Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War

by Robert Coram

The subordinate and the commander share a common outlook. They trust each other, and this trust is the glue that holds the apparently formless effort together. Trust emphasizes implicit over explicit communications. Trust is the unifying concept. This gives the subordinate great freedom of action. Trust is an example of a moral force that helps bind groups together in what Boyd called an “organic whole.”

Trust

“People, ideas, hardware—in that order.”

But Boyd said, “People should come first. Then ideas. And then hardware.”

Boyd put it more succinctly: “You can’t change big bureaucracies until they have a disaster.”