The Action Faction … They Get Traction!
By Bigg Success Staff
01-09-08
Life Skills
Planning is certainly important to set your direction. Analysis is necessary, but a lot of people take it too far. At some point, you just have to do it.
A recent post, by the great Tom Peters, entitled Don’t Know Where You’re Going? So What? deserves your attention.
In the post, he talks about O.O.D.A. loops – a concept developed by United States Air Force Colonel John Boyd. OODA is an acronym for:
Observe
Orient
Decide
Act
Boyd contends that a military advantage can be gained if you work through this loop faster than your adversary. In today’s rapidly changing world, this concept applies to you as well.
Get in the loop!
The four processes in Boyd’s model are overlapping and interacting. That’s why you gain an advantage by getting in the loop.
As you move through the loop, you constantly receive new information. Feedback that you don’t get if you never act. You’re able to use that feedback to adapt. And that’s what gives you an advantage – you know things that the “analyzers” haven’t discovered.
You can’t know everything before you make a decision. You can conduct surveys, interviews, focus groups, or any number of other things. But they’re all speculative … conjecture … hypothesis.
When you take action, you get real facts. Hard evidence. Things you only get by taking action.
Step up to the plate!
Spring training for the upcoming baseball season is just around the corner. So we couldn’t resist a baseball analogy!
Nothing happens until you step up to the plate. Now, when you’re at bat, you might strike out – or you might hit a home run! The greatest home run hitters in history were usually also the kings of strike outs.
That’s the point – by taking action, you won’t always succeed. However you will learn from your mistakes, won’t you? The most successful people have usually fallen flat on their face a time or two. That’s part of the process.
So get in the action faction and you’ll get traction! Do something – even if it’s wrong. Fail forward; learn from your mistakes. Adapt. Then move on. You’re more likely to meet with bigg success!
Hear today's lesson and laugh on The Bigg Success Show.
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