I found Gapology through an Instagram Reel and was immediately drawn to its systematic approach. Thienes and Brockhoff organize performance problems into three categories—knowledge, importance, and action gaps—and then offer repeatable tools for diagnosing why expectations are not being met.
As a leader, I have often wrestled with how much of my staff’s challenges I need to own. Leadership absolutely involves teaching, influencing, setting expectations, and creating the conditions for success, but followers also have responsibility for how they respond.
The Gapology framework helped me think more clearly about that distinction. It gives leaders a way to diagnose the problem before rushing to fix it and helps separate what is mine to own as a leader from what belongs to the employee.