John Boyd is famous in large part for showing how decision making is critical to victory.
To do this he built the OODA loop. The OODA describes how we make decisions:
- Observe.
- Orient.
- Decide.
- Act.
The OODA, when repeated quickly and accurately, allows any organism to quickly adapt to new and evolving circumstance.
As you can guess, making great decisions are particularly critical in warfare.
Although Boyd doesn't spend much time on it, it's also critical in economic activity.
Better decisions yield economic success for both individuals and the global economy as a whole (when many people make them).
The trick to doing it repeatedly is by getting the orientation right.
Orientation is the most critical step (by far) in the OODA.
Orientation is the step that combines everything in an instant -- cultural tradition, morals, training, education, personal experience, emotional intelligence -- in a way that provides a decision with direction, scope, and scale.
Orientation provides us with the cross connections necessary for high quality innovation.
Here's an example.
I just saw this pic online. It's from Spotify, the online music service, about how they develop products. It was meant to clever . It wasn't.
I know from decades of developing innovative products (or being near to those who are) that real product innovation doesn't work this way.
The depicted method is simply a description of incremental improvement.
Real innovation requires orientation.
Here's Boyd's example: the snowmobile. It's unlikely that iteration will yield a snowmobile. It's a strange device.
A mix of skis, tank treads, bike handlebars and outboard motor.
It's a product derived from connections drawn from numerous sources to combine an innovative whole.
Simply, it's a product of good orientation.