Recently, I read a book about the maiden voyage of the Titanic. On the ill-fated night that the Titanic sank it received five clear warnings from other ships about icebergs in the area. The overconfident captain who believed that his ship was unsinkable ignored the warnings, refused to change course or take corrective action, and the ship hit an iceberg. You know the rest of the story.

Many a captain has gone down with his ship because he refused to listen to objective feedback and take remedial action. Rejection of such feedback and an unwillingness to be flexible and adaptive often result in great disasters.