HBR’s 10 Must Reads 2026 from Harvard Business Review.
As 2023 was coming to a close, I found myself diving into HBR’s 10 Must Reads for 2024. It was a great way to get a feel for the management ideas shaping the year ahead. Then came the 2025 edition, and now, here I am again—starting 2026 with HBR’s latest collection.
This is for both new and experienced leaders seeking insights, and advice to propel their organizations forward in the new year.
To no surprise, AI remains a key read for organizations. The focus “Bring everyone on board with your AI efforts” is addressing the much needed broad participation in AI adoption. This is even more important in 2026 as models have been updated in 2025 to bring new reasoning models that can propel organizations forward, only if the deployment touches all employees.
However a risk based approach will save organizations from overspending and unauthorized egress of organizational data.
What is emerging and important in 2026?
Topics include eliminating dysfunction in your leadership team, which reveals if your organization’s leadership is a shark tank or petting zoo. In fact, the topic addressing how to apply the right kinds of questions to strategic decisions is even more insightful for organizations regardless of marketplace.
This also piggybacks on the topic of building a corporate culture that truly aligns with your values. There is more than meets the eye. The concluding read, The Strategic Genius of Taylor Swift, will be surprising for some, and not to be missed.
Consider HBR’s previous annual publications for the new year:
In conclusion, HBR’s 10 Must Reads 2026 simply continues to deliver insights that employees and managers must learn, understand, and perhaps deploy in order to find success in the new year, with a flurry of changes ahead it remains best to be prepared.