How Big Things Get Done : The Surprising Factors Behind Every Successful Project, from Home Renovations to Space Exploration

<p><b>Best Books of 2023 in </b><i><b>The Financial Times</b></i><br><b>Shortlisted for Financial Times and Schroders Business Book of the Year 2023</b><br><br><b>&lsquo;Important, timely, instructive and entertaining&rsquo; &ndash; Daniel Kahneman, bestselling author of <i>Thinking, Fast and Slow</i></b><br><b>Entertaining . . . compelling . . . there are lessons here for managers of all stripes &ndash; <i>The Economist</i></b><br><br><b>Megaproject expert Bent Flyvbjerg and bestselling author Dan Gardner reveal the secrets to successfully planning and delivering ambitious projects on any scale.</b><br><br>Nothing is more inspiring than a big vision that becomes a triumphant new reality.

Think of how Apple&rsquo;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&rsquo;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?<br><br>Understanding what distinguishes the triumphs from the failures has been the life&rsquo;s work of Oxford professor Bent Flyvbjerg.

In <i>How Big Things Get Done</i>, he identifies the errors that lead projects to fail, and the research-based principles that will make yours succeed:<br><br>- <b>Understand your odds.</b> If you don&rsquo;t know them, you won&rsquo;t win.<br>- <b>Plan slow, act fast. </b>Getting to the action quick feels right. But it&rsquo;s wrong.<br>- <b>Think right to left. </b>Start with your goal, then identify the steps to get there.<br>- <b>Find your Lego.</b> Big is best built from small.<br>-<b> Master the unknown unknowns.</b> Most think they can&rsquo;t, so they fail.

Flyvbjerg shows how you can.<br><br>Full of vivid examples ranging from the building of the Sydney Opera House to the making of Pixar blockbusters, <i>How Big Things Get Done</i> reveals how to get any ambitious project done &ndash; on time and on budget.</p>