90-Minute Workshop with Mark Buchan
The Hidden Gap:
Solving the Human Alignment Problem Behind Conflict, Behaviour and Culture
The gap between what we say matters… and what actually drives behaviour.
Organisations do not have a behaviour problem. They have a human alignment problem.
What goes wrong
Values are defined, published and repeated. Yet behaviour often tells a different story.
Leaders say one thing. Teams experience another. Conflict grows. Trust weakens. Change stalls.
The issue is rarely intent. It is alignment.
The real problem is the gap between declared values and the values that are actually operating day to day.
Over time, that gap becomes the system.
Declared values
The words on the wall, the website and the leadership slide deck.
Operating values
The values people learn through what gets rewarded, tolerated and reinforced.
The hidden gap
The space where tension, mistrust and stalled change quietly take hold.
What you will start to see differently
Why behaviour does not match stated values
How declared and operating values drift apart
The hidden games, tensions and incentives that keep the gap alive
What leaders can do to begin realignment
Inside the workshop
You will be introduced to the Values Integrity Model, a practical way of mapping the difference between what organisations say they value and what they actually reward, tolerate and reinforce.
Through a practical case study, participants use the Values Integrity Model to surface the gap between declared and operating values and begin making that gap discussable.
The workshop also explores the hidden patterns that sustain misalignment, including organisational games, defensive routines and unresolved value tensions.
You will also be introduced to a practical way of working in the moment when the gap appears, using the Inner Coachand the Choice Triangle. The aim is not just to see the gap more clearly, but to respond to it with more intention.
Signature ideas
- Values Integrity Model (VIM)
- Sandra’s case study
- Games Organisations Play
- Inner Coach (The Pause)
- Choice Triangle
- Operating in the gap
- Espoused values vs values in use
- Value tensions inside real organisations
About Mark
Mark Buchan
Mark Buchan is a leadership psychologist, coach and workshop facilitator focused on what he calls the human alignment problem: the gap between what individuals, teams and organisations say matters and what actually gets lived in practice.
His work helps leaders and teams understand why behaviour, conflict and stalled change so often trace back to unclear, conflicting or misaligned operating values.
Forthcoming book
The thinking behind the workshop is becoming a book
This workshop draws on the ideas behind Mark’s forthcoming book on values, behaviour, conflict and culture.
The Hidden Gap: Solving the Human Alignment Problem Behind Conflict, Behaviour and Culture
How operating values drive behaviour, conflict and culture
Register your interest
If you are seeing this gap in your organisation — or feeling it in your own day-to-day work — this session will give you a new way of understanding it and working with it.