Teamership: Cape Town’s bridge to nowhere

The real problem isn’t finishing too little. It’s starting too much. Photo from https://groundup.org.za

My parents' trip to Cape Town reminded me of the bridge in Cape Town. The bridge that just…stops.

It was a big project. It was funded and an important part of the city’s infrastructure. There was ambition, vision and commitment.

Work got started. A lot of work got done, but it didn’t get finished.

For a bunch of reasons - funding, changing priorities, different projects to invest in - the project stopped. Someone told me at one stage that the owner of the house in between the two parts of the bridge had refused to sell. That doesn’t seem to be true, but the reason the bridge project stopped doesn’t really matter.

The fact is that now, for more than 50 years, a bridge that goes nowhere is a reminder that things change.

Sometimes, it’s exactly the right call to stop a project - no matter how far in you are.

The sunk cost fallacy is a bias we are all prone to and means that we end up spending more time and money than we should on a lot of things.

Equally, it often feels like we need to get better at finishing things. Without that, we end up with a lot of good ideas that have been started, but far fewer that have been implemented. 

The real problem isn’t finishing too little. It’s starting too much.

The world in 2026 is an unusual place to be trying to do your work. AI is changing so rapidly that business models are shifting dramatically. Global politics is volatile and uncertain - almost every business is facing increased costs or unstable supply chains. 

Every team needs to adapt. It makes sense to take on new ideas and initiatives.  

Taking on new ideas and initiatives is also exactly how teams and leaders become overcommitted. Overcommitted teams are the product of people who care, have deep technical expertise and possess the ability to make a difference.

That potential isn’t realised. Because overcommitted teams can’t do great work. Not for long…and not without something (or someone) breaking.

The reason is not the people, it’s the systems. 

Here are three questions that help bridge the gap between what your team wants to achieve and what it does achieve

• Clarity - what are the top three priorities for the team?

• Capacity - does the team have the brain space and calendar space to dedicate to the most important work?

• Cadences - what are the routines, rhythms and rituals that support the team to make progress on what matters?