Episode 202 -Decoding Megaprojects: Insights with Bent Flyvbjerg (Part 2)

The podcast for project managers by project managers. In this second part of our conversation about Decoding Megaprojects with Bent Flyvbjerg, we explore the idea of "Pixar Planning," a method inspired by Pixar Studios' approach to making movies. Next, we tackle the concept of Modularity, and the significance of standardized, modular approaches in driving efficiency and reducing the frequency and severity of project failures.



Table of Contents



01:22 … Pixar Planning06:33 … Iteration10:37 … Modularity12:46 … Modular vs. Bespoke16:20 … Kevin and Kyle18:04 … Examples from Shipping Containers22:26 … Advice from Bent28:26 … Contact Bent29:22 … Closing



BENT FLYVBJERG:  So, my advice to anybody working in any field is start thinking about how you modularize what you're doing.  Don't ever do bespoke projects.  Only if it's absolutely unavoidable should you ever do bespoke projects.  You should always do projects that have an element of standardization and modularity.  And the larger you can make that element of standardization and modularity, the more successful your projects will be.  So that's the direction of travel for the whole project industry, no matter what type of project you're working in.  And every one of us who's working in this industry can make a huge contribution by constantly thinking, how do we make what we do more modular and more standardized?



WENDY GROUNDS:  You're listening to Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project managers.  I'm Wendy Grounds, and as always, I'm joined in the studio by the one and only Bill Yates.  This is Episode 2 of our conversation with Bent Flyvbjerg.  We are thrilled that he generously extended his time with us, and we are eager to share our conversation with you today.



Before we dive in today's episode, we want to remind you to check out our website, Velociteach.com, where you can easily subscribe to the show so you never miss out on the latest insights and discussions.  And you can also earn PDUs, your Professional Development Units, by listening to our podcast.



Pixar Planning



BILL YATES: We’re going to jump right back in where we left off. Just a quick review. The first two things we talked about were: thinking from right to left; and thinking slow and acting fast. Bent, I want to shift to a third key concept. You know, where we've seen some of their amazing movies, and Pixar Studio follows this same idea “think slow, act fast” when they take their approach to making movies. 



Some of the great stories that I've read through “Creativity, Inc.,” written by Ed Catmull.  As you and I were just talking before we even started recording this, such a great book, such a great leader Ed Catmull is.  When I read the book back in 2016, I didn't latch on to what you found in this and through your research, which is this concept of Pixar planning.  So this idea of Pixar planning, I know you go into it deep.  What is it that makes that unique, and how can we apply these same concepts to our projects that Pixar does when they're developing their movies?



BENT FLYVBJERG:  So Pixar planning is not a concept that Ed Catmull came up with.  This is what we call it because we think that their method is so important and ingenious that it deserves a name, you know.  And it deserves the name “Pixar Planning” because Pixar is the organization who came up with this.  And what surprised us was how much Gehry's method and the Pixar method, which was spearheaded by Ed Catmull, who was the CEO of Pixar then, he later became also CEO of Disney Animation and Pixar at the same time, and he's now retired.  So he and his team pioneered this.  And when I read Ed's book back in 2016 also, I was so excited because – and I started asking my students at Oxford to read the book.



And at first they were like, what?  We don't work in the movie industry, and certainly not animated movies.  Like why would we want to read about animated movies?  You know,