A bridge is such a simple concept – they generally allow easy passage over what otherwise would have been a way more complex route. I remember seeing the Van Stadens bridge on the Garden Route from below and noticing how amazing it is from down there.  Traveling on the N2 you could easily not realise it is there, as the road simply continues straight over the huge chasm below.

A huge chasm – when bridged, becomes easy to negotiate.

Identify the gap

Let’s consider common chasms in businesses or in teams.  Big gaping points of separation between people or departments is not desirable.  These gaps seem to form so easily and once formed seem oh so difficult to bridge.  It has been said that an aspect of effective leadership is the ability to bring sides together.  Leaders would have to understand the gap, design a solution and engineer the bridge.

Contrary to popular belief, The Ripple Effect does not only build bridges between people.  We also build critical bridges between needs.  Where a need exists concurrently with an expectation gap.  The need is not being met.  It still comes down to bridging gaps between people.  The nature of the need however determines the type of engineer.  The particular skill the engineer needs to have.

The need for content

We have noticed a very common chasm is businesses where we have been bridging other gaps. The need for content.  Content in the form of written material that once produced can be put to good use.  Content, when absent, produces opportunity costs.

Training material, system documentation, marketing blurb, Standard Operating Procedures and the like are so often needed and so often missing.

Our new Content Strategy role bridges.  Lesley is very content producing content.

How to identify content chasms:

• Marketing blurb – is your website current? Are you sending out the right message?  Are you sending out everything that could be going out?  Are you waiting for someone else to generate the content and it’s simply not forthcoming?

• System documentation – is it available?  Is everyone involved in development able to access it?  Are you doing double or triple work due to it not being available?

• Training material – do members of your team deliver training to customers while the time needed to develop the training material is not a luxury they have?  Is the training material in need of a face-lift to align it with your current CI and Value Proposition?

• Standard Operating Procedures – do they exist? Are they relevant? Do they support your quality standards? Does anyone reference them?

Waiting causes delay – delay results in an opportunity cost.  Bridge it.

Lesley can be contacted on lesleystead@therippleeffect.co.za

By Louis Gerke

Development Facilitator – The Ripple Effect

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