In 1626, Swedish king Gustavus Adolphus, commissioned the building of one of the most

powerful ships of its day, the Vasa, and ordered the launch of the ship on August 10, 1628.
A few hundred yards into the channel, the ship encountered a slight breeze, rolled to its side,
and sank, while a huge crowd of Swedish citizens gasped in shock from the shore. This glorious
feat of marine architecture had insufficient ballast.
That explanation covers the physics. Why the Vasa really sank was an absence of courage.
Before the Vasa was launched, it failed a stability test with a number of knowledgeable
observers present, including several senior naval officers.
King Gustav placed enormous pressure on shipbuilders and other officials to launch the ship by
July 25, 1628, and threatened, “If not, those responsible would be subject to His Majesty’s
disgrace.” The man in charge, Admiral Clas Fleming, knew the ship shouldn’t be launched but
wouldn’t convey this bad news to a very irritable king. He would not speak truth to power.
The absence of courage in our organizations and societies make for underperformance.
Fearfulness, voiceless-ness, powerless-ness limit human potential. People always take the path
of least resistance to avoid ‘danger’.
Why do some teams add up to being greater than the sum of their parts while others add up
lesser?
Some managers are multipliers - they see, use, and grow the intelligence of others. However,
many are diminishers – they shut down the smarts of those around them. Like King Gustav,
diminishers make their people ineffective, inadequate, weak, lacking confidence, confused and
generally underperforming.
There is more intelligence inside our organizations than we are using.
Companies hire the best of graduates from reputable institutions but when these people are
finally inside their organizations, their talents are suppressed and barely used. These graduates
come in the company excited but after a few months later they start writing resumes. Some
stay but their minds and hearts are somewhere else.
The key to superior team performance is when the smarts in people are unleashed individually
and collectively in an inspired setting by an inspiring leader.
U2 lead vocalist and social activist Bono says, “It has been said that after meeting with British
Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone, you left feeling that he was the smartest person in the
world, but after meeting with his rival Benjamin Disraeli, you left thinking you were the
smartest person.”