If you've ever wondered why a client isn't doing what they say they want to do,

and you're tempted to label it as resistance, this episode is for you.

Hello, friends, and welcome to the Bright Morning podcast. I'm your host, Elena Aguilar.

And in each episode, you will learn how to lead conversations that build connection and spark change.

Today, we are talking about one of the most transformative tools I have ever used in coaching.

The Gaps framework.

It is simple and powerful and often the key to moving a conversation forward when it feels stuck.

So let's get into it. Let me take you back to a moment early in my coaching career. I was working with a teacher. I'm going to call him Jordan.

He was bright and passionate and deeply committed to supporting his students.

And he had just finished a PD series.

And he told me, I want to increase student engagement.

I know it matters.

So we brainstormed.

I shared resources and I modeled strategies and he nodded along.

And then nothing changed. Week after week, I would visit his classroom and see the same routines,

the same missed opportunities. And I will admit it was frustrating. And I started to wonder,

did he actually want to grow? Was he just saying what I wanted to hear in coaching conversations?

And then I caught myself and I paused and I remembered something that I'd learned just a few months earlier,

which was when people don't change their behavior, it's normally not due to a lack of desire,

but instead it's a lack of an undiagnosed underlying factor, or in many cases,

factors, plural. So that knowledge is what drove me to assemble the Gaps framework.

So this is a tool that invites us to ask a better question.

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