How Big Things Get Done
The Surprising Factors Behind Every Successful Project, from Home Renovations to Space Exploration
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How Big Things Get Done
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Narrated by:
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Rob Shapiro
About this listen
Best Books of 2023 in The Financial Times
Shortlisted for Financial Times and Schroders Business Book of the Year 2023
‘Important, timely, instructive and entertaining’ – Daniel Kahneman, bestselling author of Thinking, Fast and Slow
'Entertaining . . . compelling . . . there are lessons here for managers of all stripes' – The Economist
Megaproject expert Bent Flyvbjerg and bestselling author Dan Gardner reveal the secrets to successfully planning and delivering ambitious projects on any scale.
Nothing is more inspiring than a big vision that becomes a triumphant new reality. Think of how Apple’s iPod went from a project with a single employee to an enormously successful product launch in eleven months. But such successes are the exception. Consider how London’s Crossrail project delivered five years late and billions over budget. More modest endeavours, whether launching a small business, organizing a conference, or just finishing a work project on time, also commonly fail. Why?
Understanding what distinguishes the triumphs from the failures has been the life’s work of Oxford professor Bent Flyvbjerg. In How Big Things Get Done, he identifies the errors that lead projects to fail, and the research-based principles that will make yours succeed:
- Understand your odds. If you don’t know them, you won’t win.
- Plan slow, act fast. Getting to the action quick feels right. But it’s wrong.
- Think right to left. Start with your goal, then identify the steps to get there.
- Find your Lego. Big is best built from small.
- Master the unknown unknowns. Most think they can’t, so they fail. Flyvbjerg shows how you can.
Full of vivid examples ranging from the building of the Sydney Opera House to the making of Pixar blockbusters, How Big Things Get Done reveals how to get any ambitious project done – on time and on budget.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©2023 Professor Bent Flyvbjerg and Dan Gardner (P)2023 Penguin Random House IncListeners also enjoyed...
Critic reviews
"A wise, vivid, and unforgettable combination of inspiring storytelling with decades of practical research and experience." (Tim Harford, bestselling author of How to Make the World Add Up)
"My only complaint about this book is that it wasn’t written earlier. It distills decades of systematic research from thousands of projects. The result is a crystal-clear pattern of surprising reasons why almost all big human projects fail to deliver as expected." (Ola Rosling, bestselling co-author of Factfulness)
"The best scientific advice on project planning. It is arguably the bargain of the century. For a few dollars you can tap into thousands of dollars of insights in executive-education classrooms." (Philip Tetlock, bestselling co-author of Superforecasting)
What listeners say about How Big Things Get Done
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- Mr. J. Ambler
- 18-12-23
So good I bought the hard cover
I’m not a seasoned project manager, but am heavily involved in them now. This book could have saved much sanity and sleep in my latest project- and will in my next!
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- Anonymous User
- 20-03-24
Very informative
Doing small things again and again, but doing them very good each time. A lot gained from listening to this book
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- Anonymous User
- 19-06-24
Applicabilty
I liked the applicability of the key lessons in this book. Very relatable and directly applicable to my own decision management in working on projects and business developing.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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- Amazon Customer
- 10-01-24
Lost a start for having helped plan HS2.
A lot of interesting ideas and examples about the relationship between planning, action and testing. It was a useful book and I feel like I can use this in future planning projects, especially in the budgeting section and risk management. I feel like I understand risk management better having listened to this book.
On the downside, there was a significant section about how the author was brought in to help identify the risks for HS2 and the potential over runs and over budget. Maybe should have included a section around how this could all be then destroyed by governmental factors.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- SH
- 05-07-23
For the builders
Common sense wisdom for project delivery. Light on jargon, strong on data. For project people and product people.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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- Amazon Customer
- 17-07-24
Really insightful, practical advice
I found it a little dry in places but it all comes together with really clear, practical insights towards the end and makes good use of storytelling to make things memorable. Refreshing and level-headed clarity on sometimes seemingly intangible problems of why things don’t work like we want them to (and advice on how to fix it)
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- KJ
- 26-07-24
A great book.
A clear and concise guide to the big and small, well worth a listen...recommended to all who are reasonable for project delivery.
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- Oscar D.
- 18-08-23
Great book
it just lays out very well stuff that should be obvious and provides greater insight
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2 people found this helpful
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- Amanda Moore
- 25-01-24
Experience knowledge and the bottom line from an authority with evidence base
Just very relevant and thought provoking well worth a listen. 15,000 projects database not eyewash but the reality.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Ahsan Raza
- 13-06-23
This book will let you find your lego!
Most books I have read in the past on project management and project delivery were not easy to read. They contained an awful lot of theory and very dizzying tables.
However, “How Big Things Get Done” is different. The authors, Professor Bent Flyvbjerg and Dan Gardner seemingly have a great grasp on the art of storytelling. They compile their personal experiences of delivering big projects and other examples of very famous successful and failed projects in the form of powerful interesting stories. They are more like super tour guides who not only got stories but also very acute detail of the monument's design, behind the scene politics, tragedies and joys. And most importantly, learnings.
There are many moments in the book that are my favourite and would let me go back to the certain chapters, again and again. But the most sensational one is the Danish government's project to build 20,000 schools in Nepal. This was a mega-project delivered on time, in budget, and surpassed all expectations. Schools were built by breaking the project into small chunks and learning and improving through those modular deliveries. This was Professor Bent Flyvbjerg first mega-project and he writes in detail about this in an article in his LinkedIn.
A beautiful feature of this project was that schools were built earthquake-proof. Due to continuous learning and improvement aspects of the project, people involved learned that it is quite possible to include security as part of the design from outset cheaply. It saved lives of kids in these school in 2015 deadly earthquake in Nepal.
Yes, delivering projects in the right way not only saves money and time, but also, can save lives too.
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4 people found this helpful