Expectation, Gap, Fill
Set the bar explicitly, name the exact gap, then jump in with both feet and close it with them.
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Time to result
- ~weeks to results
- Steps
- 4
- Confidence
- 95%
Elizabeth Stone's three-part method for raising an individual's bar without crushing them. Most managers do one of the three — they set an expectation, or they give feedback, or they take over — and each alone fails. The sequence is: make the standard explicit (never assume it is understood), be direct and specific about what would take the work to the bar, then work on it alongside them. The third step is the one Stone calls most important and the one that converts high standards from threatening into safe.
Origin
Elizabeth Stone's own management practice, developed across Analysis Group, Merrill Lynch, Nuna, Lyft and Netflix. She frames it as inseparable from Netflix's culture of candour and high talent density, and traces the underlying standard to her mother's line that 'the last 5% is the 5% that really mattered'.
Core principles
- 01Expectations are not clear unless you have said them out loud — never assume they are shared.
- 02You cannot hold others to a standard you do not visibly hold yourself to; example-setting is prerequisite, not garnish.
- 03Feedback without a concrete path to the bar is just criticism.
- 04Jumping in to help is what makes the high bar feel safe rather than punitive.
- 05Deliver the feedback in private, after the fact — never on the stage where the work failed.
How to run it
- 1
Set the example yourself first
Hold yourself to the same standard you are about to demand: be on time, be responsive, close the loop on what you said you would do, deliver work at the bar. Stone treats this seriously — if she doesn't do it, why would her team?
Pro tip Seniority quietly grants you permission to make people wait on you. Refuse it. Responsiveness and follow-through from the most senior person is the loudest possible signal about the bar.
- 2
State the expectation before the work starts
Make the standard explicit up front — what good looks like, what the artefact is for, and where the effort should go. Especially critical when you are new in a role and inherited practices are ambiguous.
Pro tip When people ask 'are we still doing X?', treat it as a gift — it's an invitation to state your expectations rather than let them be guessed at.
Watch out Expectation-setting is not feedback. If your first communication of the standard is after the work is delivered, you've mistimed it.
- 3
Name the gap directly and specifically
When work isn't at the bar, say so plainly and be specific about what it would take to get there — not 'this needs to be better' but the concrete deltas. Accept openly that this means another iteration and another week.
Pro tip Give real thought to the delivery so it lands as 'we're on the same team and I want you to succeed', particularly when you know the person poured effort in.
Watch out Never do this live in a large meeting where the presentation went badly. Do it afterwards, in a space where the person can absorb it without an audience.
- 4
Jump in with both feet and help close it
Get into the document, into the work, alongside them. The message is 'let's work on this together'. This is the step Stone calls the third and most important, and the one that makes the high bar feel like support rather than judgement.
Pro tip Doing this once uplevels them permanently — the next time round they know both the expectation and the route to it.
Watch out Helping is not taking over. If you rewrite it yourself and hand it back, they learn nothing and you've built a dependency.
In the wild
A document lands that is fine but not crisp — hard to follow, missing the things that would strengthen it. Stone gives the specific feedback, accepts that it means another round of iteration and another week, then gets into the document herself and works on it with the author.
→ Stone says this has happened 'a thousand times' in her career; the team is stronger afterwards because the author now carries both the standard and the method for hitting it.
When a presentation goes badly in a large meeting, Stone does not correct it live in front of the room. She takes it up afterwards, one-to-one, framed as 'here's a way this could have gone better, let's think about this differently next time'.
→ The person gets grace and the psychological room to actually absorb the feedback rather than defend themselves in public.
Common mistakes
Assuming the bar is obvious
Stone's core observation is that expectations aren't always clear and you cannot assume they are clear if you haven't shared them. Most 'underperformance' is an unstated standard.
Feedback with no help attached
High standards plus specific criticism plus no support equals a manager people fear. The 'fill the gap' step is what makes the whole thing feel like a safe space where the manager wants you to succeed.
Delivering the correction on stage
Public correction triggers defence, not learning. The same feedback delivered privately afterwards is absorbable.
Is it for you?
Best for
Managers who want to raise their team's bar and have noticed that their feedback either isn't landing or is landing as demoralising
Not ideal for
Situations where you lack the domain skill to actually help close the gap, or one-off contractors where the uplevel investment won't pay back
From the transcript
“I give feedback when it's not up to the standard”
“the expectations aren't always clear and you can't assume that they're clear”
“being specific about what would it take to get this to the bar that I'm expecting”
“the third and probably most important thing is help them fill that Gap”
“so that's probably happened a thousand times in my career where I I jump in with both feet because something needs to be better”
“I don't do it live in the big meeting in front of all the people where the presentation doesn't go very well I do it…”
“the last 5% is the 5% that really mattered”
From the episode
How Netflix builds a culture of excellence
Elizabeth Stone (CTO)