
How Big Things Get Done
The Surprising Factors Behind Every Successful Project, from Home Renovations to Space Exploration
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $15.72
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Rob Shapiro
About this listen
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.
©2023 Professor Bent Flyvbjerg and Dan Gardner (P)2023 Penguin Random House IncListeners also enjoyed...
-
Superforecasting
- The Art and Science of Prediction
- By: Philip Tetlock, Dan Gardner
- Narrated by: Joel Richards
- Length: 9 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Everyone would benefit from seeing further into the future, whether buying stocks, crafting policy, launching a new product, or simply planning the week's meals. Unfortunately, people tend to be terrible forecasters. As Wharton professor Philip Tetlock showed in a landmark 2005 study, even experts' predictions are only slightly better than chance. However, an important and underreported conclusion of that study was that some experts do have real foresight.
-
-
Great for Experts
- By Michael on 02-20-17
By: Philip Tetlock, and others
-
The Right Kind of Wrong
- By: Amy C. Edmondson
- Narrated by: Kathe Mazur
- Length: 11 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
We used to think of failure as the opposite of success. Now, we’re often torn between two “failure cultures”: one that says to avoid failure at all costs, the other that says fail fast, fail often. The trouble is that both approaches lack the crucial distinctions to help us separate good failure from bad. As a result, we miss the opportunity to fail well. After decades of award-winning research, Amy Edmondson is here to upend our understanding of failure and make it work for us. In Right Kind of Wrong, Edmondson provides the framework to think, discuss, and practice failure wisely.
-
-
Very pop psy
- By Student-prime on 09-28-23
By: Amy C. Edmondson
-
The Coming Wave
- AI, Power, and Our Future
- By: Mustafa Suleyman, Michael Bhaskar - contributor
- Narrated by: Mustafa Suleyman
- Length: 12 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
We are approaching a critical threshold in the history of our species. Everything is about to change. Soon you will live surrounded by AIs. They will organize your life, operate your business, and run core government services. You will live in a world of DNA printers and quantum computers, engineered pathogens and autonomous weapons, robot assistants and abundant energy.
-
-
Click bait
- By Buyer on 09-11-23
By: Mustafa Suleyman, and others
-
Material World
- The Six Raw Materials That Shape Modern Civilization
- By: Ed Conway
- Narrated by: Ed Conway
- Length: 15 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sand, salt, iron, copper, oil, and lithium. These fundamental materials have created empires, razed civilizations, and fed our ingenuity and greed for thousands of years. Without them, our modern world would not exist, and the battle to control them will determine our future. In Material World, Ed Conway embarks on an epic journey across continents, cultures, and epochs to reveal the underpinnings of modern life on Earth—traveling from the sweltering depths of the deepest mine in Europe to spotless silicon chip factories in Taiwan to the eerie green pools where lithium originates.
-
-
Insightful
- By Sam on 01-17-24
By: Ed Conway
-
Elon Musk
- By: Walter Isaacson
- Narrated by: Jeremy Bobb, Walter Isaacson
- Length: 20 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Elon Musk was a kid in South Africa, he was regularly beaten by bullies. One day a group pushed him down some concrete steps and kicked him until his face was a swollen ball of flesh. He was in the hospital for a week. But the physical scars were minor compared to the emotional ones inflicted by his father, an engineer, rogue, and charismatic fantasist.
-
-
megalomania on display
- By JP on 09-12-23
By: Walter Isaacson
-
Hidden Potential
- The Science of Achieving Greater Things
- By: Adam Grant
- Narrated by: Adam Grant, Maurice Ashley, R. A. Dickey, and others
- Length: 7 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
We live in a world that’s obsessed with talent. We celebrate gifted students in school, natural athletes in sports, and child prodigies in music. But admiring people who start out with innate advantages leads us to overlook the distance we ourselves can travel. We underestimate the range of skills that we can learn and how good we can become. We can all improve at improving. And when opportunity doesn’t knock, there are ways to build a door.
-
-
Nope
- By Anna OConnor-McClure on 10-27-23
By: Adam Grant
-
Superforecasting
- The Art and Science of Prediction
- By: Philip Tetlock, Dan Gardner
- Narrated by: Joel Richards
- Length: 9 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Everyone would benefit from seeing further into the future, whether buying stocks, crafting policy, launching a new product, or simply planning the week's meals. Unfortunately, people tend to be terrible forecasters. As Wharton professor Philip Tetlock showed in a landmark 2005 study, even experts' predictions are only slightly better than chance. However, an important and underreported conclusion of that study was that some experts do have real foresight.
-
-
Great for Experts
- By Michael on 02-20-17
By: Philip Tetlock, and others
-
The Right Kind of Wrong
- By: Amy C. Edmondson
- Narrated by: Kathe Mazur
- Length: 11 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
We used to think of failure as the opposite of success. Now, we’re often torn between two “failure cultures”: one that says to avoid failure at all costs, the other that says fail fast, fail often. The trouble is that both approaches lack the crucial distinctions to help us separate good failure from bad. As a result, we miss the opportunity to fail well. After decades of award-winning research, Amy Edmondson is here to upend our understanding of failure and make it work for us. In Right Kind of Wrong, Edmondson provides the framework to think, discuss, and practice failure wisely.
-
-
Very pop psy
- By Student-prime on 09-28-23
By: Amy C. Edmondson
-
The Coming Wave
- AI, Power, and Our Future
- By: Mustafa Suleyman, Michael Bhaskar - contributor
- Narrated by: Mustafa Suleyman
- Length: 12 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
We are approaching a critical threshold in the history of our species. Everything is about to change. Soon you will live surrounded by AIs. They will organize your life, operate your business, and run core government services. You will live in a world of DNA printers and quantum computers, engineered pathogens and autonomous weapons, robot assistants and abundant energy.
-
-
Click bait
- By Buyer on 09-11-23
By: Mustafa Suleyman, and others
-
Material World
- The Six Raw Materials That Shape Modern Civilization
- By: Ed Conway
- Narrated by: Ed Conway
- Length: 15 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sand, salt, iron, copper, oil, and lithium. These fundamental materials have created empires, razed civilizations, and fed our ingenuity and greed for thousands of years. Without them, our modern world would not exist, and the battle to control them will determine our future. In Material World, Ed Conway embarks on an epic journey across continents, cultures, and epochs to reveal the underpinnings of modern life on Earth—traveling from the sweltering depths of the deepest mine in Europe to spotless silicon chip factories in Taiwan to the eerie green pools where lithium originates.
-
-
Insightful
- By Sam on 01-17-24
By: Ed Conway
-
Elon Musk
- By: Walter Isaacson
- Narrated by: Jeremy Bobb, Walter Isaacson
- Length: 20 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Elon Musk was a kid in South Africa, he was regularly beaten by bullies. One day a group pushed him down some concrete steps and kicked him until his face was a swollen ball of flesh. He was in the hospital for a week. But the physical scars were minor compared to the emotional ones inflicted by his father, an engineer, rogue, and charismatic fantasist.
-
-
megalomania on display
- By JP on 09-12-23
By: Walter Isaacson
-
Hidden Potential
- The Science of Achieving Greater Things
- By: Adam Grant
- Narrated by: Adam Grant, Maurice Ashley, R. A. Dickey, and others
- Length: 7 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
We live in a world that’s obsessed with talent. We celebrate gifted students in school, natural athletes in sports, and child prodigies in music. But admiring people who start out with innate advantages leads us to overlook the distance we ourselves can travel. We underestimate the range of skills that we can learn and how good we can become. We can all improve at improving. And when opportunity doesn’t knock, there are ways to build a door.
-
-
Nope
- By Anna OConnor-McClure on 10-27-23
By: Adam Grant
-
Going Infinite
- The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon
- By: Michael Lewis
- Narrated by: Michael Lewis
- Length: 9 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Michael Lewis first met him, Sam Bankman-Fried was the world’s youngest billionaire and crypto’s Gatsby. CEOs, celebrities, and leaders of small countries all vied for his time and cash after he catapulted, practically overnight, onto the Forbes billionaire list. Who was this rumpled guy in cargo shorts and limp white socks, whose eyes twitched across Zoom meetings as he played video games on the side?
-
-
really expected more rigor from Michael Lewis
- By Wowhello on 10-04-23
By: Michael Lewis
-
Billionaires' Row
- Tycoons, High Rollers, and the Epic Race to Build the World's Most Exclusive Skyscrapers
- By: Katherine Clarke
- Narrated by: Kristen DiMercurio
- Length: 12 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
To look south and skyward from Central Park these days is to gaze upon a physical manifestation of tens of billions of dollars in global wealth: a series of soaring spires stretching from Park Avenue to Broadway. Known as Billionaires’ Row, this set of slender high-rise residences has transformed the skyline of New York City, thanks to developer-friendly policies and a seemingly endless gush of cash from tech, finance, and foreign oligarchs. And chances are most of us will never be invited to step inside.
-
-
Fantastic read/listen
- By Anonymous User on 03-15-25
By: Katherine Clarke
-
Beijing Rules
- How China Weaponized Its Economy to Confront the World
- By: Bethany Allen
- Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller
- Length: 12 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An acclaimed journalist on contemporary China lays bare the country's two-decade quest for global dominance and how the Chinese Communist Party coopted what Western leaders have long considered their most powerful tool in the fight for liberal democracy—capitalism—to expand its influence worldwide.
-
-
Chinese propaganda advocating for bigger govt
- By Kev on 01-31-25
By: Bethany Allen
-
Same as Ever
- A Guide to What Never Changes
- By: Morgan Housel
- Narrated by: Chris Hill
- Length: 5 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Every investment plan under the sun is, at best, an informed speculation of what may happen in the future, based on a systematic extrapolation from the known past. Same as Ever reverses the process, inviting us to identify the many things that never, ever change. With his usual elan, Morgan Housel presents a master class on optimizing risk, seizing opportunity, and living your best life. Through a sequence of engaging stories and pithy examples, he shows how we can use our newfound grasp of the unchanging to see around corners.
-
-
Beautifully Succinct Summary of Others Original Ideas
- By Mitch on 11-09-23
By: Morgan Housel
-
The Case for Good Jobs
- How Great Companies Bring Dignity, Pay, and Meaning to Everyone's Work
- By: Zeynep Ton
- Narrated by: Machelle Williams
- Length: 8 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Workers want good jobs, and many leaders want to provide them. But they don't think they can offer higher pay and more motivating work without hurting the bottom line. Most business leaders want to win with customers, but their companies are hobbled by a host of service and operational problems largely driven by high employee turnover—turnover that's partly driven by low pay. It is indeed a vicious cycle, and Zeynep Ton is here to show you the way out: why good jobs combined with strong operations lead to higher productivity and increased competitiveness for the business.
-
-
Ejemplos de empresas muy inspiradoras
- By Margarita Fernandez on 07-11-24
By: Zeynep Ton
-
Clear Thinking
- Turning Ordinary Moments into Extraordinary Results
- By: Shane Parrish
- Narrated by: Will Damron, Shane Parrish
- Length: 6 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
You might believe you’re thinking clearly in the moments that matter most. But in all likelihood, when the pressure is on, you won’t be thinking at all. And your subsequent actions will inevitably move you further from the results you ultimately seek—love, belonging, success, wealth, victory. According to Farnam Street founder Shane Parrish, we must get better at recognizing these opportunities for what they are, and deploying our cognitive ability in order to achieve the life we want.
-
-
It Feels Like a Classic - Seven Habits Good
- By Tyler L on 11-02-23
By: Shane Parrish
-
Blood in the Machine
- The Origins of the Rebellion Against Big Tech
- By: Brian Merchant
- Narrated by: Eric Jason Martin
- Length: 15 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The most urgent story in modern tech begins not in Silicon Valley but two hundred years ago in rural England, when workers known as the Luddites rose up rather than starve at the hands of factory owners who were using automated machines to erase their livelihoods. The Luddites organized guerrilla raids to smash those machines—on punishment of death—and won the support of Lord Byron, enraged the Prince Regent, and inspired the birth of science fiction. This all-but-forgotten class struggle brought nineteenth-century England to its knees.
-
-
The bias of the author can not be understated
- By Donald Campo on 11-17-23
By: Brian Merchant
-
Wiring the Winning Organization
- By: Gene Kim, Steve Spear
- Narrated by: Alex Knox
- Length: 10 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In their eagerly awaited book, Kim and Spear bring to light a new theory of high-achieving organizations. They examine how companies solve the most important problems better, faster, and easier than their competitors by quickly and regularly closing the gap between aspirations and real-world success. This book teaches companies that are struggling to perform how to achieve the continual greatness seen in the best of the best.
-
-
Powerful tools and a insights
- By Sean Brooks on 04-06-24
By: Gene Kim, and others
-
The Innovation Delusion
- How Our Obsession with the New Has Disrupted the Work That Matters Most
- By: Lee Vinsel, Andrew L. Russell
- Narrated by: Rob Shapiro
- Length: 8 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It’s hard to avoid innovation these days. Nearly every product gets marketed as being disruptive, whether it’s genuinely a new invention or just a new toothbrush. But in this manifesto on the state of American work, historians of technology Lee Vinsel and Andrew L. Russell argue that our way of thinking about and pursuing innovation has made us poorer, less safe, and — ironically — less innovative. Drawing on years of original research and reporting, The Innovation Delusion shows how the ideology of change for its own sake has proved a disaster.
-
-
Good ideas, but one-sided and lacking insights
- By James S. on 01-24-21
By: Lee Vinsel, and others
-
The Four Workarounds
- Strategies from the World's Scrappiest Organizations for Tackling Complex Problems
- By: Paulo Savaget
- Narrated by: Roger Wayne
- Length: 7 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For ages, global corporations have been lecturing small organizations and not-for-profits on how to get things done. As it turns out, it should have been the other way around. In this groundbreaking audiobook, award-winning researcher Paulo Savaget shows how the most valuable lessons about problem-solving can be learned from the scrappiest groups. Savaget draws most of his examples from small organizations dedicated to social action that have made an art form out of subverting the status quo and have proved themselves adept at achieving massive wins with minimal resources.
-
-
A must read for real life business
- By Felipe on 03-29-23
By: Paulo Savaget
-
Cobalt Red
- How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives
- By: Siddharth Kara
- Narrated by: Peter Ganim
- Length: 11 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Cobalt Red is the searing first-ever exposé of the immense toll taken on the people and environment of the Democratic Republic of the Congo by cobalt mining, as told through the testimonies of the Congolese people themselves. Activist and researcher Siddharth Kara has traveled deep into cobalt territory to document the testimonies of the people living, working, and dying for cobalt.
-
-
A must read
- By Anonymous User on 02-01-23
By: Siddharth Kara
-
Your Face Belongs to Us
- A Secretive Startup's Quest to End Privacy as We Know It
- By: Kashmir Hill
- Narrated by: Kashmir Hill
- Length: 10 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
New York Times tech reporter Kashmir Hill was skeptical when she got a tip about a mysterious app called Clearview AI that claimed it could, with 99 percent accuracy, identify anyone based on just one snapshot of their face. The app could supposedly scan a face and, in just seconds, surface every detail of a person’s online life: their name, social media profiles, friends and family members, home address, and photos that they might not have even known existed.
-
-
Entertaining but should be a 10 page article
- By Anonymous User on 12-11-24
By: Kashmir Hill
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.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Anonymous User
- 08-22-24
Great lesson in project management
Very interesting and accessible book, exploring the factors that make projects a success or failure. Backed with statistics and anecdotes. Clearly and calmly read.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Kamil Kuchar
- 08-20-24
would recommend
Amazing book for anyone planning or directing large projects. Interesting insights which came with some unexpected conclusions. I feel like the climate-focused ending could've been omitted as it was not important to the observations and lessons presented in this book. Either way, well done to the authors, can only recommend.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Cliente Amazon
- 10-15-23
Very useful insights
Lived the multiple examples, lived the modular approach. Felt experience is key, not use untested capabilities, first movers are riskier so go small, test & learn and apply modularity. Lots of small things make big things
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Poul Geert Hamsen
- 01-08-24
Easy to understand
Many examples from real projects that can be applaid in your reality and different projects.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Gregory
- 09-10-24
Great examples and storytelling.
Impressive but yet simple to follow book. Covers again simple but important topics. And it's all rooted in experience, projects across the globe.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- wasnah
- 01-22-24
Rob Shapiro is the king of the mic
The book is amazing, and Rob have an engaging and smooth narration that kept me interested!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Thomas Richards
- 03-29-24
A classic
Well packaged narrative around some helpfully empirical observations. Definitely worth a read for anyone involved in major (or any) projects.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Amazon Customer
- 12-01-24
Look at rhe real world
The examples are easy to relate to .They are also well known. Makes one want to apply the principles recount.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Arno
- 02-22-25
Have to listen again
Have to listen again, so much truths and tips to make big things happen.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Anonymous User
- 09-16-24
The author is just obsessed with his own accomplishments…
Slow nook basically summed up in one sentence:
Think slow, act fast
Too many examples!
The author comes across as arrogant and self obsessed about his own accomplishments.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!