How Big Things Get Done

The Secrets to Successfully Planning and Delivering Projects on Any Scale, by the World's leading expert on Megaprojects.

Nothing is more Inspiring than a big vision that becomes a triumphant new reality. Think of how the Empire State Building went from a sketch to the jewel of New York's skyline in twenty-one months, or how Apple's iPod went from a project with a single employee to a product launch in eleven months.

These are wonderful stories. Most of the time, however, big Visions turn into nightmares. Remember Boston's "Big Dig"? Almost every city has such a fiasco in its backyard. In fact, a staggering 92 percent of megaprojects come in over budget or over schedule, or both. The cost of the California High-Speed Rail Project soared from $33 billion to $100 billion. Even modest endeavors, such as launching a small side business, commonly fail. Why?

Understanding what distinguishes the rare triumphs amid so much failure has been the life's work of Oxford professor Bent Flyvbjerg. In How Big Things Get Done, he identifies the errors in judgment and biased decision-making that lead projects, both big and small, to fall. And he shows how your own projects have a better chance of succeeding if you apply his research-based principles:

• Understand your odds. If you don't know them, you won't win.
• Think slow, act fast. Acting now feels right. But it's wrong.
• Find your Lego. Big is best built from small: modularity.
• Think right to left. Start with your goal, then plan backwards.

Packed with vivid examples ranging from the building of the Sydney Opera House and the making of Pixar blockbusters to a home renovation in Brooklyn gone awry. How Big Things Get Done is an indispensible resource dor anyone planning ambitious projects.

• Introduction: California Dreamin'

1. Think Slow, Act Fast
   The record of big projects is even worse than it seems
2. The Commitment Fallacy
   You need to commit, but not in the way you think
3. Think from Right to Left
   Start with the most basic questions of all: Why?
4. Pixar Planning
   Plan like Pixar and Frank Gehry do
5. Are You Experienced?
   Experience is often misunderstood and marginalized
6. So You Think Your Project Is Unique?
   Think again. Your project is "one of those"
7. Can Ignorance Be Your Friend?
   Planning ruins projects, some say. But is it true?
8. A Single, Determined Organism
   Everyone must row in the same direction; toward delivery
9. What's Your Lego?
   Modularity is the key to building at world-transforming scale

• Coda: Eleven Heuristics for Better Project Leadership

1. Base Rates for Cost Risk
2. Further Readings by Bent Flybjerg