The OODA Loop — observe, orient, decide, act — is a tool used for making strategic decisions as a situation develops. It is an iterative process made up of feedback loops that inform the other stages. Each stage has a clear set of actions and processes that guide you to making data-driven, successful decisions.
We’ve already covered the observe phase, so it’s now time to look at orient.
What is the orient phase of the OODA loop?
The orient phase is often regarded as the most important part of OODA. Using the information gathered in the observe phase, you will begin to put this all into relevant context — such as if there are industry regulations you must follow. You will need to analyze your data, looking for any patterns, trends, or specific data points that offer insight into your pending decision. Analysis works best when following a structured framework that highlights factors that will affect your decision.
Your observations should paint a picture of your current situation. It’s possible you won’t yet have all the information you need. However, the orient phase is where you begin to consider actions that will help you reach your decision. This situational awareness is critical as you will have a better understanding of your current position, but be cautious enough to expect there may be sudden changes as new information comes into focus.
To get the most out of your data, it’s essential that you leverage your best asset: your people. Listening to a variety of opinions and views will enrich your research. Use employees’ knowledge and experience to shape your decision and prioritize key snippets of information that could change your entire plan. This will also highlight any biases that could be impacting employees’ judgment. This specific type of data, learned through lived experiences, will have the biggest impact in the latter OODA stages.
How to complete the OODA orient phase
The primary aim of the orient phase is thorough data analysis. Without taking time to understand your data, your progression in OODA’s decide phase will be limited. Make sure that, throughout the orient phase, you keep your strategic goals at the heart of your analysis.
Assess the data
Before you begin evaluating all of your gathered information, you need to ‘assess’ it to help with prioritization. Examine the data sources, their authority, relevance, and overall data quality. This should provide immediate insight into how reliable your data is, and which parts could have a big effect in the following stages.
You might start having some ideas while doing your data assessment — note these down! You might be able to shape these ideas as you learn more about your current situation. Alternatively, you can look back at these ideas and compare them to your final result to understand progress, or use them as a benchmark to understand how far or close you were in your estimations. Benchmarking ideas will give you insight into how effective your research methods are.
Put into context
Now you need to put your findings into situational context — how does this information relate to your strategic goals? Is there some unexpected information within your research? By understanding how your data fits into the broader landscape, you will have greater situational awareness.
When aligning data and reality, be mindful of the story the data is trying to tell. This includes market conditions, competitors, or even a reflection of your industry. There could be clear indications of upcoming opportunities, threats, and challenges. Whenever you identify a pattern, or a point of interest, ask yourself how you would manage this going forward. It could be either how you are equipped to deal with these opportunities and threats, or understanding if you have the right skills and resources available. What you have learned from previous experiences will also steer your analysis.
Potential actions and outcomes
It’s not quite the time to finalize actions and outcomes, but rather consider the potential options. Begin noting down plans for the next stage. You will need a variety of options as not all will be viable — especially if the situation is still evolving. Examine these ideas, listing the benefits and consequences of each, including their potential impact. This list will help you prioritize actions ready for the next phase of OODA.
Why orientation is critical to strategic agility
Strategic agility is what enables you to (successfully) execute your plans. Observation is important as it helps you get a high-level feel for the situation. Orientation is where you develop an understanding of that knowledge, and how to respond to environmental changes. This is especially helpful in creating competitive advantage.
In this stage, you’re choosing the direction you want to go in. Orientation supports in aligning your resources, especially when navigating uncertainty. This includes your strategic goals, your ability to adapt to changing circumstances, and the likelihood of success. Orientation allows you to make decisions, providing stability, even when things change. Flexibility in plans is critical to strategic agility.
Structuring data and having it readily available will allow you to be agile in your approach. You will have enough data to make references, inferences, and create options for contingency. Any observations of shifts in your environment will feed into the frameworks you use to organize (orient) your data.
Tools and templates to structure orientation
Maintaining a structure when analyzing data will make it easier to identify any patterns, opportunities, challenges… Anything that helps you to develop situational awareness. Using tools will allow you to be objective in your analysis and challenge cognitive biases. There are various traditional tools and templates out there to support you in the orient phase.
SOAR analysis
SOAR analysis (strengths, opportunities, aspirations, results) allows you to take a positive approach to analyzing your information. It focuses predominantly on looking to the future while leveraging any strengths or opportunities — effectively what your organization does well and where it wants to go.
SOAR is a highly collaborative approach, encouraging input across various teams to create a shared vision. This collaboration can create a sense of ownership across the organization, leading to higher investment from employees as they will feel they have contributed to strategic success.
Porter’s five forces
Porter’s five forces focus on the competitive environment: competition, threat of new entrants, supplier bargaining power, customer bargaining power, and threat of substitutes. This tool lends itself well to innovation-led goals. Understanding where you are in relation to competitors (and within your industry) will enable you to identify strategic adjustments that might not have been previously considered.
SWOT
SWOT analyses — strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats — are similar to SOAR, but have a different overall outlook. SOAR is aspirational and action-focused, whereas SWOT is grounded further in reality. By using SWOT for analysis, you will be able to get a deeper understanding of the current scenario to make better and more informed decisions.
PESTLE
PESTLE (political, economic, social, technological, legal, environmental) provides a clear way to organize data and highlight trends. It also helps you to examine and understand how external factors may impact your decision. PESTLE works really well with SWOT to illustrate the current external landscape, challenges you may need to overcome, and plan for how to mitigate risk.
Strategy cards
Strategy cards might be slightly less traditional than other tools, but work just as well! It is a digital system, built using OODA methodology, designed to capture and organize insights collaboratively. Each card focuses on a specific input, framework, or decision.
Strategy cards provide a visual way for users to contribute observations, highlight gaps, and stay aligned. In the orient stage, this means employees involved in the project can quickly see, and understand, how the research is taking shape ready for the next stage. Leaders will also be able to challenge assumptions at every stage of the analysis. This ensures that there is strategic alignment regarding decision-making.
What comes after orient?
The orient stage is for making sense of the data you have gathered, gaining valuable insight into your current situation and position. There may be new information that develops as you are orienting, which you can include in your analysis — OODA is known for its iterative process. Once you feel you have a strong understanding of what your data is showing, you’re ready to progress to the next stage: decide.
