You know that look.

You explained something clearly to a client a few weeks ago. They nodded. Smiled. Took notes. Said they understood.

Then they come back. The actions aren’t done, and there’s that slightly confused look on their face.

I’ve seen this too many times - across different clients, sectors, and stages - to write it off as “they didn’t listen” or “I didn’t explain it well.” There’s something else going on. I call it the Understanding Gap.

And once you notice it, you see it everywhere.

What causes an Understanding Gap

The Understanding Gap isn’t about intelligence or effort. It isn’t fixed by explaining things more clearly or more often.

It’s created by three forces working together - or failing to.

The three forces that create or collapse understanding

• Communication

• Focus

• Time

When these forces break down, they show up as friction, fragmentation, and dilution.

If one of these is missing, understanding weakens. If two are missing, it barely forms.

Whereas when all three are present, understanding becomes something people experience, not just something they hear.

Communication Friction

We tend to assume that clarity equals understanding, but communication isn’t just about clarity; it’s also about fit.

We explain things using our own metaphors, shortcuts, and mental models - the ones that make sense to us. The person on the other side is often doing a lot of invisible work just to translate.

They might nod, agree, and even repeat it back.

But internally, they’re trying to force a square peg into a round hole. That effort is friction, which erodes understanding before it ever has a chance to form.

Knowledge isn’t understanding

This is the subtle but critical distinction.

You can transmit knowledge in a single conversation, but understanding only forms when someone can work with that knowledge.

Understanding comes from experience.

And that’s where the next two forces matter far more than most of us like to admit.

Focus Fragmentation

Even when communication lands well, understanding still needs space, but most people in businesses are trying to change how they think and act while:

• juggling the day job

• context-switching constantly

• half-listening while dealing with something else

We know multitasking doesn’t work for complex tasks. Yet in business, we routinely expect people to learn, reflect, and apply new thinking while their attention is fragmented.

Especially when the thing they’re learning is unfamiliar or uncomfortable.

Without protected focus, understanding never stabilises. It arrives and then slips away.

Time Dilution

Even with good communication and real focus, understanding doesn’t appear instantly - it forms over time.

Ideas come in, some stick, and some fall out. If they aren’t reinforced, they fade.

You’ve probably heard that change takes time. The exact timeframe matters less than the principle: understanding needs repeated contact, spaced over time, to replace what’s lost.

Without that reinforcement, understanding dilutes. What felt clear becomes fuzzy, what felt obvious gets deprioritised, and momentum drains away.

How understanding is built or missed

When communication fits, focus is protected, and time is allowed, understanding compounds.

When any one of those is missing, the gap widens.

This is why so much “clear communication” still leads to confusion, and why repeating yourself - louder or more often - rarely fixes the problem.

Why this matters when you run a consultancy

When you run a consultancy, you are in the business of change.

And change only happens when understanding moves from:

“I get it” to “I can work with this”

That shift doesn’t happen by accident. It has to be designed.