
00:13:04.860
judgment, orient yourself to the situation and what you want to accomplish, decide the course of
00:13:11.360
action. And then lastly, act on it. You can act when you've done this, you can act with, with
00:13:17.360
confidence and boldness because you know, you've done the processes and the steps to get you to that
00:13:23.440
level of action. Now I'm going to throw a bonus at you here. There's one other bonus letter, I guess
00:13:29.260
you'd say is to evaluate, evaluate, right? The decisions that you make are typically not life
00:13:37.160
and death situations. They're not the end all save all. If you make this decision, it doesn't mean
00:13:41.600
that you can't change down the road, but you have to evaluate whether or not your course of action
00:13:47.460
actually worked. So you've observed, you've oriented, you've decided now you've acted. Now through that
00:13:54.680
consistent action, you ask yourself, did the action I take move me in the direction I wanted to go?
00:14:01.440
Did it work? Because we all know and have heard that the definition of insanity is doing the same
00:14:07.420
thing over and over again and expecting a different result. If your actions are producing a result and
00:14:13.140
that's what you want, keep doing it. If it's not what you want, then you have to figure out at some
00:14:18.300
path at some point that this isn't producing the desired effect. So you look at it, you evaluate
00:14:26.060
it. It's working. It's not working. If it's not working, go back to the OODA loop process, observe,
00:14:33.100
orient, decide, act, evaluate, and evaluate might be observe as well because you are observing what's
00:14:40.520
happening, the result that you're producing. And that's why it's called a loop. It's not a linear
00:14:45.680
process. It's a loop and it's constantly going every day, all the time. Observe, orient, decide,
00:14:53.160
act, observe, orient, decide, act. And through that process, you will push yourself and drive
00:14:58.300
yourself to doing more, to taking more action and accomplishing more in your life. So there you go,
00:15:02.420
guys. Fairly quick one for you today. I hope you enjoyed. Make sure you leave a comment below. If
00:15:06.560
you're on YouTube, if you're listening to this on podcasts, wherever you listen to podcasts,
00:15:10.520
then leave us a rating and review. Go check out YouTube by the way, as well,
00:15:14.240
you can go to youtube.com slash order of man. We're trying to hit that 100,000 subscriber mark,
00:15:20.220
and we're getting very, very close. So those of you who have subscribed and are leaving comments
00:15:25.080
and engaging with us on YouTube, I really appreciate you doing that. It's been good.
00:15:29.400
I've enjoyed this so far. I think there's a deeper connection between you and me when you see me and
00:15:37.060
you can make your judgments and decide if, you know, what I have to offer and what we're sharing here
00:15:43.680
with an order of man is something of value to you. It's just one more way to, to get the information
00:15:48.820
that hopefully is serving you. And that's my ultimate objective is I want to serve you. I want
00:15:52.580
to give you the tools, the resources, the guidance, the direction, the insights, the conversations on
00:15:56.600
the podcast that you need to make better decisions, be more decisive, have more success in every facet of
00:16:04.620
your life. And this is a great medium to do it. So anyways, that's all I've got for you today.
00:16:09.480
Again, we'll be back. We've got the three shows per week, but we'll be back on, uh, on Monday or
00:16:14.440
excuse me, sorry, Tuesday. We'll be back on Tuesday for another interview with another successful
00:16:19.280
gentleman. Who's going to impart some of his wisdom with us. So make sure you subscribe and you'll never
00:16:24.020
miss any of those. All right, guys, until next week, go out there, take action, become the man you
00:16:29.100
are meant to be. Thank you for listening to the order of man podcast. You're ready to take charge
00:16:34.180
of your life and be more of the man you were meant to be. We invite you to join the order at