Decoding "Destruction and Creation"
A Guide to Thriving in VUCA for Leaders and Their Teams
“To comprehend and cope with our environment we develop mental patterns or concepts of meaning.”1
We live in a world defined by constant change. Anymore, very few leaders need convincing of this. But what will they do about it? VUCA threatens to overwhelm even the most capable leaders and teams. Linear solutions applied to these asymmetries will increase entropy and lead to certain defeat. We need a better way to think about it all, and act with an edge.
John Boyd’s Destruction and Creation (D&C) offers us a way to understand how to lead and thrive in this chaos. The core idea is simple yet profound. Your survival and ability to thrive will depend on your ability to destroy outdated ideas and create new ones as you continue to interact with your environment.
I am going to briefly walk you through how I came to understand D&C. My epiphany came with reading Franklin “Chuck” Spinney’s Evolutionary Epistemology.23 I saw Spinney’s work then and see it now a codex that helps decode Boyd’s core work.4 Study them together, and they will provide a powerful guide to navigate the challenges of VUCA. You will see, with crystal clarity, how you can improve your “capacity for free and independent action”5; as well as your ability to collaborate, create, and compete.
“The activity is dialectic in nature, generating both disorder and order that emerges as a changing and expanding universe of mental concepts matched to a changing and expanding universe of observed reality.”6
Our survival demands continuous learning and adaptation. The cognitive engine that powers this adaptation is a dialectic cycle of destructive deduction (analysis) followed by constructive induction (synthesis). Destruction calls us to break down our previous mental models. We challenge assumptions and get rid of what no longer works. This breaking down of things is essential because it creates space for new things. Creation follows as we put ideas into a framework that corresponds closer to reality. This synthesis draws connections across fragmented ideas, forging something new and relevant.7
Boyd connects this process to entropy, the natural tendency of systems to descend into disorder when left alone. Leaders counteract this by refreshing their ideas and strategies. They embrace destruction as a pathway to creation, where we achieve innovation and progress.
“To make these timely decisions implies that we must be able to form mental concepts of observed reality, as we perceive it, and be able to change these concepts as reality itself appears to change.”8
Spinney’s Evolutionary Epistemology unlocks the deeper meaning of Boyd’s ideas. We learn that orientation is the core of Boyd’s philosophy. Orientation shapes everything we sense, how we decide, how we act, and how we learn. It "implicitly guides and controls" how we see the world and how we deal with it. Spinney emphasizes that evolving your Orientation is not optional. Reorienting it is essential for staying relevant in a complex world
Spinney shows Boyd’s cycle of destruction and creation as a broader evolutionary process. This process is not linear; it’s dynamic, iterative, and fueled by the constant tension between chaos and order.9 He situates D&C within Boyd’s OODA "loop" sketch, demonstrating how Orientation shapes sense-making, decision-making, action, and learning within our environment. Leaders and teams who master this flow gain a massive competitive edge to thrive in VUCA.
“Over and over again this cycle of destruction and creation is repeated until we demonstrate internal consistency and match-up with reality.”10
Remember this:
Boyd’s ideas are not just theoretical. They are actionable. Right now. Today.
How?
Here’s how to start your path to mastering D&C as a leader. First, study the foundations. Read, re-read, and read again D&C. Soon, you will see why destroying outdated models, concepts, and ideas is vital for progress. Parallel to reading D&C, read Spinney’s Evolutionary Epistemology. Use it as a guide to connect Boyd’s concepts to real-world challenges that you, as a leader, face every day. Second, start your own cycle of "destruction and creation." Use destructive deduction and identify old models and processes that no longer serve you or your organization. Be fast and ruthless in letting go of things that are obsolete. Look for patterns and connections in the chaos and use these insights to build new strategies and frameworks.
Finally, thrive as you lead in VUCA environments. Collaborate by harmonizing your team’s orientation to create shared understanding. This will reduce friction and increase tempo. You will become more creative by harnessing uncertainty as fuel for innovation. VUCA isn’t the enemy; it’s a catalyst. With this in mind you can compete by iterating faster than your rivals. Learning and adaptation gives you a competitive edge. Your ability to coordinate will improve by ensuring everyone’s efforts are focused and directed toward common goals, even when the ground shifts beneath you.
“Without this unstructuring, the creation of a new structure cannot proceed—since the bits and pieces are still tied together as meaning within unchallenged domains or concepts.”11
Remember:
-The continuous cycle of destruction and creation is the engine of learning and adaptation.
-Evolving your orientation is essential for survival and growth.
-Leaders and their teams thrive in VUCA by mastering this process and applying it daily.
“By doing this—in accordance with Gödel, Heisenberg and the Second Law of Thermodynamics12—we find that the uncertainty and disorder generated by an inward-oriented system talking to itself can be offset by going outside and creating a new system.”13
John Boyd’s Destruction and Creation isn’t just some theory. Rather, it’s an actionable survival guide. Pair it with Chuck Spinney’s Evolutionary Epistemology. When you do that, you will understand the concepts better. The applications to what you do in your domain will become evident. Your orientation will become a powerful cognitive weapon for navigating and thriving in VUCA. You will bolster your creativity, empowering you and your teams to stay ahead in a dynamic world.
There’s No Way Out!
Franklin “Chuck” Spinney is one of Boyd’s “Acolytes” and closest collaborators. Chuck helped Boyd illustrate OODA “loop” sketch. Chuck is also one of the most famous defense reformers in the 1970s and 1980s.
Spinney, Franklin C. “Evolutionary Epistemology: A Personal View of John Boyd’s ‘Destruction and Creation’ and Its Centrality to the OODA Loop.” Version 2.5, June 2019. You can see Chuck presenting this to Marines on YouTube by clicking here.
Understanding “Destruction and Creation” is key to understanding any of John Boyd’s work. He would build and riff of it for the rest of his life, informing all of his work. A key reason to study and understand “D&C” is that your competitors likely will not make the effort to do so; and thus will be stuck with OODA as a linear model. This will lead to their defeat and obsolescence. Many “teach OODA” and have never even heard of “D&C,” let alone study it and have it inform what they teach. These “merchants of certainty” push the linear OODA “loop.” Don’t fall for it. Do the work and understand “D&C” in order to gain a competitive edge on those who see and understand it all as linear.
“In viewing the instinct for survival in this manner we imply that a basic aim or goal, as individuals, is to improve our capacity for independent action.” Boyd, John R. “Destruction and Creation.” 3 September 1976. Emphasis mine.
Ibid.
Novelty, and the mismatches generated by it. Go here for more on novelty.
Boyd, John R. “Destruction and Creation.” 3 September 1976.
Remember that linear OODA is exactly what you want your competitors to operate with. You make the effort to learn D&C and realize the OODA '“loop” sketch as Boyd illustrated it is so much more than a reduced, simplified model that “you use in certain situations.” You will defeat anyone operating on a linear model if you understand D&C and how it informs OODA “loop” sketch.
Boyd, John R. “Destruction and Creation.” 3 September 1976.
Ibid.
This is Boyd’s “snowmobile.” The fusion of these three scientific concepts. These are important to grasp from at least elementary level to help you better understand the OODA “loop” sketch. Spinney’s Evolutionary Epistemology has an excellent explanation of the snowmobile analogy.
Boyd, John R. “Destruction and Creation.” 3 September 1976.