The Power of Gaps: A leadership approach to turning disconnects into strategic value

Gaps are everywhere.

In complex systems—especially those involving customers, products, and cross-functional teams—gaps show up in surprising ways. They're not just problems to be solved. Often, they're strategic signals. Missed expectations. Misaligned incentives. Unspoken truths.

These gaps can reveal the difference between what we say we value and where we actually spend our time and energy. Between strategy and execution. Between the brand promise and the customer’s experience—especially in their moment of truth.

But gaps aren’t necessarily signs of dysfunction. They’re invitations. When noticed and explored with intention, they can unlock clarity, alignment, and innovation.

🔍 Find the Gap – Name What’s Off

Start by noticing where gaps show up—personally, in your team, or across your organization.

Ask yourself:

• Where are we saying one thing but doing another?

• Do our incentives match our stated values?

• Are we delivering on the brand promise in the customer’s moment of truth?

This step is about observation without judgment—naming the misalignments so they can be explored. It’s the first act of clarity in complex environments.

⚠️ Mind the Gap – Make Sense of It

This isn’t just a warning in the London Underground—it’s a leadership discipline.

To “mind” the gap is to pay attention to it, to treat it as meaningful, and to create shared understanding about what it represents.

At this stage, you're not rushing to solve the gap. You're sitting with it. Exploring it. Asking:

• Why does this gap exist?

• Who benefits? Who struggles?

• What beliefs, incentives, or systems are keeping it in place?

This is where sensemaking becomes essential.

As Karl Weick noted, “How can I know what I think until I see what I say?” Gaps often surface when our mental models—the internal maps we use to navigate the world—don’t align with reality. By engaging in sensemaking, we examine and update those maps. We need to have shared mental models and internal alignment when addressing complex systems.

This is also where wayfinding becomes necessary. In uncertain or complex environments, there are no turn-by-turn directions. Like navigators reading stars and swells, leaders must navigate ambiguity using cues, feedback loops, and shared signals.

As Abby Covert reminds us, clarity is a kindness—to ourselves, our teams, and our customers. The act of organizing, labeling, and aligning information (and assumptions) is essential when trying to close a meaningful gap.

Or, as Donella Meadows put it: If you want to influence a system, start with the paradigm—the underlying mindset from which the system arises.

To mind the gap is to interrogate those paradigms, adjust our models, and ensure our next actions are based on deeper understanding. Not all gaps are problems. Some are signals. Some are invitations. Some are indicators that it’s time to evolve.

⛏️ Mine the Gap – Turn Insight into Opportunity

This is where the value lives. Mining these gaps is where you can create and capture new value.

The best innovations, and the most lasting improvements, emerge from the space between how things are and how they could be. That space holds creative friction and hidden potential.

Mining the gap means:

• Reframing the problem

• Surfacing unmet needs

• Designing new ways of working or serving customers

You're not just closing a gap. You're turning tension into traction.

When we mine the gap, we don’t just fix it, we discover, design, and deliver new value. For customers. For teams. For the organization.

What’s the Gap in Your World?

Where are the gaps in your world—personally, in your team, or across your organization?

And how might you use them—not just to close the distance, but to create something better?

At Spark, we help business leaders and teams find, mind, and mine their gaps—to unlock value, reduce friction, and align strategy with valuable action.

If you're facing a gap that needs attention, let’s talk.