Are you willing to bet your life on the success of your project plan? Others have in the past...

While you might think your project plan is perfect, would you bet your life on it? In World War II, a group of 220 captured airmen did just that -- they staked the lives of everyone in the camp on the success of a project to secretly build a series of tunnels out of a prison camp their captors thought was escape proof.

Learn from the successes and mistakes of a project where people really put their lives on the line.

Known as “The Great Escape,” Hollywood has depicted versions of this story in movies, yet the real story is much more interesting.

Former prisoner of war (POW) and Great Escape participant George McKiel states that “The loyalty, tight security, creative solutions, and dearth of facilities that plagued POWs brought forth pragmatic but novel solutions to our project team.”  In his foreword to the new book Project Lessons from The Great Escape (Stalag Luft III), McKiel notes how decentralized decision making and team building contributed to the escape project.  He also cites the importance of building a high level of trust on the project team, especially when team members are literally putting their lives on the line for the success of the project.

The author of this new book, Mark Kozak-Holland, notes how the prisoners formally structured their work as a project, using the project organization techniques of the day. Given the rise in the popularity of project management principles over the past decade, there has been strong demand for books on project management theory.  “What have been missing,” says author Kozak-Holland, “are books that show the practical application of project management theory in real-world examples.”  He has written several books to address this need in his popular Lessons-From-History series. These books extract hard-won lessons from historical projects that can be applied to business situations today.

Project Lessons from The Great Escape analyzes the efforts of the POWs using modern project management methods and the nine knowledge areas of the Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK), the handbook of the project management profession. By structuring the book in this manner, the author creates a compelling story that helps readers learn from the successes and mistakes in a way that aligns with how people think about projects today.

“What is particularly fascinating,” says Kozak-Holland, “is that I did not have to go back and force-fit the project management paradigm onto the escape operation.  They really did run it as a project, with a formal governance body (the escape committee), a project manager, and sub-project managers in charge of various project operations such as procurement, training, intelligence gathering, tunneling, etc.” 

Among the most famous events of World War II, The Great Escape was a turning point, occupying key Axis resources at a critical time, demoralizing the Axis forces, and boosting the morale of the remaining POWs as word got out about the escape.  While most of the escapees were recaptured (and many shot for their efforts) a few individuals did make it back behind Allied lines and home to safety.

For those who were recaptured and executed, a memorial was erected in the woods near the prison camp.  In a more recent development, The Great Escape Memorial Project, a charitable organization counting several POW survivors among its members, is currently seeking to build a museum on the site of the original prison camp.  The publisher of Project Lessons from The Great Escape will donate a portion of the proceeds from the sale of each book to support the efforts of this group. For more details, visit the web site of The Great Escape Memorial Project.

Learn from the Past

Project Lessons from The Great Escape (Stalag Luft III) is the latest book in the Lessons from History series. These books have been written for organizations applying today's business and technology techniques to common business problems. The series uses relevant historical case studies to examine how historical projects and emerging technologies of the past solved complex problems. It then draws comparisons to challenges encountered in today's projects.

ISBN: 1-895186-80-3

276 pages, paperback

Project Lessons from The Great Escape
(Stalag Luft III)

by Mark Kozak-Holland

(Foreword by Dr. George McKiel, a participant in The Great Escape)

Normally, this book sells for $29.95 (USD) in bookstores. For a limited time only, you can buy this book for a special introductory price directly from the publisher.

Special Introductory Offer: $24.95

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