When a strategy is not moving forward, the usual reaction is to buy something: a consulting engagement, software, a new team. Sometimes it works. Often it does not, because it solved a problem that was not the main one.

The Three Gaps Model starts from a simple idea: diagnose before you prescribe. And the distance between what an organization wants to achieve and what it manages to execute is almost always explained by one of these three gaps.

Direction Gap: it is not clear where to go

The organization does not share a concrete vision. Priorities change every month depending on what is urgent, and each leader interprets the strategy in their own way. Here, a tracking tool only measures, very precisely, a course nobody agreed on. What is needed is support to align leadership and translate the vision into measurable objectives.

Capacity Gap: you know what to do, but not with what

Direction is clear, but initiatives stall for lack of technology or technical talent. Critical processes depend on spreadsheets and manual effort. Here, more meetings do not help: the capability has to be built, always connected to a strategic objective and never for its own sake.

Execution Gap: there is a plan and capacity, but no discipline

There is a strategy and there are the means, but follow-up does not sustain the rhythm. Progress is declared without evidence and commitments fade. Here, what changes results is a weekly execution system with transparency and accountability.

The three gaps exist to serve a single mission: closing the distance between strategy and results.

A good diagnostic rarely finds a single, pure gap. But it almost always finds a main one. Starting there is what separates an investment that transforms from one that only adds work.