Tim Harford, bestselling author of How to Make the World Add Up Entertaining . . . compelling . . . there are lessons here for managers of all stripes Flyvbjerg’s study of big construction projects worldwide has led him to formulate the iron law of megaprojects: over budget, over time, under benefits, over and over again. His deep understanding of why big projects fail—and occasionally succeed—makes this book a truly fascinating read. There’s a practical payoff, too: a toolbox with eleven smart heuristics for better project leadership that every planner who wants to succeed should know." — Gerd Gigerenzer, psychologist, author of Gut Feelings

A big project is the kind of thing that is not suited for fast thinking,” he says. “The fact that it is big means that it has big consequences… you actually need to think slow to be successful.” The lesson for project professionals? By searching for ways in which to introduce modularity into your project, you will inevitably increase your chance of success. In this episode, Emma De Vita asks what mentoring means, what benefits it brings for people and organisations and how to do it well. This just hit the spot for me - accessible, practical lessons in megaproject management with great examples that contrast and compare the possible approaches. If we’re to make it through these next few decades, we’re going to have to build a lot of stuff—and we’re going to have to do it cheaply and fast. Here’s a very useful handbook for getting things done! ”Think slow in planning and act fast in execution. The longer execution takes, the more unexpected problems that can arise simply as conditions change. Experience in execution of similar projects is vital. Too often, planners think their project is more unique that it is, or even make it more unique than it needs to be. Modular projects tend to be the most successful; i.e., it is a large project only because it consists of many identical or at least very similar modules. Flyvbjerg’s study of big projects worldwide has led him to formulate the iron law of megaprojects: over budget, over time, under benefits, over and over again. His deep understanding of why big projects fail—and occasionally succeed—makes this book a truly fascinating read. There’s a practical payoff, too: a toolbox with eleven smart heuristics for better project leadership that every planner who wants to succeed should know.” You may change or cancel your subscription or trial at any time online. Simply log into Settings & Account and select "Cancel" on the right-hand side. 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. If a project can be delivered in a modular manner, enabling learning along the way, it is likely to succeed.

Entertaining . . . The picture that [Flyvbjerg] and Mr Gardner draw of why projects, large and small, tend to go wrong is compelling. . . . There are lessons here for managers of all stripes.” — The Economistit is full of delicious anecdotes about project management disasters. Movie flop Heaven’s Gate was already five days behind schedule after just six days of shooting, which had yielded just a minute and a half of usable material. The Sydney Opera House turned out to be unbuildable to its original design (“a magnificent doodle” in critic Robert Hughes’ memorable description) and, once finished, was acoustically unsuitable for opera. [The authors] succeed in extracting valuable lessons from these failures — and some occasional successes." — Financial Times We’ve all seen big infrastructure projects like a new railway line, Olympic stadium or even home renovations. We have all seen them, they are estimated to cost X and they end up costing 2X, 5X or even 10X. So why is this? Flyvbjerg explains that successful projects always have a team who clearly understand what their purpose is, and then throughout the delivery phase, always keep one eye on how what they are doing will help deliver this.