“EBFAS” was Boyd’s German acronym from the elements of his organizational climate. I’m very glad to learn that we have visitors who aren’t familiar with it. Certain to Win has a chapter on a simplified version, “EFAS,” in Certain to Win, and there’s a description of the complete version in the presentation Boyd’s Big Ideas, which you […]
No matter how intelligent, creative, or energetic you are. A case in point: the CEO of Yahoo, Marissa Mayer. The title of Nicholas Carlson’s piece in the New York Times Magazine from a few days ago explains why, “What Happened When Marissa Mayer Tried to Be Steve Jobs.” (registration may be required) Simplistically, one might […]
Boyd’s organizational climate stokes up creativity and initiative throughout the organization and harmonizes them to accomplish the purposes of the organization. Examples run throughout his work: Without a common outlook superiors cannot give subordinates freedom-of-action and maintain coherency of ongoing action. Patterns 74 … exploit lower-level initiative yet realize higher-level intent, thereby diminish friction and […]
I’m pleased and honored to announce that Certain to Win is now available in Japanese. The publisher selected a title that they thought would appeal to the Japanese audience; the original title is included on the copyright page. Boyd discovered the Japanese classics of strategy after he completed Patterns of Conflict and its companions, Strategic […]
LeanKanban University has announced their newest course, Fit for Purpose, based on the book co-authored by David J. Anderson. The announcement describes the course this way: This 2-day class will offer you significant new insights into how to optimize the effectiveness of your business, to produce fit-for-purpose products and services that delight your customers, making […]
Don’t you want your organization to run better? Of course you do: Get rid of the office politics, cliques, backstabbing, passive aggression — morale goes up, blood pressure goes down, objectives are routinely exceeded, competitors / opponents get trounced. Hence, the size of modern CEO offices, which need to be that big to hold all […]
Mission Command: The Who, What, Where, When and Why, An Anthology by Donald Vandergriff (Author, Editor), Stephen Webber (Editor August 2017 I like good anthologies, and this is a very good one. Good anthologies can do several things, among them: Provide discrete bins of thought that you can mine for nuggets — parts for your snowmobiles. Let you look […]
Fit for Purpose: How modern businesses find, satisfy, and keep customers David J Anderson and Alexei Zheglov To be released by Amazon on November 29, 2017 When I first read the title “Fit for Purpose,” it seemed a little passive. Something like “meets specs,” which is necessary but suggests that somebody else is driving the […]
The Lion’s Gate: On the Front Lines of the Six Day War Steven Pressfield New York: Penguin 2014 398 pages In my last post, I suggested a few things to read once you’ve become satiated with Boyd himself (don’t worry, it happens). A reader kindly recommended Steven Pressfield’s study of the Six Day War, told […]
I get asked from time to time what to read after finishing Boyd’s Discourse (All of Boyd’s briefings are available from the Articles tab at the top of this page). If you look at the Sources section of Patterns of Conflict, or the “Disciplines or activities to be examined” page from Strategic Game: the answer would […]
Slightly East of New 
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