LP/OP #12

Welcome back to the LP/OP friend.

This newsletter shares insights from the highly pragmatic military methodologies learned throughout my 20 years spent in the military and private sector.

We do so briefly and clearly with respect for your time to give you an edge over your competitors, adversaries, and enemies.

Every edition we cover new… • Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures (TTPs) • Inspirational Exemplars

This week, we focus on how to make cleaner, faster, harder-to-counter decisions when the situation is foggy and time is compressed: Shaping Operations, Trigger Lines, and Deception Fences.

"When you can't see far, move in ways that make the future easier to read."

Tactic: Shaping Operations

Psychological Insight: If you don't set the terms, someone else will—usually against your strengths.

Scenario: You're entering a high-stakes quarter with unclear signals, multiple stakeholders, and competing priorities. Most teams wait for clarity. By the time clarity arrives, the game is already rigged.

Application: Shaping Operations are pre-emptive moves that alter terrain before the main effort: seed the market with framing, pre-brief critics to reduce friction, publish a simple doctrine so allies self-align, run small probes to expose resistance points. You're not reacting; you're manufacturing favorable conditions. Make the main effort look obvious in hindsight by shaping the board today.

Technique: Trigger Lines

Psychological Insight: Ambiguity paralyzes teams until it doesn't—then they lurch. Both are costly.

Scenario: Your team debates endlessly about when to pivot, escalate, or cut losses. Emotions drive timing; timing drives outcomes.

Application: Define Trigger Lines—explicit thresholds that auto-unlock actions. Examples: "If inbound qualified leads < X for 14 days, reallocate Y% of budget to channel B." "If delivery slips > 3 days twice in 30, exec sponsor convenes a 30-minute red cell." Triggers turn fog into switches. They reduce debate, compress timelines, and create tempo without drama.

Procedure: Deception Fences

Psychological Insight: Transparency is a virtue until it becomes an attack surface.

Scenario: Competitors mirror your roadmap. A detractor twists partial info to stall approvals. A partner leaks your provisional pricing.

Application: Build Deception Fences—deliberate limits on what, when, and to whom you disclose. Examples: provide ranges, not point estimates; socialize intents, not implementation details; watermark drafts; stage announcements near decision nodes; isolate sensitive metrics to "need-to-know" dashboards. You don't hide truth—you deny weaponizable fragments. The fence is not secrecy; it's survivability.

Inspiration: Colonel John Boyd and the Art of Setting Tempo

USAF Colonel John Boyd is famous for OODA—Observe, Orient, Decide, Act—but his deeper lesson is tempo: create mismatches the other side can't metabolize.

In one briefing, Boyd sketched a simple loop on a napkin and told a room of brass, “Speed is fine. Tempo is decisive.” Then he flipped the paper and added: “If I can change my orientation faster than you can update yours, I don’t need to be faster — I need to be earlier.” The room expected aerodynamics; he gave them psychology. That was Boyd’s edge: he didn’t just fly quicker — he made opponents live inside stale assumptions.

Boyd didn't wait for perfect information; he shaped the fight, codified decision thresholds, and denied the enemy clean reads. That is Decision Superiority: you move first, more cleanly, and with less drag—forcing others to live inside your updates.

Outbrief

Shape before you surge. Decide on thresholds, not vibes. Fence your signals to deny exploitation.

Tempo beats talent when the fog is thick. Stay formidable.

Thank you very much reading—genuinely.

— Ryan "DQ" DeQuiroz

Explore the links below for more structured thinking, sharper action, and field-tested frameworks:

📓 Lockebook | 🌐 Visit the Formidable Function site | 𝕏 Follow along