OODA loop

(Between recent events and recent training experiences I thought it would be a good idea to go over this concept.)

Decision making, something we do all day long and never really think about. All day long you decide to do things really with out thinking about it. You get in the car, start the car and take off down the road without really taking time to think about all the complex decisions you are having to make. Internally you calculate how fast you are going and confirm it with the what the car is saying. You make a right hand turn after calculating the distance, speed and timing it will take you to make the turn before the other car coming toward you is to close.

Of course some folks make less then thoughtful decisions when behind the wheel. Which makes the rest of us decided if jail is really that bad or not.........

For lots of situations we deal with on a daily basis we make list. We gather information, we compare outcomes from the information we have. And only after we have done these things do we choose a course of action.

We unconsciously use an O.O.D.A. Loop thousands of times a day. What if we could consciously use this process to increase our ability to make decisions? Even increase the speed in which we could make these decisions?

This way of describing how we make decisions was originally used to help fighter pilots make decisions. The link can lead you to a more detail explanation.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OODA_loop

Who more then a fighter pilot would need to make decisions, life or death decisions, as quickly as possible? Not to many of us.  

Observe - We have to have our head up either physically or metaphorically. You do not know there is an issue if you do not collect the information indicating there is an issue. 

Orient - We have to face, literally and figuratively, the issue. Focusing on the issue at hand while letting go of everything which does not have to do with the issue. 

Decide - After passing through the first two phases we come up with a plan or solution to the issue. 

Act - We follow through with the plan. The plan based on the information we have gathered. 

Sounds simple enough. Fits in with our Keep It Simple Stupid concept. Yet this seemingly simple idea can be utilized for so many different situations or issues. Like most things we talk about, we want to cover as many things as we can with as little as we can. One item for many situations is a great thing. 

How do we apply this concept. After all you can have a million ideas or a bag full of supplies. If you can not apply the ideas or utilize your items they are useless. 

Need a bandaid for the little one? Some time before you knew this could come up. You spent a couple of dollars at the Dollar Store. You know to clean out the wound and then cover it with the bandaid. Emergency over! You can do this because at some point you acknowledged a "bad" thing could happen, you focused on the issue, you came up with a plan and bought some bandaids. 

Maybe a really bad day has come up? Maybe you are facing a bad guy with a knife?

Maybe the fire is just down the street or over the hill?

Knowing the OODA Loop and how to apply it will help you make it through either of these situations and so many more. How?

Physical encounter with guy in picture...... You need to make your situation better. As in right now!

Observe - you acknowledge he is a threat. Your past the "why me" or "why is this happening" phase. You clearly define this as a threat you must deal with!

Orient - you turn to address the threat. Your focus is the threat. Nothing else matters at the moment. With orientating yourself to the threat you have now placed all your sharp pointy things toward the threat. Fist, feet and even your teeth if you have to use them! 

Decide - Fight or flight. Now that you are focused on the threat you can decide what to do. 

Act - Do something to better your position! As the guy goes past you, take the pen you were using to sign autographs and put it in his eye. 

Of course all of this happens faster then it took you to read about it. One of the reasons this concept worked well for fighter pilots. You have also interrupted the guy with the knife OODA Loop. He has to start back a square one. Hopefully you have sped up your own loop and are a step ahead of him now. 

Which brings use to how most of us will use this concept. We can speed up our own OODA Loop to give use more time to make better decisions when something happens. 

By covering some of the process before a situation arises you can increase the speed of the decision making process. Take the second situation, one friends of mine faced recently, a fire coming toward the house. 

You find out the weather women/man is calling for fire conditions over the next few days. For those of us in California we know a call of Santa Anna winds is going to bring fire. Not an 'if', this almost always means a fire is coming. In fact I can not think of any time in the recent past a fire did not happen somewhere once they called for Santa Anna winds over a day or two. 

Observe - You pay attention to the news more. Maybe you look to the horizon a little more then you do on other days. 

Orient - You hear there is a fire near your home. 

Decide - This is where your prior planning speeds up your loop. You have sat down, when not under pressure of a real situation and figured out all the 'what if's?'. You already know where the important papers are kept. You already know what you "need" to make it a few days away from the house. You already have a stash of cash to pay for a hotel room. Your gas tank is half full. Your iCloud is already full of family pictures. Add in all the other things you can already have squared away when this situation comes up.  

You have to go through the loop less times then your neighbor. This gives you the ability to be a step ahead of the situation. 

Fire coming! 

Cool. How much time we got?

Fifteen minutes!

Cool. Grab these things............ Done. 

We still got ten minutes!

Cool. Let's also grab these things, since we have time.......... Done.

But we still have five minutes, we need to do something! 

Cool. We got a couple of minutes? 

WHY ARE YOU SO CALM!?!?!?!?!?!?

Prior planning.............. Wanna panic? We got like three minutes? We can fit it in if you would like?

(this is the part where they roll their eyes at you and call you names!)

We all want to be in a position where nothing bad ever happens. Well that is not life. If we apply this concept of the OODA Loop to our prior planning we can increase the odds of us coming out in a good spot at the end of the emergency. Of course this means we have to get over the first hurdle to any sort of planning. We have to get over the "Why me?" or "Why is this happening?" phase first. 

One way to do this is to plan now before an event occurs. Take the most common event in your area. Maybe it is an ice storm? Maybe a tornado? Maybe you drive a long way to work everyday? What are the major issue you would face in any of these situations? Grab a piece of paper..... go on and grab one now while you are reading this and have a few moments to orient yourself to the issues. We will wait............. 

The rest of us will enjoy this picture of Snoopy. 

Your back? Ok, what is the first priority during your event? Write it down. How do you cover this first priority? Write down the answer. You have just sped up your first OODA Loop. While your sitting here, write down the second priority. What is the answer to cover this priority? Write it down. Now you have sped up two decisions you will have to address. I am sure if you are reading this post you have the ability to follow this thought process further down the line.

Take your plans and put them in a binder if you want to. We have set plans or Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) we do without having them written down. Experience has brought us to this point. What you really need to do is discuss this planning with your loved ones. Discussing this will speed up your loved ones OODA Loops when you are not there. 

As Always,

Stay Safe!  

Good spot

Been awhile since I wrote anything. Life kind of jumped up and got in the way. The good thing about not writing or focusing on preparedness for awhile? I got to see if my stuff was up to snuff a few times. The best part, this was without the subject really being anywhere near a focus in my life. Without realizing it I had hit a "good spot" in my personal planning.

What does a good spot mean? This good spot is a place where you do not have to think about preparedness to much. When something unexpected comes up, your prior planning has lead to your appropriate response to the situation. This is a good feeling! I have a joke with myself. The future me either likes or dislikes the past me depending on what the past me has done to prepare the future me! Over the last nine months or so we have had power outages, cuts/bruises/bumps, fires, floods and other issues come up. We have done pretty good through all of these issues.

Remember, an emergency situation to you might be different then what an emergency situation is to me. This is why everyone needs to focus on what their personal situation requires. There are no one size fits all.

Scrapped knees, bonked heads and other child injuries came up. Our medical preparedness allowed us to make it through these 'emergencies'. You would be amazed how much a Spider Man bandaid can change a situation. One second you have a small child whaling at the top of their lungs swearing the end of the world has begun. Some Neosporin treated the physical wound. The decorations on the bandaid treated the mental wound. End of emergency!

More then once an ice pack from the freezer cured the bruised egos of little ones who were on the losing end of a tussle. Sometimes they even kept the swelling down from whatever they had failed at doing or the knot they received from the other one. The ice packs in the freezer even helped to keep the fridge cold during our several power outages. Between the incidents the ice packs were tested to see how long they could keep the ice chest cold after the power came back on. Two and a half days before I thought stuff started to get to warm. (No I was not opening and closing the ice chest. Just kept it closed to see how long water stayed cold.)

Being able to use a single item for multiple uses is a wonderful ability! Just hope someone does not get a bump and you need the ice pack for keeping the chest cold!!!

Our communications abilities were tested during the power outages. The ability to still communicate with the little ones, who's iPads had no internet, was a big one! Hehehehehe! Between text messages, cellular, radios and talking to our neighbors we thought we had a grasp of what was going on around us. Some of our friends found the lag time between news or official information was to much. This lag between what was happening right now to them and what was being put out caused stress to be added to their already stressful, if not life threatening, situations!

Found more resources for staying up to date. Phones have all kinds of applications for staying informed. The ham radio and police scanners helped a lot. Yet at the end of the day we found looking around the house, talking to our neighbors, City Workers and keeping our own situational awareness were the best tools.

Nothing was better then during our first power outage. The children came home to find the house had lights. Each of them had their own flashlight. And best of all....... Pizza had been ordered for dinner!! Took the time to teach the older one how to put batteries in the camp lanterns. Did not seem like a big deal till the next power outage. Someone had to show mom where the batteries went and the best places to put the lamps.......... Future me laughed at that one!

We personally escaped the worst of the fires this year. Friends of ours were not so lucky. I will not put any names in this story. If you figure out it is you...... do not tell anyone! I called it!!!

Two families, we will call one family #1 and the other #2. Let's focus on just the first few minutes of the emergency. Both were faced with the same issues. It was time to go, fire was coming and there was no time left to figure out what to do.

Family #1, no idea what to pack. No real idea where to go. No prior planning at all from what I could figure out.

Family #2, set their planning into motion. Had a rough idea of where to go. Had time to gather more information, pack more items.

Family #1, all over text messages and FB venting their frustration.

Family #2, using the internet to check in with folks and keeping people informed of their situation.

Family #1, basically appeared to melt down.

Family #2, held it together.

This was just the first couple of minutes of the emergency. Why am I pointing this out? Those first couple of minutes could make all the difference. Prior planning prevents poor performance. Am I 'Monday Morning Quarter Backing' either family? Nope just giving my impression of what each family was doing.

They both faced many of the exact same issues. Family #2 was obviously dealing with the situation much better. Why? Seems they had hit a good spot in their personal planning. The situation might have exceeded what they were truly facing but their prior planning obviously helped them through the situation.

Having dealt with a few situations of our own. With the knowledge we gained from what our friends personally went through. The goal now becomes to close up some of the gaps in our abilities. We want to cover more of the basics. Add some more abilities. Plan out a few more scenarios.

Going to be doing all of this with the intention of moving our "Good Spot" a little further down the line.

As Always,

Stay Safe! 

Corsair Trainers

  

Inventory - Check your stuff

Quite randomly the month of July was the month I put into my phone to inventory and take stock of where we are for emergency preparedness. Best reason I can remember is I had achieved some goal at this point in the years prior.

Having a time you plan to check what you have, replace stuff and see where you want to be is a really good tool. I must admit life seemed to get in the way with my inventory this year. Work, kids, etc etc etc. Honestly there is not a whole lot to go through at the house, no we do not have a bunker full of every item we might need if the aliens invade, but I found enough to work on when I did sit down to go through our get home bags.

I know as our situation at home changes we need to adapt our planning and gear to the new situation. Kids grow, grown folks get older, you move or any of the other things which can change your situation come up and having a day or in this case a month to review your preparedness comes in handy. Biggest thing I found was duplicated items. I have a habit of getting items and just stuffing them inside of the bags. Of course I forget what I already have in them!

Expired or poorly packaged items were the next thing I found. Over the course of the last year I had found higher quality items but had failed to move out the older stuff. (going back to my habit of just stuffing stuff in the bag)

Somethings do not change, expire or need upgrading. Rain cover for the bag, first aid supplies, mirror, whistle and headlamp.

I realized my water purifying equipment had gotten a bit out of hand. The bag is packed to help get me home from work on a really bad day. If I need three types of water filters to get home things have gone way, way bad and the bag is not designed for a really, really bad day. Just a bad day!!! Although having multiple ways of doing something is a really good idea this was kind of a waste of space when I realized what I had done.  

I also realized my medical supplies needed to be revamped. The focus was more on the gunfight and needed to move toward covering regular issues one might have walking home. My background leads me to see things through the gunfighter lens. We should all make sure we look at our planning through the lens of disciplines outside of our own.

I also needed to trade out the MREs which had sat in my car for a year or more. Ok I know people will say you should do this more often because they go bad. Ate on of the ones I took out for lunch that day. Tabasco sauce had evaporated magically somehow but the rest of the meal was good! I couldn't remember if I had water bladder in the bag until I looked. Another good reason for going through the stuff.

I also had recently bought a new pack for everyday carry and decided to move the stuff over to the new bag. Having both bags open at the same time lead me to again find some gear which was duplicated and did not need to be carried in both bags. This bag is the Vertex EDC bag, after I carry it for awhile there will be a review.

One of the first things I did with the new bag was add a tourniquet and extra bandages. With everything going on in the world right now I felt I needed to add more medical stuff to the EDC.

Just inventory of this gear seemed to take up all of the spare time I had this month. Of course I have to still go through some other stuff but this gave me a good indication of where we are and where we need to go during the next year. If you can't deal with situations with what you carry everyday, combined with the gear you have to help you get home than what you have at home might just not matter.