# The Four Execution Gaps

The four places execution value leaks — Clarity, Alignment, Cadence, and Insight — used as a diagnostic of where strategy fails to convert into results.

The four execution gaps name the four places where the value of a strategy leaks away during execution: Clarity (the strategy is not ranked or repeatable), Alignment (funding, capacity, and ownership point somewhere other than the stated priorities), Cadence (there is no operating rhythm that actually makes decisions), and Insight (there is no line of sight from work to results).

Used as a diagnostic, the four gaps turn a vague sense that "execution is slow" into four specific, addressable failure modes. Scoring every business unit — or, across a private-equity portfolio, every portfolio company — against the same four gaps produces one shared picture of where value is leaking and where intervention will pay back fastest.

### Commonly confused

A single root cause. The point of the framework is that execution value leaks in four distinct places at once, each needing a different fix.

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[View this page on the website](https://getconductor.com/glossary/four-execution-gaps) · Last updated: 2026-08-06