Give Yourself a Time-Out: Lower the Drama Level on Your Project

by Carl Pritchard

All of us know the joy that one can experience from a good movie. Dramatic tension creates humor, intensity, excitement, and exhilaration. For a movie, that's a wonderful experience. In our work environment, that wonder is gone. We really don't want or need drama in our management work, and yet we encounter it on a ritual basis. Drama is borne on the backs of three primary sources: situations, others, and ourselves. In all three of these scenarios, we have some degree of control over that drama. We have the ability to exert that control, but in most situations, we don't. We should. By bringing down the level of drama, we reduce the possibility that small events will suddenly blossom into issues to be managed. And by bringing down the level of drama, we enable people to do their jobs more effectively without outside interference. Drama is a source of risk and, wonderfully, it's one that we can control.