Strategy does not fail at the top. It fails in the middle.
The vision is clear at the executive level. The execution is often clear at the individual contributor level. What breaks is the translation between them — the layer where strategy becomes work.
This is the Coherence Gap.
Where It Lives
In most organizations, there are three distinct layers:
Strategic — What we are trying to become and why.
Operational — How we are organized to get there.
Execution — What individuals do day to day.
The Coherence Gap appears between layers. The strategic says “customer obsession.” The operational says “reduce support ticket volume.” The execution asks: when those two conflict — which wins?
No one answers that question explicitly. So each person answers it implicitly, based on what they are actually measured on.
The Signal
The clearest signal of a coherence gap is when teams are working hard, executing well on their metrics, and yet the organization feels like it is moving in multiple directions.
Everyone is rowing. Not everyone is rowing the same way.
This is not a motivation problem. It is a translation problem.
Closing the Gap
Closing the coherence gap requires one uncomfortable discipline: making the implicit explicit.
What does this strategy mean for this team’s decisions this quarter? What trade-offs does it require? What does it mean we will not do?
The answers to those questions — stated clearly, in writing, in the language of the people doing the work — are the coherence gap closing.
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