Welcome

Welcome to the commencement of the O²DA Strategy Blog.

This blog will be the repository of various and sundry strategic brain guano from the O²DA Applications staff. Some will be long form, some will be short form, some funny, some academic, some immediately actionable, some may require digestion, etc. We would like to think every entry will be inspired, educational, and have value. But the reality is, some of it may just be crap, that has little relevance to the reader’s life. Should that, very occasionally, be true… mea culpa in advance.

We’ll attempt, at a minimum, to keep it entertaining.

What’s in a Name?

O²DA Applications, as the name of this enterprise, was specifically chosen to reflect a void in the individual, organizational, and enterprise performance and strategy market.

“O²DA”, generally, is an homage to Col John Boyd and his work creating and pioneering what he referred to as the OODA Loop, a strategic and decision-making cycle intended (initially) for military application.

More specifically, O²DA is an homage to a good friend, colleague, and mentor of ours; Ron Danielowski. Ron did the world a great service in a number of ways, but for the purposes of this dedication, his contribution was in correcting, clarifying, and expanding upon Boyd’s thought and work so that our understanding of it was actually useful and applicable to the real world.

Ron also chose O²DA as the name of his enterprise, applying Boyd’s theories to the Art of Gunfighting. The name changed later, but that’s a longer story that doesn’t really matter here.

“Applications” is a reference to the small, but somewhat growing, certainly aging, Boydian theorists out there. Attempted implementation of Boyd’s theories have ranged from sales, to dogfighting, to marketing, to business strategy, to athletic performance, to gunfighting… and nearly everything in between. However, Boyd is largely misunderstood as the “over-cerebral go faster” guy, and most of the implementations by consultants and coaches are largely theoretical, with very little applicable value. As a result, we named the company to indicate our focus on actual, usable, application as opposed to the pie-in-the-sky theory that most Boydians have gravitated to.

Hence… the name.

In Memoriam

Lastly, a final word about Ron “Silent Bob” Danielowski. Friend, Marine, Husband, Contractor, Father, Teacher, Son, Brother from another mother, Trusted Advisor, Visionary, Warrior Sage, and “Gun Jesus”.

Ron dedicated his life to making the world a better place through writing, instructing, fighting when necessary, and sharing what he’d learned with the people he loved. He was a master collector of stray kindred spirits, and freely connected each of the strays he’d collected. Generally, with no explanation as to why we were being connected. Which was probably because he hadn’t really given any thought to the whys or wherefores. He was just putting the people he loved in the same room knowing, in his way, that we/they would figure out the value for our/themselves.

He was a Man among men and a god on the range, who left this plane entirely too early. But, O²DA Applications is very much his company, as an incredible amount of the foundation for it originated with him and wouldn’t have been possible in its current form without his transmission.

Ron… Take it light Brother, and we’ll link-up on the other side. I’ll bring the whiskey, you bring the smoke.

//L