Listen free for 30 days
Listen with offer
-
How Big Things Get Done
- The Surprising Factors Behind Every Successful Project, from Home Renovations to Space Exploration
- Narrated by: Rob Shapiro
- Length: 7 hrs and 16 mins
Failed to add items
Add to basket failed.
Add to wishlist failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
£0.00 for first 30 days
How Big Things Get Done
Buy Now for £12.99
No valid payment method on file.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Summary
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.
Listeners 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
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story2 out of 5 stars
- 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!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- 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
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- 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.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Oscar D.
- 18-08-23
Great book
it just lays out very well stuff that should be obvious and provides greater insight
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- 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.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- 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.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Berrylan
- 19-11-23
Wow. I needed to hear this.
Thank you so much for these insights. I listened to this book at the exact right time heading into a small part of a mega project.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 06-08-23
Highly recommended!
Highly recommended! I particularly liked the sections on reference class, and fat/thin tail projects. I work in IT and Procurement and these concepts really spoke to me.
The book is short, built on case studies and to the point. The focus is on how to maximise the chances of avoiding catastrophic budget overruns on mega projects.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Adrian Panghe
- 17-11-23
Think slow, act fast.
🌱 Think slow, act fast. Planning is cheap, production is expensive.
👣 Projects don't go wrong - they start wrong. Early project delays are as dangerous as late ones.
🙊 We know more than we can express. Not all knowledge is teachable.
🏗️ In a big project, reduce variability. Build a 102 one-storey building, not a 102-storey building.
😇 There's a uniqueness bias. That's what makes us love our kids. And our projects.
📐 Planning is creativity's natural habitat.
🎢 Think slow, act fast.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Corranet
- 07-10-23
Clear, Convincing and Useful
This book is very prescriptive, so it could easily have come across as preachy. But it doesn't. The arguments put forward are compelling and well supported.
The narrator makes the subject matter (which might have come across as dry in the wrong hands) both engaging and surprising.
Best of all, Iil came away with valuable and usable knowledge. The authors' insights are practical and inspiring in equal measure
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!