I Didn’t Set Out to Build Frameworks.
I Set Out to Solve a Problem I Couldn’t Find a Real Answer to Anywhere Else.
I’m Sharon Olbeter — retired Air Force Colonel, graduate researcher in motivation science and adult development, and the founder of DOABLE Strategic Group.
The frameworks I developed — collectively called The Long Build System™ — came from a problem I encountered directly, more than once, from the inside. Not from research about other people’s experience.
From my own — navigating uncertainty without a precise enough map, and connecting what I was living to what I had spent two graduate degrees learning about motivation science and adult development.
Three Decades in the Air Force — and a Career That Didn’t Follow the Prescribed Path
I served over three decades in the Air Force — starting enlisted as a medical laboratory technician, commissioning as a civil engineering officer, and gravitating toward the world of personnel policy until I retired as an O-6 out of SAF/MR, the office of Air Force Manpower and Reserve Affairs at the Pentagon.
It was a nonlinear career, built on a willingness to follow what was genuinely interesting rather than what the promotion system rewarded.
That instinct served me well — until it didn’t.
What the Air Force gave me was a rigorous way of thinking about systems, strategy, and how organizations actually develop people. A discipline of building intelligently on what already exists. A tolerance for complexity and for operating under conditions of genuine uncertainty.
What it didn’t give me was a framework for what came after it.
I separated from regular active duty as a captain. At the time I wanted to create a better fit between my interests and motivated skills but going from civil engineering to more people-focused work was too great a chasm for myself at the time. I felt really thrown by the lack of structure in my life and I missed being part of the Air Force with its worthy mission and wonderful people.
To my great fortune, I discovered I could be a reserve officer and volunteer for all kinds of different assignments as I honed my interests and developed new skills. I also took on more project-based work to make a contribution to whatever organization I was serving at the time. I was building but within a military structure.
I found my footing by paying close attention to what genuinely interested me — and by pursuing the academic work that gave me the intellectual tools to understand what I had been experiencing. Graduate work in motivation psychology and adult development — a Master of Education in Adult Learning and Development and a Master of Arts in Educational Psychological Studies — gave me the framework vocabulary I had been missing.
It also gave me the research foundation that would eventually become the basis for The DOABLE System™. I continued building through the Reserves and earned an active duty retirement doing work that mattered deeply to me.
Upon retirement, I eagerly looked forward to what I could do next. I wanted to be a professional development entrepreneur but I encountered the same problem I experienced earlier. I felt thrown into a new world - I had drive, skills, and ambition but I lacked the structure to build the kind of work I wanted to do.
The Builder’s Dilemma™
I had time, resources, and genuine desire to build something meaningful. What I didn’t have was a framework designed for that kind of build — one where the outcomes couldn’t be fully predicted, the path couldn’t be benchmarked, and the commitment had to precede the certainty.
I looked for frameworks that could help me think through it with rigor.
What I found was largely designed for earlier career stages, for organizational systems, or for people who needed motivation rather than for people who were already motivated and needed something more precise.
Most professional development frameworks were built for the years when the primary work is building competence, establishing a track record, and earning credibility.
I call that gap the Builder’s Dilemma™ — the specific experience of a capable, accomplished entrepreneur who is building something original from deep expertise, without a proven model to follow, and without a framework precise enough for what they are actually doing. It is the experience that most professional development frameworks weren’t built to see — let alone address.
It is almost never a motivation problem. It is almost always a precision problem.
The build was real.
The friction was specific.
The framework did not exist
So I built it.
The Frameworks — and Why They Work Together
The Long Build System™ is the complete ecosystem of frameworks and diagnostics I built to close that gap. It comprises four interconnected tools — each precise on its own, and significantly more powerful in combination.
The DOABLE System™ emerged first. It is a motivation-science-based framework built to identify the specific source of friction in a deliberate build — so that effort goes toward the right problem, not just the most visible one. Its foundation is the recognition that friction in a build is almost never random. It has a source. It can be identified precisely. And identifying it changes everything about what the work requires next.
The DOABLE System™ maps six dimensions — Desires, Opportunities, Access/Capital, Beliefs, Learning, and Engagement — and explains how their interaction either supports or constrains a builder’s ability to move forward. Understanding that interaction is what allows a builder to optimize their motivation rather than simply try harder against the wrong constraint.
As I worked with the system, I recognized that the Builder’s Dilemma wasn’t a single moment to solve — it was a progression. Builders move through distinct stages as their work evolves. Each stage has its own demands, its own friction patterns, and its own specific work. Treating every stage the same way is one of the most costly mistakes serious builders make.
That recognition became The Long Build™ — a stage-based model that maps the full arc of a deliberate, high-level build across five stages: Expanding, Exploring, Committing, Generating Momentum, and Elevating Impact.
The DOABLE Friction Finder™ is the instrument that makes both frameworks immediately accessible — a short diagnostic that identifies your primary friction type and gives you recommended actions you can apply today.
And Your Long Build Prescription™ is what happens when the Friction Finder™ and the Long Build Profile™ work together. The combination produces one of 30 stage-and-friction-type profiles — a precise prescription that tells you not just what kind of friction you’re facing, but what addressing it actually requires at your specific stage of the build.
Together, these form the intellectual foundation of DOABLE Strategic Group — a body of work built because I lived the problem, studied the science behind it, and found that serious builders at significant stages of their work needed something more rigorous than what existed.
You can learn more about them at https://www.doablesystem.com/the-frameworks
If the Standard Playbook Has Stopped Working —
This Work Was Built for What Comes Next.
I work with entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs at every stage of The Long Build™ — from sensing what’s possible to elevating impact beyond themselves — and with the L&D and talent development professionals who support intrapreneurs and organizational builders inside complex institutions.
The starting point is always free.
The DOABLE Friction Finder™ identifies your primary friction type in about five minutes and gives you recommended actions immediately — no prior knowledge of the framework required.
When you want a more precise result, the Long Build Profile™ pairs with your Friction Finder™ result to identify your exact stage. Together they produce Your Long Build Prescription™ — one of 30 personalized stage-and-friction combinations, and the most specific starting point the framework can give you.