What Does "OODA" Mean Anyway?

Observe. Orient. Decide. Act.

That’s what OODA stands for. It’s a term coined by Colonel John R. Boyd (January 23, 1927 — March 9, 1997; pictured right), a United States Air Force fighter pilot and military strate­gist, whose theories have influ­enced both military and business strategies.

He used the term “OODA Loop” to describe the process that individ­u­als and organi­za­tions use to react to events. The key to success is the creation of situa­tions where one can make appro­pri­ate decisions more rapidly than others.
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Télécoms Sans Frontières - Communications for Life

We applaud the work of Télécoms Sans Frontières …

Their Origin: During missions respond­ing to the crisis in the Balkans and in Kurdistan during the 1^st Gulf War, Télécoms Sans Frontières’ (TSF) founders realized that, in addition to medical and food aid, there was a criti­cal need for reliable emergency telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions services. Conflicts and emergen­cies often led to massive civil­ian displace­ment and separated families. And affected popula­tions are often left with no commu­ni­ca­tions infra­struc­ture in place to find assis­tance and loved ones. To address this need, TSF bought its first satel­lite phone eleven years ago and the organi­za­tion was born. For all missions today, TSF offers a 3-minute call to any affected family.

TSF soon found that the inter­na­tional response teams that deploy to emergen­cies also had a criti­cal need for reliable telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions services in the first days after an emergency. TSF, there­fore, expanded its opera­tions, improved its technol­ogy, and began to estab­lish rapidly deploy­able emergency telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions centers to serve UN, govern­ment, and NGO human­i­tar­ian workers, and devel­oped a reputa­tion for being among the first to arrive after disasters.

Mission Haiti 2010: Deployed in Haiti the day follow­ing the terri­ble earth­quake that struck the country, TSF teams remain mobilized, day after day, support­ing the human­i­tar­ian commu­nity and the affected popula­tion. Three calling centers have been estab­lished in Port-au-Prince, Carrefour and Jacmel that are open for the people of Haiti: Union School in Port-au-Prince, Adventistes in Carrefour and Rue Febrile in Jacmel.

Everyone should know more about the work of this organization!

Volcanic Events of Importance

Though it may come as a surprise to many, 10 to 20 volcanic “events of impor­tance” occur globally every month.

On a recent consult­ing assign­ment, I learned that volcanic ash in the atmos­phere can cause real problems for airplane engines, and the airlines must balance safety and efficiency in response to these events. The goal from a safety perspec­tive is to avoid aircraft encoun­ters with volcanic ash. From the perspec­tive of efficiency, the  goal is to minimize re-routing of aircraft.

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Resiliency=f(comms)

Organizational resiliency is a function of avail­able commu­ni­ca­tions which is a direct function of your prepared­ness posture. Without commu­ni­ca­tions you are up zee creek (if there’s any water left)! Ok if there’s no water left you are really up zee creek! Better call somebody…oh darn…the phones aren’t working and the power is out! … Geez my cell phone battery is dead…oh well the cell service is down too. — Now what! … Hope I can find my car keys.

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