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| Frigate "Vasa" in Vasa Museum (Stockholm) Photo: Wikipedia |
'Vasa' was a powerful warship built in the 17th century on the order of the King of Sweden, Gustavus Adolphus. He understood the potential of ships as gun platforms and ordered a series of vessels with two full gundecks and much heavier guns. Vasa was to have the largest number of cannons and the tallest masts of any other ship at sea. Renowned shipbuilders and naval architects Henrik Hybertsson and Arendt de Groote were entrusted with constructing the ship at the Stockholm shipyard.
Despite recognizing that a ship with so many guns and high masts would not be stable, the shipbuilders, supervisors, commissioners, and other experienced project members dared not to challenge the King's vision. The ship was dangerously unstable, but no one spoke up. When the first architect dropped out of the project due to age and disability, another one, who took over also did not challenge the King's wishes. The King, leading the army in Poland, was eager to see 'Vasa' take up her station as the flagship in the Stockholm Archipelago. His subordinates lacked the courage to discuss the ship's problems or to postpone her maiden voyage.
As a result, the ship sank within minutes of setting out on her maiden voyage, causing significant loss of property, money, time, and reputation. An inquiry by the Swedish Privy Council sought to find those responsible for the disaster, but no one was punished. The council accepted that fear of the King's authority prevented the team from being challenging and assertive.
The sinking of 'Vasa' illustrates the Power Distance problem, imbalance between too High Authority and Low Assertiveness in a team, leading to an accident with significant loss. It also demonstrates that even in the 17th century, there was a hint of fairness in judgment that has evolved over centuries into the modern concept of Fairness, no Blame, and Just Culture.
Effective and balanced teamwork, unhindered and professional communication, other resource management essentials are key to prevent accidents. It is also an investment into maintaining safe working environment and finding solutions to daily challenges in business processes.
Various training courses, such as Global Resource Management (GRM), Maritime Resource Management (MRM), HELM (Human Element Leadership and Management), Command and Leadership (C&L), etc. cover the issues in the teamwork. The training cannot be a single life experience, but requires re-iteration. The Iterative learning allows participants to re-fresh knowledge, re-consider gained experience, and to up-scale the skills for the future application. Thus the training cycles may be considered a "vaccination" program for the staff, enabling them with a set of concepts and techniques to pre-empty incidents, find optimal solutions, be resilient in their line of duty.
For your information I offer among others the GRM, MRM, and C&L courses for my Business Customers.
