Before your competitors do, watch this with your team and take notes.
It’s critical.
John Boyd didn’t publish much.
Instead he spoke, taught, briefed, lectured and presented.
Here is a well preserved example from 1991 available from C-SPAN.
The First Gulf War had just come to a rapid and decisive end.
The topic was military reform, and Boyd was called to Capitol Hill with other reformers to offer testimony on lessons learned and the future.
The audience was the House Armed Services Committee.
Watch this with your team in your next training meeting.
Below is a section of that testimony.
If you’re not in a military organization, substitute the military language with the terms in brackets.
If you’re in the military, leave the military words in.
Here it is:
“Next, our military [COMPANY/TEAM] needs to be trained in innovative tactics and strategies that will lead to quick, decisive victories at minimum cost in American lives [CAPITAL].
“This requires, first -- and this is crucial -- an understanding of conflict.
“Conflict can be viewed as repeated cycles of observing, orienting, deciding and acting by both sides, and also, I might add, at all levels [BECAUSE ITS FRACTAL].
“The adversary that can move through these cycles faster gains an inestimable advantage by disrupting his enemy's [THEIR COMPETITION’S] ability to respond effectively.
“Now these create continuous and unpredictable change.
“Therefore, our tactics and strategy need to be based on the idea of adapting to and shaping this change faster than the enemy [OUR COMPETITORS].
“Why?
“Because the confusion and disorder so generated permits us to win quickly at minimum cost in American lives [TIME AND CAPITAL].”
These comments are worth considering and discussing with teammates.
In fact, the entire video is worth watching.
It’s filled with many lessons that can help leaders and teams create value immediately.
You’ll even hear Boyd say “People, Ideas and Things.” (he uses the term hardware)
As you watch, consider your operating definitions of:
Conflict
Strategy
Tactics
Time
Capital
Competition
Are they relevant to the circumstances that are continuously unfolding in your observations?
Could they be revised and improved?
How do your competitors define these words?
It could make all the difference!
Outstanding
HERE IS THE LINK: https://www.c-span.org/video/?17753-1/us-military-reform-oper-desert-storm