{
  "title": "Approving a distant project: what its appeal does not tell us about feasibility",
  "url": "https://www.shr.swiss/blog/approuver-un-projet-lointain-attractivite-et-faisabilite-en",
  "language": "en",
  "datePublished": "2026-03-14",
  "publisher": {
    "name": "SHR — Swiss Human Resources",
    "url": "https://www.shr.swiss",
    "address": "Esplanade de Pont-Rouge 9A, 1212 Lancy, Suisse"
  },
  "summary": "A project can look compelling while its execution remains far off. Research invites us to distinguish the value of its objective from the weight given to the conditions required to deliver it.",
  "section": "Research",
  "topic": "Decision-making",
  "place": {
    "name": "Zurich",
    "region": "Zurich",
    "country": "CH"
  },
  "keyPoints": [
    {
      "heading": "What the literature establishes",
      "point": "Nira Liberman and Yaacov Trope (1998, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology) showed in their experiments that the desirability of an action carries more weight in decisions concerning the distant future, whereas feasibility carries more weight when implementation is near."
    },
    {
      "heading": "The mechanism: from why to how",
      "point": "Yaacov Trope and Nira Liberman (2010, Psychological Review) present an overview of construal-level theory: psychological distance favours more abstract representations, focused on general characteristics and purposes."
    },
    {
      "heading": "The premature conclusion",
      "point": "One might conclude that leaders should always be brought back to operational details."
    },
    {
      "heading": "What the evidence does not establish",
      "point": "The experiments cited do not demonstrate that executive committees systematically approve too many distant projects, or that more detailed analysis always improves their decisions."
    },
    {
      "heading": "A practical check in Zurich",
      "point": "As part of SHR’s [decision-making](/formation/prise-de-decision/zurich) programme, an exercise applicable to financial services, insurance, tech and the European headquarters of international groups in Zurich is to document a project’s expected benefits and feasibility conditions when it is approved."
    }
  ],
  "sources": [
    {
      "authors": "Trope",
      "year": "1998",
      "source": "Journal of Personality and Social Psychology"
    },
    {
      "authors": "Liberman",
      "year": "2010",
      "source": "Psychological Review"
    }
  ],
  "wordCount": 415,
  "image": "https://www.shr.swiss/img/blog-editorial-2026-03-14-en.jpg?v=4",
  "translations": {
    "fr": "https://www.shr.swiss/blog/approuver-un-projet-lointain-attractivite-et-faisabilite",
    "en": "https://www.shr.swiss/blog/approuver-un-projet-lointain-attractivite-et-faisabilite-en",
    "de": "https://www.shr.swiss/blog/approuver-un-projet-lointain-attractivite-et-faisabilite-de",
    "it": "https://www.shr.swiss/blog/approuver-un-projet-lointain-attractivite-et-faisabilite-it"
  },
  "relatedPages": {
    "programme": "https://www.shr.swiss/formation/prise-de-decision/zurich",
    "city": "https://www.shr.swiss/formations-ville/zurich",
    "blog": "https://www.shr.swiss/blog"
  },
  "citationPolicy": "Citation autorisée avec mention « SHR — Swiss Human Resources » et lien vers l'article."
}