Book excerpts - Ch4(E25): Attending the missing pieces.

Meeting drama.

First, when there's nothing

But a slow glowing dream

That your fear seems to hide

Deep inside your mind

Irene Cara

In my first days of innovation management, I relied on my talents to show me the way. Then, as I became more confident in my creative capabilities, I stretched my ambitions and headed into more challenging adventures. The storms that followed, and the waves of obstacles that came with them, threatened to drown me. But as often happens to many others who faced storms, my sense of confidence grew as I faced the elements.

Something interesting happens when we face the elements. We are visited both by our wills and our doubts. And for me, the will was transformations, and the doubt was capability.

My desire for transformations and innovations led me to visit more challenging seas and encounter additional storms, and over time, I began to accept and enjoy both. But as many captains experienced, other companions didn't share my enthusiasm and excitement. And that's where I met drama.

Drama is a creeping experience that escalates slowly or rapidly. Its comprised of tensions and conflicts that emerge in the clash between desires and realities. While I was motivated to sail the seas of change and face the storms ahead - others near me didn't share these same enthusiasms. And it seemed that there was nothing I could do.

But still, something was there… drama! And I became fascinated with the idea of drama after realizing that even when there's nothing - there's still drama.

I began a decade-long contemplation on dramas and their relationship with innovations and transformations that evolved parallel and complementary to the Things To Be Done approach. Things To Be Done was formed as a method for bringing between Christensen's and Ulwick’s - Jobs To Be Done, and Allen's - Getting Things Done. After I encountered the fact that, on many occasions, clarifying jobs and processes got stuck because things were missing along the way - It became important to me to develop a routine that helped resolve this particular mindfulness to the things that needed to get done.

During the journey of developing TTBD, I encountered, reflected on, and studied drama as an integral part of our existence and learned how powerful and dangerous dramas were.

In this second part of the book, I want to share studies, thoughts, and insights that emerged from the acceptance of drama as a valuable companion instead of a dangerous villain or adversary.