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Famous Five - Five things I have learned about Project Management from Enid Blyton's series

​During this summer, my wife and I introduced my eight years kid to Enid Blyton's series Famous Five. I was very delighted as this was one of my favourite series in my childhood and we're hoping that my son will also enjoy it the same way. 
After buying the book, my son and me were ready the book together. Much to my surprize I have learnt quite a good few tricks in Project Management and I want to share with you top Five tricks.
1. Planning: As said in PMBOK, planning is most crucial part of project management and without planning one is planning to fail. so does in Famous Five series. While they plan to explore the treasure Island, they jot down all the resources they might need for successful execution of the exploration. From food to axe, they listed everything they might require. Also, they planned for 3 days resources. So, identifying appropriate tools is very essential to be successful project execution.
2. Team: While work in a team, we need to understand that not everybody has same skills. Everybody is unique and each has their own strength. Anne, a possibly considered as weak link in the team has a unique strength of thinking out of the box and provide solution while team is thinking about the alternatives. This quality made her integral part of the team and not a weak link. In Treasure hunt, George acted as SME of the Island and we need SME power to execute any project. So, in short, in a team, it is very important to identify the strength of the member and expose their strong point based on the situation.
3. Overcome BOSS: Burn Out Stress Syndrome is very common among the members in the project. We, while executing the project, if we stuck in any problem, tend to bog down with the problem. The Famous Five always knew when to take break and call for a day. If we practice this, we'll definitely beat BOSS and enjoy our work
4. Brainstorm and alternative plan: Sometimes what we plan does not work. During these phase, brain storming with the key members will help to find alternate solution. This approach were taken multiple times by the Famous Five in their different adventures.
5. Understand the limitation and take help from expert: Realizing that not everything is our cup of tea is one of the signs of maturity. In Treasure hunt, they escape from the Island after damaging the motor boat and reached to George's father for help. He in turn called police and Lawyer. same with the projects. Suppose we stuck with one of the component in the project which was not anticipated, need to ask help expert within the Organization or crowdsource the problem for resolution.

These are my top five findings about Project Management in the Famous Five series. 

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