Colonel John Boyd has been called America's Sun Tzu. After studying a few thousands years of armed conflict, he reduced effective strategy to what he called the OODA Loop (Observe, Orient, Decide and Act). What I find particularly fascinating is that the broad outline of his process can be found in creative pursuits and in such things as the "design process."
For example, in Jennifer New's fabulous book, "Drawing From Life: The Journal As Art" is divided into a very similar process in the following sections: Observation, Reflection, Exploration, and Creation.
For those that want to dig a little deeper, Boyd's expansive study "Patterns of Conflict" can be found here. The Marine's guide to Warfighting borrows heavily from Boyd's theories on maneuver warfare, and that guide that references Boyd can be found here.
The innovation consultancy, Humantific, did a really interesting study by asking students from several institutions to visually represent their process. The following examples are from the Aarhus School of Architecture in Denmark, Domus Academy in Italy, the National Institute of Design in India, and the University of Kassel in Germany. Notice the striking similarities between these representations and Boyd's OODA Loop and New's journaling process.
Humantific's full presentation can be found here. Not all examples followed Boyd's or New's process, but a remarkable number did. Humantific also insightfuly recognizes that many of the represented processes begin with the brief or problem already supplied. This is not what Boyd and New lay out. The creative process begins with observation where problems can be found and reframed. What's your process look like?
Comments