A Suspension Lemma for Bounded Posets

Let $P$ and $Q$ be bounded posets. In this note, a lemma is introduced that provides a set of sufficient conditions for the proper part of $P$ being homotopy equivalent to the suspension of the proper part of~$Q$. An application of this lemma is a unified proof of the sphericity of the higher Bruhat orders under both inclusion order (a known proved earlier by Ziegler) and single step inclusion order (which was not previously known).