According to Goetsch & Davis, the Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) cycle is “a kind of generic, basic format for bringing order and logic to the problem-solving process.” It is not as detailed as a step-by-step process but rather is “a simple cycle that is allowed to continue until a solution’s results match the planned outcome.” (Goetsch & Davis, 2021, p. 274).
Similar cyclic processes are also used in military and local-defense contexts.
One of them is the so-called OODA loop (Boyd, 1995), which stands for observe-orient-decide-act. This is a decision-making framework that consists of the following stages:
- Observe – gather information from the environment
- Orient – analyze this collected information and determine its relevance to one’s mission
- Decide – Choose a course of action based on the orientation
- Act – the chosen action is then executed
So, for example, suppose you see a group of fighters (observe). You analyze the situation to consider whether those fighters are friends or foes (orient). If they’re foes, you decide whether and how to act based on their size and resources and your own size and resources. If you decide to attack, do so with extreme aggression! Wash, rinse, and repeat.
The OODA loop is fundamental to all military action. Defeating the enemy requires either running your OODA loop faster than the bad guy’s loop or obstructing his OODA loop such as through misdirection.
In principle, the PCDA loop is similar to the OODA loop, except that observation happens earlier in the OODA loop than it does in the PCDA loop.
Another loop, performed mostly by local-defense groups and other groups practicing irregular or so-called “4th Generation” warfare (Lind & Thiele, 2015), is the DOCA loop, which stands for Disperse-Orient-Concentrate-Act. The idea is that in the context of irregular warfare, dispersed groups of fighters are hard to kill because they are… dispersed, and they only become combat-effective when they are close together. The stages are as follows:
- Disperse – spread out
- Orient – analyze the situation and determine its relevance to the mission
- Concentrate – move close to each other (or otherwise work in some coordinated manner)
- Act – execute the previously agreed-upon plan
Because this is a loop, the next stage after the act is to disperse. The neat thing is that the group of fighters is at risk only during the “concentrate” stage when they are close together.
For example, suppose the fighters’ mission is to destroy an enemy’s railroad line. They start out as dispersed. They make observations about the location of the railway line and how heavily it is defended (orient). If they decide to complete their mission, they converge on the railroad line (concentrate) and sabotage it in some way (act). The loop starts over, so they disperse. Again, wash-rinse-repeat.
The OODA loop is the more fundamental of the two types of loops and works everywhere, even in business situations (D. Brown Management, 2024). Besides explicitly calling-out the “observe” stage, the primary difference between the OODA and DOCA loops is the way they repeat. With OODA, fighters would then return to home base and report their results. With the DOCA loops, the fighters have the option of building upon their success and continue with the mayhem!
Fun stuff!
References
Boyd, J. (1995). The Essence of Winning and Losing. https://web.archive.org/web/20110324054054/http://www.danford.net/boyd/essence.htm
D. Brown Management. (2024). Observe, Orient, Decide, and Act (The OODA Loop). https://dbmteam.com/insights/observe-orient-decide-and-act-the-ooda-loop
Goetsch, D. L. & Davis, S. B. (2021). Quality management for organizational excellence: Introduction to total quality (9th ed.). Pearson.
Lind, W. S. & Thiele, G. A. (2015). 4th Generation Warfare Handbook. Castalia House. https://ia802901.us.archive.org/27/items/4thGenerationWarfareHandbookWilliamS.Lind28129/4th_Generation_Warfare_Handbook_-_William_S._Lind%25281%2529.pdf
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