How Big Things Get Done
The Surprising Factors Behind Every Successful Project, from Home Renovations to Space Exploration
Author
How Big Things Get Done
The Surprising Factors Behind Every Successful Project, from Home Renovations to Space Exploration
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- Improved project planning skills, leading to more successful outcomes in both personal and professional endeavors.
- Enhanced ability to identify and mitigate risks in complex projects, reducing the likelihood of failure.
- Better understanding of the psychological and power dynamics that influence project success, enabling more effective leadership and decision-making.
- Practical strategies for breaking down large projects into manageable, modular components, resulting in more efficient and cost-effective project execution.
Important, timely, instructive and entertaining. What more could you ask for?
— Daniel Kahneman, winner of the Nobel Prize in economics and author of Thinking, Fast and Slow
“How Big Things Get Done” is a groundbreaking exploration of project management, offering invaluable insights into why some projects succeed while others fail. Drawing from decades of research and real-world experience, Bent Flyvbjerg reveals the surprising factors that determine the fate of projects, from home renovations to space exploration.
Key aspects of the book:
• Examines the psychology and power dynamics behind project planning and execution
• Introduces the “iron law of megaprojects”: Over budget, over time, over and over again
• Presents the “break-fix model” of megaproject management
• Critiques conventional project management wisdom
• Offers practical strategies for improving project outcomes
Flyvbjerg’s work challenges traditional thinking about project management, providing a fresh perspective on how to approach big endeavors. He argues that successful projects share common elements:
• Clear strategic vision
• Total alignment among stakeholders
• Ability to adapt to complexity
Through engaging storytelling and rigorous analysis, Flyvbjerg offers readers a toolkit for tackling projects of any scale. Whether you’re a CEO, government official, or homeowner planning a renovation, “How Big Things Get Done” provides essential guidance for bringing ambitious plans to fruition.
Year Published
Publisher
Pages
Weight
Language
ISBN 10
ISBN 13
The book: "How Big Things Get Done" Is perfect for:
• Business leaders and executives
• Government officials and policymakers
• Project managers and team leaders
• Entrepreneurs and startup founders
• Homeowners planning renovations
• Anyone involved in planning or executing complex projects
Meet the author
Author biography
Bent Flyvbjerg is a world-renowned expert on megaprojects and strategic planning. He is the Villum Kann Rasmussen Professor at the IT University of Copenhagen and Emeritus Professor at Oxford University’s Saïd Business School. With over 30 years of experience advising governments and Fortune 500 companies, Flyvbjerg has consulted on some of the largest projects globally, including High-Speed 2 in the UK and the California High-Speed Rail project.Flyvbjerg is the author or editor of 10 books and more than 200 papers, translated into 20 languages.
His latest book, “How Big Things Get Done,” co-authored with Dan Gardner, distills his accumulated knowledge on successfully planning and delivering ambitious projects. Recognized for his contributions, Flyvbjerg has received numerous honors, including a knighthood and two Fulbright scholarships.As chairman of Oxford Global Projects and former Academic Director of Oxford’s MSc in Major Programme Management, Flyvbjerg continues to shape the field of project management. He splits his time between Oxford and Copenhagen, applying his expertise to help leaders tackle complex, large-scale ventures across various industries.
Book testimonials
My only complaint about this book is that it wasn’t written earlier. It distils 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
Having researched the properties of planning errors, I am confident that nobody has studied the topic more broadly and deeply than Bent Flyvbjerg. His focus ranges from Olympic Games to the renovation of your dog house
— Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Distinguished Professor of Risk Engineering, Tandon School of Engineering, New York University, and author of The Black Swan
Full of delicious anecdotes about project management disasters . . . Flyvbjerg and co-author Gardner succeed in extracting valuable lessons from these failures – and some occasional successes
— Financial Times, ‘FT business books: What to read this month’
Entertaining . . . compelling . . . there are lessons here for managers of all stripes
— The Economist
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