Review: Harvard Business Review 10 Must Reads 2017

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Review: HBR’s 10 Must Reads, (Harvard Business Review Press, 2017)

I’m not in a management role and generally not a fan of books on organisational behaviour or leadership. However, HBR 17 is on my radar – it’s the current priority in my “read something different for 30 minutes after lunch” routine.

As the subtitle suggest, HBR 17 is a collection of 10 selected articles that were published in Harvard Business Review during the previous year. The topics are diverse and of varying interest, depending on the reader. Length varies from upwards from 10 to about 20 pages, which makes them suited to a short break to read one article then put the book aside for tomorrow.

The material is accessible, in the sense of generally being written such that a serious lay reader can grasp the meaning. Each article has a helpful “Idea in Brief” overview which can either help prep for reading or act as a reference summary.

So, what’s appealing about the book to a non-management person? It’s the stimulus to a lateral transfer of ideas. For example the article Collaborative Overload (the first in HBR 17) prompted thoughts about collaborative learning projects in the classroom. Teachers like group activities and projects but they can draw harsh evaluations from students. The article gave me some understanding of why this may be so and some suggestions as to how to harvest benefits from group work and minimise the nasties.

I’ll be looking out for HBR 18 based on my experience this year.