The Last 20 Percent: How to Close the Gap Between Intent and Follow-Through

As you lead your company from US$1M to US$10M, your team's execution must change in subtle yet vital ways.

Early on, proximity drives progress. You are close to the work and close to the people, making it easier to reinforce goals and priorities yourself. As the organization expands, that proximity disappears. The team grows, and execution spreads into rooms you are not in. 

That is the point where the gap widens between what you intend to accomplish and what the team actually delivers.

What’s taken you 80 percent of the way there will not propel you to the next level. Closing that 20 percent gap requires building a culture where execution is consistently precise. Though changing the culture within the organization comes with its own challenges, there are proven ways to install habits into daily work so that follow-through becomes the standard.

Agreement is Not the Same as Adoption

Founders often assume that once priorities are agreed to, execution will naturally follow. This assumption holds in smaller teams where context travels informally, but it breaks down as teams grow and complexity increases.

Shared understanding is not a mechanism for action: It is simply a starting point.

How to Close the Gap Between Intent and Follow-Through:

- Agreement is not the same as adoption 
- Shift accountability from activity to outcomes
- Treat responsibility and accountability as distinct roles 
- Build execution rhythms that carry the load
- Use systems to reinforce habits 

When priorities are only understood “generally,” people fill in the gaps. Teams optimize for activity instead of outcomes. Over time, the organization drifts without anyone explicitly choosing to drift.

To close the gap, founders need to move beyond shared understanding and toward explicit execution definition:

• Write priorities in a specific, action-forward way that allows them to be completed.
• Make progress observable without explanation.
• Put short timelines on priorities to force completion instead of endless push-out.

This is not about control. The intention is to remove ambiguity so that when the day-to-day work tries to distract from the priorities, teams are clear on what stays and what goes.

Shift Accountability from Activity to Outcomes

As organizations grow and everybody seems to get busier, focus shifts from results to activity.

People start measuring success by task completion rather than by what moved a goal forward. Updates become more detailed, but progress becomes harder to see. Meetings focus on explaining effort instead of advancing priorities.

When ownership of outcomes is unclear, activity becomes the safest way to demonstrate contribution. Reverse this by ensuring that:

• Every meaningful priority has a visible owner.
• Review progress in terms of measurable movement.
• Focus discussions on outcomes more often than effort.

This shift recenters accountability on results without creating unnecessary pressure. Clear expectations build confidence. Visible progress drives more honest conversations. And people work with purpose. 

Over time, the organization develops a culture in which follow-through is expected, and results define what good work looks like.

Treat Responsibility and Accountability as Distinct Roles

Execution breakdown also occurs when responsibility and accountability are treated as interchangeable.

They are not.

Accountability belongs to the outcome. Make one person responsible for guiding it forward. That person understands why the priority matters to the company, protects it when pressure shows up, removes obstacles, supports contributors, and reports on progress. Most importantly, this clarity empowers them to make decisions that they would typically have to come to you for.

Responsibility belongs to the individual contributor. Ensure that team members clearly understand how their actions contribute to the priority to ensure it survives the work week.

Collaboration still happens. But it is anchored to clear ownership, so momentum doe not depend on constant escalation. You will close the last 20 percent when you make this distinction explicit. 

Build Execution Rhythms that Carry the Load

Many founders compensate for execution gaps by increasing communication. More check-ins. More follow-ups. More meetings.

That keeps teams talking, but it places the burden back on leadership. Execution becomes dependent on attention rather than structure.

What works better is installing lightweight, consistent execution rhythms that reinforce ownership daily. In practice, this looks like:

• Regular check-ins (daily or weekly) with a tight agenda designed to report progress and actions.
• Displaying priorities and commitments by owner.
• Frequent reinforcement of the activities that impact the goal.

These rhythms reduce the need for longer meetings and constant clarification. Over time, they allow founders to step out of the weeds and operate as coaches rather than coordinators. They encourage communication between contributors and provide an environment where holdups caused by people or processes can be easily resolved.

Use Systems to Reinforce Habits

You cannot rely on software tools alone to establish execution discipline. But systems and platforms will reinforce the habits that sustain discipline.

Founders who close the last 20 percent design their operating environment so that priorities, ownership, and progress cannot be ignored. They remove the reliance on memory and management skills alone.

Ben Gootee (EO Louisiana) described this shift after introducing an execution platform into his long-established construction company: “Before, people knew generally what they needed to be doing. But the accountability tools are what gave us that extra 20 percent to really move us forward.”

When execution expectations are embedded into how work is tracked and reviewed, follow-through improves without increasing leadership pressure.

Closing the Gap Is an Operating Decision

You can close the last 20 percent by embedding habits into execution so that intent consistently turns into action.

For founders leading growing teams, that means:

• Making ownership explicit so every meaningful outcome has someone clearly responsible for guiding it forward.
• Defining priorities tightly so teams do not have to interpret what matters or negotiate it every week under pressure.
• Anchoring accountability to outcomes so progress is measured by movement, not busyness, and activity is no longer confused with impact.
• Installing simple execution rhythms, so priorities stay visible and reinforced daily, not revisited only when something stalls.

When these elements are in place, execution no longer relies on your constant attention. The organization begins to carry the work forward on its own, even as complexity increases. Leaders spend less time chasing alignment and more time making better decisions about where the business is headed next.

Closing the last 20 percent means building conditions that allow a capable organization to perform at its full potential, which will take your company to that next level — and beyond.

This article was contributed by Align Technologies — an EO Global Partner — and Eugene Terk, the company’s vice president of business development.