bridge
Amongst mankind’s great achievements, you will find great inventions like the wheel, the boat, or the water closet. Not hard to imagine where civilization would be without these… Most of these inventions are by now taken for granted: we don’t even bother to imagine how the world would be without them.
To me, there’s one achievement of mankind that truly stands out, and that is also not being valued at all: that’s the bridge. It’s trampled on by billions every day, leading a predominantly miserable life between the banks it connects. Thereby, it takes a crucial role in fulfilling mankind’s everlasting desire to discover the unknown, to conquer new territory, and – most importantly – to outwit time. The purpose of a bridge is to connect what initially had been separated [for a good reason] by nature.
To overcome this separation for good, mankind created the bridge: initially just to keep our feet dry, eventually to negotiate deep trenches, dangerous pathways, or other sorts of divisions. The alternative is to take a long and cumbersome detour or abandon one’s journey altogether. Neither is a valid option, really.
Due to its significance, ‚bridge‘ is used as a metaphor a lot, mostly when an attempt to connect two opposing sides is described. „He was a bridgebuilder“ is often heard in eulogies, referring to the person’s ability to mediate between conflicting parties (and that it can go horribly wrong). Building a bridge between disunited banks is a difficult challenge that requires skill and courage.
The divide between managers and designers within organizations, for instance, can be so deep, wide, and imponderable that no one dares to build a bridge across it. Not only are both activities entirely different from each other, but they also have no intention whatsoever to cross their divide!
Management and design feel quite comfortable where they are and are doing fine, with all they need to function well. The chasm between them is of no concern to them since they are solely occupied with their own activities. If there is something that has to go to the other side (like a briefing or deliverable), it’s simply tossed over!
Like in nature, in organizations, divides don’t really matter unless you want to connect the two sides…
By now, it’s proven that an organization is most effective when the various functions and departments are operating in an integral fashion: not machine-like, sequential, and hierarchical, but organic, simultaneous, and collaborative. To overcome silo-thinking, increasing employees’ motivation is the ultimate challenge in building effective organizations. And it’s here that organizations are clueless because they have no mechanism to effectively connect the various silos. Hence, they still pass on the important issues from one to the other: the central departments, like HR, strategy, or brand management, that are set up to conduct this ‚distribution‘, are silo constructions themselves, just like all the others. What it takes are effective connections, not more departments…
Design management can act as such a ‚connection’ within organizations. It’s a bridge that can be built either from the designer’s bank or by management on their side; in either case, the goal is to enable the effective, lossless flow of information and communication. This form of connection between otherwise divided worlds is a prerequisite for an organization to work effectively.
To build a bridge between design and management is also a fascinating undertaking, specifically if the chasm is huge and if there’s nothing to support the ‚bridge‘ during its construction. Ideally, you’d start from that side with the strongest urge to connect, and then try to reach the other bank step by step. But it’s way more efficient if there is a desire on both sides, so that you can start to build from both sides accordingly. This approach requires mutual commitment and lots of coordination: in the end, you need to meet halfway, and at eye level too! Only skilled people, so-called bridgebuilders, who can compensate for differences, absorb changes of course, and thus allow both sides to effectively ‚bridge‘, can pull this off.
So if you run into a ‚bridge building‘ activity within an organization, do not judge too quickly, even if it evokes the impression of Mafia-investment at work! What you observe is most like design managers, who construct a bridge as a matter of prudence. The divide between design and management is not yet visible: only when you cross the finalized bridge can you see how huge it really is!