X-Gap: Using Strategic Planning to Close the Project Execution 'Gap' Teams and organizations are constantly plagued by project execution errors and failures. These failures create an execution gap - a gap between what an individual and/or team plans to do and what they actually do instead; however, there are strategic planning techniques that a team can utilize to improve project execution. One of these techniques is the Execution Gap Meeting, or X-Gap. Keywords: James D Murphy, project execution, strategic planning, x-gap