Something of Consequence

You have three doors in front of you. Which one will you choose? Each one has its own set of far-reaching consequences, but from this side of the door it’s hard to tell what they might be.

We have decisions before us every day. Some of them seem inconsequential. Did you choose to bring a jacket today? How did that affect you? Did you end up huddled in a conversation that you never would have had if you’d brought your jacket?

Which way did you travel today? What did you see?

Others of us have decisions that are obviously going to affect others: how to address a struggling business, how we treat the people around us, whether we follow the road rules.

We’ve been in Stockholm, Sweden, this week and visited the Vasa Museum. The Vasa was a ship that sank on her maiden voyage in 1628. It was found in 1956 and, after much preparation, was salvaged fairly much intact in1961. But given a different set of circumstances, the Vasa probably wouldn’t have sunk.

What were the series of incidents that led to her demise?

The king of Sweden ordered her built for his war with Poland and chose a boat designer who was familiar with single gundecks. The designer got underway, and the boat building began. The king then saw that his cousin’s warships had two gundecks. Did the plan change at that point in time? When the king ordered 72 large cannons, it became obvious that the cannons could not all fit on one deck. The designer compensated and the boat had windows for smaller cannons on the upper gun deck, but the cannons fitted were all large. The top was too heavy.

The designer enlisted foreign builders to join them get the boat finished. One nationality, working on one side of the ship measured a ‘foot’ as 30cm, the other nationality, working on the other side of the ship measured a ‘foot’ as 28.3cm. One side of the ship had much more material than the other side.

The king was sending regular letters pushing to have the boat finished. He had lost multiple ships. He was relying on the Vasa. When the supervisor tested the stability of the ship, 30 men ran side to side across the deck to mimick rolling sea conditions. Usually, the men would run there and back 10 times. The supervisor stopped the men after three runs as he worried that the ship would capsize. It seems that the king was never petitioned with the problems of the ship, nor for the maiden voyage to be postponed.

On the day that the Vasa launched, the ship got about a kilometre into its journey before a gust of wind and the firing of the cannons coincided to create a list so far to the side that water flowed in the open cannon windows. Quickly, the boat sunk. Lives were lost and the king was embarrassed. The water was so shallow, the three masts stuck out of the water. The king had the masts cut off and most of the cannons salvaged. Later, the building where the records of the sinking were kept burnt down, and the location of the ship was lost.

Families of lost loved ones were devastated. The culmination of bad judgements and fear-based decisions impacted generations.

Then there were the people who tried to find the ship years later, their lives were shaped by the sinking. Eventually, in 1956, the boat was found and a team of experts worked for 5 years to prepare the ship to come to the surface. Still others worked on ways to display the finding. Because of the spot where the Vasa sunk, it was preserved beautifully. A museum was built to house and protect the treasured find. Since the Vasa was put on display, it has been seen by 45 million people. That is a lot of people in the present day who have been impacted by a near perfect specimen of a 17th century war ship.

All of these people have interacted with the Vasa because a king in the 1620’s was desperate for a ship to be delivered quickly and he and others overlooked obvious faults and pushed on despite warning signs that all was not well.

If the Vasa had been built well and sailed successfully, it would have had a different impact. More families would have experienced loss, but of a different kind. People today would probably never know that it even existed.

We make decisions every day. When we feel pressured, or we push to the point that others don’t want to tell us issues that are developing, we open a door that impacts us and impacts others. Perhaps in time others will look in on our situation and learn from our mistakes, but is it worth the immediate impact to the people around us?

15 skeletons were found on the Vasa. At least 15 people directly lost their lives during the sinking. The tragedy could have been avoided with a touch of humility in the king, a touch of courage in the supervisor, a touch of patience in the building and design process, any of these things could have helped.

When you feel pressure in a decision, there is a higher chance that your decision will have a far-reaching impact. When you feel pressure in a decision, there is a higher chance that you will make a decision out of fear or pride; some form of ‘saving face’.

When you make a decision and open a door, you don’t know the fullness of the impact of that choice. When pressure tempts you to push and push, ease off, ask questions. Check the impact of the door you are opening.

When you’re dealing with people, every life is precious. The person that hurts today is going to impact their own family or circle of friends as they walk their journey. Sometimes we have to make difficult decisions, but let’s make them in a considered manner to minimise the impact as much as possible.

You always have options before you. Which option will you choose? Where will it lead? It is your choice.