Where project management meets popular culture

The Great Escape

Programmes, projects and plans abound in one of the all-time war classics. It reminds us that even the most secretive project needs great communication, writes Richard Young

Many people, from the Queen and the prime minister on down, invoked the Blitz spirit during the COVID-19 lockdown, so which better film classic to revisit than the 1963 star-laden war movie The Great Escape? It’s a film with great moments of a soaring spirit against adversity and healthy doses of humour, but one that doesn’t shy away from tragedy. And most importantly, it’s a film that is oozing with project management lessons.

The value of a project management office

The elite prisoners of war (PoWs) have a clear corporate objective: escape from the camp and sow chaos in the enemy hinterland. Their project management office is headed by ‘Big X’ (Dickie Attenborough) and comprises discrete (and discreet) teams with their own sub-projects on infrastructure, supply chain, waste management, security and sustainability (the escapees will need identities and disguises for the outside).

One of the big early lessons is how to manage project teams when it’s hard to meet up. Big X gathers his expert escapees at night after they sneak out of their huts. He has to use this scarce face-time with the group effectively – and the scene is a masterclass in strategic comms.

First, he explains the mission: not piecemeal escapes (‘blitzes’) but a huge breakout of 250 men. He scopes the main infrastructure projects that the team will be delivering – three tunnels: Tom, Dick and Harry. And after confidently reassuring the incredulous top team of his intent to fulfil this bold programme, he quickly assigns them key duties – digging, security, escape equipment, logistics and so on.

But the key line? “I’ll meet with you all individually in the exercise yard to thrash through the details.” Big X knows his men are experts. He trusts them. By setting out the parameters of his programme, and their sub-projects, then following up later, he gives them the chance to work through solutions in their own time and address problems outside the main forum.

This might not work for all projects – sometimes a group discussion can yield interesting cross-pollination of ideas between disciplines. But when time and resources are tight and morale is critical, using the group meetings to set clear, positive objectives is outstanding project leadership.

Agile: the value of ‘being there’

Not that Big X is inflexible. He has set the teams almost impossible goals – and every project manager has to deliver to strict stage gates. They can’t dig a tunnel without the ventilation system or a means of getting rid of the dirt; the PoWs can’t escape without disguises and papers, but when confronted with challenges, Big X knows to shift tack.

The best example is his initial decision to save time and materials by not shoring up the tunnels with wood. While inspecting Tom, he witnesses a partial collapse – and the near death of one of his team. He sees that his original decision was flawed and switches in an instant: wood must be found to make the tunnels viable.

Agile project management isn’t just about snap decisions, of course, or even being opportunistic, but it does rely on detailed and clear project parameters and objectives. Get those right, and the team can improvise and adapt much more easily.

A great example is Robert ‘The Scrounger’ Hendley (James Garner). Teams will rely on his resourcing and supply-chain expertise (theft and blackmail, mainly – essential skills for any project manager) to get their own work done. He’s given a shopping list: a pick, examples of identity papers, a camera – crucially, he’s told specifically what film, lens and shutter.

But Big X leaves the detail on delivery to him. It allows him to assemble impromptu teams to complete any given sub-task the moment an opportunity arises – whether it’s stealing steel from a truck or the commandant’s butter supply for a bribe. Clear mission, detailed specs, empowered to use his initiative. Perfect agile.

Discipline and redundancy

One big lesson for many organisations coming through the pandemic has been the hidden risks of ultra-efficiency. Those with a lean operating model, reliant on just-in-time logistics, holding limited cash reserves or working close to capacity have found that when the assumptions in their industry break down, they have little opportunity to flex.

Big X takes no such risks, even when the resourcing requirements of redundancy put an incredible stretch on project teams. When tunnel Tom is discovered by the ‘Goons’ (during a Fourth of July party – this project doesn’t neglect team morale), the project management office switches focus immediately to redundant tunnel Harry.

This also highlights the need to make sacrifices to deliver the core project. Wood for the new tunnel is a critical resource – but the sleeping arrangements for the PoWs are not. Handley scrounges slats from bunk beds, even if that means some of them collapse.

Proper planning and prep

We learn a lot about the value of the project management discipline right at the start of the film. Several PoWs attempt blitzes out of the camp. For example, Danny ‘Tunnel King’ Velinski (Charles Bronson) and Louis ‘The Manufacturer’ Sedgwick (James Coburn) attempt to mingle with Russian PoWs sent out to cut trees – armed with just one Russian phrase, ya lyublyu tebya (‘I love you’). All these unplanned, under-resourced attempts fail.

A big part of project management, even agile methodologies, is planning. And there’s plenty of that in The Great Escape. But how does your project management training hold up when the planning lets you down? Although the landscape is thoroughly surveyed, for example, tunnel Harry comes up 20ft short of the woods.

It’s a great project management moment: when they realise they’ve messed up, second-in-command Mac asks, “How could that happen?” Big X knows not to waste time: “What the hell difference does it make? It’s happened!” He wants to think about solutions – the analysis can wait for a lessons learned review.

They quickly agree a process to ensure the project can continue – a contact line from the woods telling PoWs the sentry has passed. It’s one of the few moments Virgil ‘The Cooler King’ Hilts (Steve McQueen) makes a contribution to the project. His other is scoping out escape routes – and his sacrifice in being recaptured to pass on this intelligence is a reminder that projects may need to go backwards to make progress…

But tragedy strikes when one of the project team disregards (or perhaps isn’t told about) that new process and leaves the tunnel at the wrong moment. The guards are alerted and only a third of the PoWs get out. It’s a reminder of just how important communication is to any project. Whether it’s aligning team members around project goals or stage gates, or ensuring that process and procedures are adhered to, how you get your message out can be a matter of life and death.

Post-project prisoners

The lessons from The Great Escape are numerous but it’s worth analysing how things work after the project is concluded. Once into the woods, the PoWs have to work with the resources and training that were created as critical deliverables.

Do their papers stand up to scrutiny? Are the train timetables accurate? Will hand-made civilian clothes fool the authorities? How about their language skills? Will the processes laid down to help the PoWs evade capture operate as designed?

Every project manager designing a process for business as usual or a user journey knows the worry: will it stand up to everyday use? Are users going to get confused? Will they find their own workarounds?

One of the film’s most dramatic moments involves exactly this deviation from a carefully designed process. Second-in-command Mac (Gordon Jackson) drills into escapees the importance of not being caught out by speaking English in occupied territory. Yet when he’s wished “good luck” in English by a German officer, he replies, “thanks”, blowing his cover.

Other PoWs fare better, sticking to the processes. Only three make it to neutral countries, however, and failure for 50 others results in their murder by the Gestapo and SS.

It’s worth bearing in mind that the film starts as another project ends: the construction of an ‘escape-proof’ PoW camp for the Luftwaffe. The project outline was simple: build a facility to secure hundreds of the best escapees in the world. It was well resourced. The processes – such as the fence ‘wire of death’ and hut searches – were designed competently. Yet once it entered business as usual, the mission failed.

One reason, arguably, is that the German forces are too rigid in their processes. They enforce predictable patrols and searchlight patterns, they’re too mechanical in hut searches. Tunnel Tom is only discovered thanks to a spilled pot of coffee. The project as delivered works in a perfect state – but cannot adapt to the unexpected. The lesson? You can’t expect users to iterate or improvise once you hand over the project. Training them to be more creative perhaps ought to be part of the original project plan.