The Vasa, a state of the art warship from the 1620s that sank on it’s first voyage, is on display in Stockholm’s most visited museum. And it’s absolutely stunning to see in person; I spent several hours at the museum. Once in a while I’d be looking at some glass cases holding the original sailer’s clothes or the cannons and forget the ship was there in the building only to turn around and be absolutely blown away again seeing it.
More than one Swede I spoke to made self-depreciating jokes about how they took their most embarrassing disaster and turned it into a museum. But one, a friend from work who I respect for his connected left and right brain, remarked that the Vasa would be a great example for us to follow at work, to build a great visual case study of a project gone horribly wrong and place it near reception as if to say, “We’ve been around long enough to make mistakes and learn from them, and we’re not afraid to admit that.”