No Way Out

Battlefield to Boardroom: Applying Boyd's OODA Loop with Storytelling | Angus Fletcher

Send us a textWhat if the human brain isn’t a calculator but a story engine built for action under uncertainty? That single shift reframes strategy, leadership, and the OODA loop. Angus Fletcher—neuroscientist, author of Primal Intelligence, and advisor to special operations—joins us to explore how narrative becomes the decisive edge: not as marketing flair, but as the way we chain actions, break an adversary’s plot, and write a better future faster than our rivals.We unpack why planning trains the planner, how Commander’s Intent gives the ending and protects agency, and where intuition really comes from. Hint: it’s not pattern-matching; it’s detecting exceptional information, the mismatch that signals new opportunity. From future-backward exercises and counterfactuals to Red Teaming and honest debriefs, we map concrete methods to keep Orientation supple, shift risk to the opponent, and avoid the brittleness of optimization. Fletcher shows how culture and literature (yes, Shakespeare) expand cognitive range, building the empathy and range leaders need to operate in complex, fast-changing environments.We also examine the cognitive war—how associational feeds erode narrative capacity—and why truth is the most effective long-term PSYOP. In markets, boardrooms, and battlefields, the winners hold multiple viable plots, switch quickly as reality shifts, and align teams with ambitious, possiJohn R. Boyd's Conceptual Spiral was originally titled No Way Out. In his own words: “There is no way out unless we can eliminate the features just cited. Since we don’t know how to do this, we must continue the whirl of reorientation…” A promotional message for Ember Health.  Safe and effective IV ketamine care for individuals seeking relief from depression. Ember Health's evidence-based, partner-oriented, and patient-centered care model, boasting an 84% treatment success rate with 44% of patients reaching depression remission. It also mentions their extensive experience with over 40,000 infusions and treatment of more than 2,500 patients, including veterans, first responders, and individuals with anxiety and PTSD John Boyd’s Conceptual Spiral was originally titled “No Way Out.” In his words: “There is no way out unless we can eliminate the features just cited. Since we don’t know how to do this, we must continue the whirl of reorientation…” Download a complete transcript of Conceptual Spiral for free by clicking here. Stay connected with No Way Out and The Whirl Of ReOrientation Follow Us onX: @NoWayOutcast @PonchAGLX @NoWayOutMoose Subscribe to our Substack – The Whirl Of ReOrientation Long-form work on John Boyd, Orientation, and how to think and act inside the Guerrilla Information War. Want to build your organization’s capacity for free and independent action?See how we help teams become more competitive, collaborative, and coordinated under pressure: AGLX AGLX Yo...

Presence That Works in Real Life: Jody Weiss on Attention Training, Nervous System Regulation, and Micro-Practices for High-Pressure Leaders

Send us a textImagine stepping off the freezing Manhattan street and finding a steady warmth at the bottom of your breath. That’s the thread running through our conversation with Jody Weiss—meditator, community builder, and co-host of Exploring Reality Maybe—as we explore how presence and modern therapies change lives. From VA-approved iREST Yoga Nidra to evidence-based ketamine infusions, we look at what actually helps veterans with PTSD, executives in crisis, and healers carrying the weight of others’ pain.We dig into a practical definition of “home base” and why training attention throughout the day matters more than a single morning routine. Jody shares non-dual practices that quiet the intellect, interrupt rigid patterns, and open a wider field of perception. We connect stories of rapid transformation—like first responders stepping back from the brink—with neuroscientific advances in brain mapping that reveal how new circuits can unlock relief in days. The goal isn’t to numb or escape; it’s to become more present and more free.This episode also celebrates the power of community and conscious capital. Jody describes Women Funding the World and Consciousness Drinks, spaces where clinicians, shamans, researchers, and investors meet to nurture the nurturers and fund work that sustains life. We talk about equine therapy, the stigma and renaissance of psychedelics, and the simple city practices—yes, even in Times Square—that “melt identitJohn R. Boyd's Conceptual Spiral was originally titled No Way Out. In his own words: “There is no way out unless we can eliminate the features just cited. Since we don’t know how to do this, we must continue the whirl of reorientation…” A promotional message for Ember Health.  Safe and effective IV ketamine care for individuals seeking relief from depression. Ember Health's evidence-based, partner-oriented, and patient-centered care model, boasting an 84% treatment success rate with 44% of patients reaching depression remission. It also mentions their extensive experience with over 40,000 infusions and treatment of more than 2,500 patients, including veterans, first responders, and individuals with anxiety and PTSD John Boyd’s Conceptual Spiral was originally titled “No Way Out.” In his words: “There is no way out unless we can eliminate the features just cited. Since we don’t know how to do this, we must continue the whirl of reorientation…” Download a complete transcript of Conceptual Spiral for free by clicking here. Stay connected with No Way Out and The Whirl Of ReOrientation Follow Us onX: @NoWayOutcast @PonchAGLX @NoWayOutMoose Subscribe to our Substack – The Whirl Of ReOrientation Long-form work on John Boyd, Orientation, and how to think and act inside the Guerrilla Information War. Want to build your organization’s capacity for free and independent action?See how we help teams become more competitive, collaborative, and coordinated under pressure: AGLX AGLX Yo...

Network Centric Warfare: OODA Loop, John Boyd, and Creating Operational Flow

Send us a textWhat if the secret to winning—on the battlefield and in business—isn’t more technology, but smarter trust? We sit down with Col (Ret.) Frederick P. Stein, coauthor of Network Centric Warfare, to unpack how Admiral Cebrowski’s vision was never just about sensors—it was about reorganizing around shared awareness, clearer intent, and the courage to push decisions to the edge.We connect fighter aviation’s shift from ground-controlled F‑4s to information-rich F‑14s with Walmart’s rise under Sam Walton, where data and decentralized authority beat legacy giants. Col. Stein breaks down the triad of sensor, engagement, and command networks and why technology without doctrinal and organizational change falls flat. Through vivid analogies—soccer’s flow versus football’s huddles—we explore self-synchronization, the power of mission command, and how speed of command depends more on orientation than sheer tempo.The conversation ranges from Apache cultural resilience to IDF case studies, from Blue Force Tracking at Peach Bridge to the pitfalls of stale “red” intelligence without timestamps. We examine why incentives matter more than dashboards, how Enron’s reward structure crushed sharing, and why “walls of knowledge” and flattened inputs outlearn hierarchy. Then we look forward: AI and machine learning can spot targJohn R. Boyd's Conceptual Spiral was originally titled No Way Out. In his own words: “There is no way out unless we can eliminate the features just cited. Since we don’t know how to do this, we must continue the whirl of reorientation…” A promotional message for Ember Health.  Safe and effective IV ketamine care for individuals seeking relief from depression. Ember Health's evidence-based, partner-oriented, and patient-centered care model, boasting an 84% treatment success rate with 44% of patients reaching depression remission. It also mentions their extensive experience with over 40,000 infusions and treatment of more than 2,500 patients, including veterans, first responders, and individuals with anxiety and PTSD John Boyd’s Conceptual Spiral was originally titled “No Way Out.” In his words: “There is no way out unless we can eliminate the features just cited. Since we don’t know how to do this, we must continue the whirl of reorientation…” Download a complete transcript of Conceptual Spiral for free by clicking here. Stay connected with No Way Out and The Whirl Of ReOrientation Follow Us onX: @NoWayOutcast @PonchAGLX @NoWayOutMoose Subscribe to our Substack – The Whirl Of ReOrientation Long-form work on John Boyd, Orientation, and how to think and act inside the Guerrilla Information War. Want to build your organization’s capacity for free and independent action?See how we help teams become more competitive, collaborative, and coordinated under pressure: AGLX AGLX Yo...

Reorienting After Trauma: From Yom Kippur War Hero to PTSD Pioneer | Dr. Yuval Neria

Send us a textA decorated tank commander and recipient of Israel's Medal of Valor sits down with us to rethink how trauma is understood and treated. Dr. Yuval Neria recounts twelve brutal days during the 1973 Yom Kippur War—where he was severely injured and awarded the Medal of Valor (equivalent to the U.S. Medal of Honor)—that taught him to filter bad orders, protect his crews, and update reality on the fly, a mindset that later shaped his groundbreaking research on PTSD.He explains a pivotal distinction: trauma is the event; the disorder is the emotional charge welded to memory. The job of recovery is to separate the two, restore meaning, and rebuild trust. We explore why three people can share a firefight and come away with different scars. Capacity varies—genetics, sleep, prior wounds, and the deeply interpersonal nature of harm all matter. Prisoners of war often face heavier burdens because cruelty was targeted and identity-stripping. Early support after homecoming is decisive; without it, sleep fails, depression blooms, and people chase relief through alcohol, marijuana, or compulsions. One-size-fits-all treatment misses the mark, especially when anxiety-heavy cases diverge from depression-dominant, morally injured profiles.From leading a battalion in the 1982 Lebanon War to founding the Columbia-NYP Military Family Wellness Center and pioneering equine-assisted theJohn R. Boyd's Conceptual Spiral was originally titled No Way Out. In his own words: “There is no way out unless we can eliminate the features just cited. Since we don’t know how to do this, we must continue the whirl of reorientation…” A promotional message for Ember Health.  Safe and effective IV ketamine care for individuals seeking relief from depression. Ember Health's evidence-based, partner-oriented, and patient-centered care model, boasting an 84% treatment success rate with 44% of patients reaching depression remission. It also mentions their extensive experience with over 40,000 infusions and treatment of more than 2,500 patients, including veterans, first responders, and individuals with anxiety and PTSD John Boyd’s Conceptual Spiral was originally titled “No Way Out.” In his words: “There is no way out unless we can eliminate the features just cited. Since we don’t know how to do this, we must continue the whirl of reorientation…” Download a complete transcript of Conceptual Spiral for free by clicking here. Stay connected with No Way Out and The Whirl Of ReOrientation Follow Us onX: @NoWayOutcast @PonchAGLX @NoWayOutMoose Subscribe to our Substack – The Whirl Of ReOrientation Long-form work on John Boyd, Orientation, and how to think and act inside the Guerrilla Information War. Want to build your organization’s capacity for free and independent action?See how we help teams become more competitive, collaborative, and coordinated under pressure: AGLX AGLX Yo...

OODA Loop: Reorientation, Flow, and Adaptive Leadership with Ed Brenegar

Send us a textCertainty feels safe, but it slows you down—and in chaos, slow is dead. On No Way Out Podcast, we sit with leadership expert Ed Brenegar to unpack what separates rigid managers chasing control from true leaders who build adaptive teams that move faster than the problem. Using John Boyd’s OODA loop and Boyd's Conceptual Spiral as our compass, we explore how your orientation—shaped by genetics, culture, experiences, and biases—filters what you see, how you decide, and why you act. Widen that aperture through relentless curiosity, humility, and unlearning, and you create conditions where people don’t wait for permission: they execute with clarity and psychological safety.We also explore decentralized decision-making, commander’s intent, and mission command—showing why pushing authority to the edge delivers speed and resilience in volatile environments, from manufacturing floors to flight decks, family dynamics to boardrooms. The traps are real: media distortions that flip figure and ground, the seductive lie of “the video clearly shows,” and merchants of certainty peddling easy answers instead of better questions. True leadership replaces control with trust, compliance with alignment, and certainty with rigorous reorientation.Ed Brenegar: Circle of Impact: Ed Brenegar on LinkedInJohn R. Boyd's Conceptual Spiral was originally titled No Way Out. In his own words: “There is no way out unless we can eliminate the features just cited. Since we don’t know how to do this, we must continue the whirl of reorientation…” A promotional message for Ember Health.  Safe and effective IV ketamine care for individuals seeking relief from depression. Ember Health's evidence-based, partner-oriented, and patient-centered care model, boasting an 84% treatment success rate with 44% of patients reaching depression remission. It also mentions their extensive experience with over 40,000 infusions and treatment of more than 2,500 patients, including veterans, first responders, and individuals with anxiety and PTSD John Boyd’s Conceptual Spiral was originally titled “No Way Out.” In his words: “There is no way out unless we can eliminate the features just cited. Since we don’t know how to do this, we must continue the whirl of reorientation…” Download a complete transcript of Conceptual Spiral for free by clicking here. Stay connected with No Way Out and The Whirl Of ReOrientation Follow Us onX: @NoWayOutcast @PonchAGLX @NoWayOutMoose Subscribe to our Substack – The Whirl Of ReOrientation Long-form work on John Boyd, Orientation, and how to think and act inside the Guerrilla Information War. Want to build your organization’s capacity for free and independent action?See how we help teams become more competitive, collaborative, and coordinated under pressure: AGLX AGLX Yo...