I've been fascinated with John Boyd and his OODA loops for a while now. But, equally, I'm always suspicious of the seductive allure of military strategy. Communications planners find that stuff very sexy but, I suspect, there aren't many transferrable lessons.
Experiences at GDS, though, did really make me understand the advantage of speed and of thinking hard about tempo, as Robert Coram puts it:
"Thinking about operating at a quicker tempo—not just moving faster—than the adversary was a new concept in waging war. Generating a rapidly changing environment—that is, engaging in activity that is so quick it is disorienting and appears uncertain or ambiguous to the enemy—inhibits the adversary’s ability to adapt and causes confusion and disorder that, in turn, causes an adversary to overreact or underreact. Boyd closed the briefing by saying the message is that whoever can handle the quickest rate of change is the one who survives"
And this brilliant piece about Trump and his bid for the Republican nomination reminded me to think about speed again. Trump can move fast because he's an evil lunatic with no need to check his facts or consult with others. This gives him massive destabilising power in a political campaign, but hopefully, means he won't survive in the long-term because he's too disconnected from actual, real reality.
A small, non-lunatic, non-evil team, with a shared understanding of their situation and their goals - and lots of trust - can move as fast.
Coram again:
"Trust emphasizes implicit over explicit communications. Trust is the unifying concept. This gives the subordinate great freedom of action. Trust is an example of a moral force that helps bind groups together in what Boyd called an “organic whole.”
Hopefully, such a team can remain connected to reality. The challenge for them is maintaining the speed while scaling.
"A crucial part of the OODA Loop—or “Boyd Cycle,” as it has come to be known—is that once the process begins, it must not slow. It must continue and it must accelerate. Success is the greatest trap for the novice who properly implements the OODA Loop. He is so amazed at what he has done that he pauses and looks around and waits for reinforcements. But this is the time to exploit the confusion and to press on"