"Mind the Gap" model/ Nir Golan

"It is easier to fight for one's principles than to live up to them." (Alfred Adler)

This statement sums up Alder's theory of personality in a nutshell and supports without doubts the "Mind the Gap" model (MtG).
If you want to be a professional expert you have to live according to your professional principles: find your professional gaps and turn them into advantages.
"Mind the gap" announcements being made on the Bakerloo line platform at Paddington station in London because some platforms on the London Underground are curved and the rolling stock that uses them are straight; an unsafe gap is created when a train stops at a curved platform. In the absence of a device to fill the gap, some form of visual and auditory warning is needed to advise passengers of the risk of being caught unaware and sustaining injury by stepping into the gap. The phrase "Mind the gap" was chosen for this purpose and can be found painted along the edges of curved platforms as well as heard on recorded announcements played when a train arrives at many Underground stations. This phrase is the inspiration to the professional self development model- "Mind the gap: professional gaps should be identified all the time in order to create Long Learning Professional Life.
Alder calls his theory Individual Psychology because he felt each person was unique and no previous theory applied to all people. The "Mind the Gap" model (MtG), was developed by Nir Golan, educational and leadership expert, in order to help experts to develop their uniqueness. MtG model is about the significant learning of the individual in order to reformulate his unique professional identity.
The MtG model is based on the Anthropogogy approach.
Anthropogogy: The study of human learning
(Greek) – Anthrop (άνθρωπ) means people and Agy (άγω) means to conduct / lead.
Nir Golan offers a new definition of Anthropogogy as: "Leading a person (regardless of age) throughout significant individual learning towards behavioral change, which can be implemented immediately as a part of his unique identity." (Golan, 2014)
This MtG model provides tools to assimilate the Anthropogogy approach in six steps, throughout using a self-dialogue in order to guide the expert. Search for his professional gap in order to fill it or improve his ability. The gap can be a low performance zone, or an untouched professional area.
Along the six steps the expert can use 4 powerful initiative sources: self awareness, employees, colleges and managers.
The expert should use the relevant source to each step:
1. Find and Learn the Gap
2. Search for the right Behavior (practice and reflection)
3. Turn the behavior into Norm- Academy based learning.
4. Find the Value- Ethic code.
5. Mold your professional Identity.
6. Teach the other- write down your experience in order to share it with others (post, article, and lesson).

Details of the six stages of the "Mind the Gap" model (MtG) model:
 1. Find and Learn the Gap
Identification of the professional gap. The expert identifies and reflects his professional need by using self awareness, employees, colleges and managers professional reflection. They can use their experiences and the consequences of his/her action and evaluates his/her response.

• The result of Step 1: Recognizing by the expert his/her gap and the actual learning of the gap (alongside reflection).

2. Search for the right Behavior (practice and reflection) and conceptualization of the action:
The expert does the action using clear quality and quantity measurements. Adler wrote, ". . .in every mental phenomenon we discover anew the characteristic of pursuit of a goal, and all our powers, faculties, experiences, wishes and fears, defects and capacities fall into line with this characteristic" (Ansbacher & Ansbacher, 1956). The expert then describes the action, helping him/her to improve the repeated action and transfer it into standard behavior.

• The result of Step 2: Conceptualizing behavior and standardizing it according to the expectations.

3. Turn the behavior into Norm- Academy based learning.
Norm is defined as "a standard of achievement or behavior that is required, desired or designated as normal." … These standards of behavior are "shared by members of a professional group to which each member is expected to conform." Adler declared that each individual has an incomparable way of life, some are negative and some are positive. In this step, the behavior is transformed into norm and expected behavior.

• The result of Step 3: Understanding by the learner of the benefits of turning the behavior into the norm in order to reinforce the behavior in a professional context.

4. Find the Value- Ethic code.
The meaning of the behavior is defined to the expert as well as the benefits that may be gained from the norm to the expert and to his/her surroundings. Finding the guidelines issued by an organization to its workers and management to help them conduct their actions in accordance with its primary values and ethical standards. The value then becomes the guiding principle to making future decisions connected to the behavior; helping decide when and how to use this behavior. In this manner, the behavior becomes more significant.
Adler claimed that every person had an idea about what their perfect self would be like (Cloninger, 1996). He named this image the fictional finalism. Fictional finalism applies clearer direction to decisions that are to be made concerning oneself. Although individuals may have an idea about their image, but they hardly ever understand it. Although the image may be altered, the common direction throughout one's life stays the same.

• The result of Step 4: Defining the value of the behavior by making it significant.

5. Mold your professional Identity.
Alfred described this as feelings of lack of worth. He wrote, "We all wish to overcome difficulties."
The values are acknowledged by the expert and assist in redefining his/her unique professional identity. The expert knows how to describe his/her newly unique professional identity and explain what their unique contribution is to those around them. Although the learning process affected one behavior, it helped to redefine his/her whole identity to him/herself.
Personality difficulties are rooted in a feeling of inferiority deriving from restrictions on the individual's need for self-assertion.

• The result of Step 5: Unique professional identity.

6. Teach the other- write down your experience in order to share it with others (post, article, and lesson).

The expert uses the MtG model to teach the other.
The expert becomes the teacher ("Melamed"). The expert uses his/her personal experience as a role model and teaches the other using his/her own unique identity. He/She applies the MtG model to lead a new learner to professional significant learning.

• The result of Step 6: Continuity of the learning process according to the MtG model to achieve professional significant learning for the expert and for the other.

The phrase "Mind the gap" can be found painted along the edges of curved platforms as well as heard on recorded announcements played when a train arrives at many Underground stations. This solution is the inspiration to the "Mind the gap" model: the professional gap should be identified all the time by the expert, in order to create Long Learning Professional Life. Many psychologists accepted Alfred's popular idea of self-actualization. Adler believed in single "drive" or motivating force behind our behavior, claiming that the desire we have to fulfill our potentials becomes closer and closer to our ideals. It is the expert own responsibility to fill the gap in order to become more professional.