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Why Most Projects Fail and How To Fix Them episode art

The Non-Obvious Show · Episode 32

Why Most Projects Fail and How To Fix Them

with Bent Flyvbjerg & Dan Gardner

Episode 32 · 34 min

In This Episode

Why do most projects fail? Bent Flyvberg and Dan Gardner explore this question and the pattern of failed megaprojects in their book How Big Things Get Done: The Surprising Factors That Determine the Fate of Every Project, from Home Renovations to Space Exploration and Everything In Between. Bent Flyvbjerg is the first BT Professor and inaugural Chair of Major Programme Management at the University of Oxford's Saïd Business School, Villum Kann Rasmussen Professor and Chair at the IT University of Copenhagen. Dan Gardner is the New York Times best-selling author of books about psychology and decision-making. In this episode, Rohit Bhargava, Bent Flyvbjerg, and Dan Gardner discuss topics inspired by the book, including fat-tailed risks, stories of success, why many projects start wrong, mastering project leadership, and how to focus on people rather than technology.

About The Guests

Bent Flyvbjerg Co-author of How Big Things Get Done; Oxford emeritus

Bent Flyvbjerg is Villum Kann Rasmussen Professor and Chair of Major Programme Management at the IT University of Copenhagen and emeritus professor at Oxford's Saïd Business School. He co-wrote How Big Things Get Done and studies why big projects run late and over budget.

sbs.ox.ac.uk ↗
Dan Gardner Co-author of How Big Things Get Done and Superforecasting

Dan Gardner is a Canadian journalist and author who co-wrote How Big Things Get Done with Bent Flyvbjerg and Superforecasting with Philip Tetlock. His earlier books Risk and Future Babble examine how people misjudge danger and why expert predictions so often fail.

dangardner.ca ↗

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