Gap Analysis for Strategic Thinking is Full of Holes — Here is a Better Approach

I was formally introduced to the idea of strategy and strategic thinking almost a decade ago when I took a year-long leadership training course as part of my job. Here’s how the strategic thinking process was presented:

1. Determine your current state
2. Define your desired future state
3. Identify the Gap between the two

These three simple steps were illustrated with the following diagram.