TITLE:
OODA and CECA: Analysis of Decision-Making Frameworks
AUTHORS:
Robb Shawe, Ian R. McAndrew
KEYWORDS:
OODA, CECA, Command and Control
JOURNAL NAME:
American Journal of Industrial and Business Management,
Vol.13 No.6,
June
15,
2023
ABSTRACT: Observe, Orient, Decide, and Act (OODA) concepts
have supported understanding human decision processes for agile and competitive
decisions about human warfighters and human-centric operations. However, future
military decision-making based on human-machine teaming relies on technology
and interaction concepts that support joint human-machine intelligence, not
just human capabilities, which require the modification of new OODA concepts.
The Critique-Explore-Compare-Adapt (CECA) Loop is proposed as an improved
descriptive model based on recent advances in the cognitive sciences. The CECA
Loop has explicitly been based on the premise that goal-oriented mental models are central to human decision-making
as the means to represent and make sense of the world. The model puts
two mental representations, the conceptual model established through
operational planning and the situation model, which represents the state of the
battlespace, at the center of the decision-making process. Additionally, the
four phases of the CECA Loop broadly correspond to the identification of
information needs (Critique), active and passive data collection and situation
updating (Explore), comparison of the current situation to the conceptual model
(Compare), and adaptation to aspects of the battlespace that invalidate the
conceptual model or block the path to goal
completion (Adapt). Nevertheless, the CECA Loop is intended to serve as a simple but widely applicable framework to
study decision-making in Command and Control (C2). The introduction of
critical thinking elements and the exposition of the central role of planning
and the mental representation of operational concepts in C2.