Managing Projects and Initiatives

Everyone leads projects. Learn how to manage them more effectively.

If you read nothing else on leading projects large and small, read these 10 articles. We've combed through hundreds of Harvard Business Review articles and selected the most important ones to help you manage initiatives that will inspire your people, tackle your biggest challenges using agile, and prepare yourself and your organization for a world driven by projects.

This book will inspire you to:

• Reap benefits from your initiatives more quickly
• Become a better project sponsor
• Kill initiatives that aren't performing
• Navigate the politics of innovation projects
• Keep AI and digital transformation on track
• Prepare for the next generation of project management tools

This collection of articles includes "The Project Economy Has Arrived," by Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez; "Too Many Projects," by Rose Hollister and Michael D. Watkins; "Increase Your Return on Failure," by Julian Birkinshaw and Martine Haas; "How to Navigate the Politics of an Innovation Project," by Brian Uzzi; "Cultural Change That Sticks," by Jon R. Katzenbach, Ilona Steffen, and Caroline Kronley; "Agile at Scale," by Darrell K. Rigby, Jeff Sutherland, and Andy Noble; "For an Agile Transformation, Choose the Right People," by Rob Cross, Heidi K. Gardner, and Alia Crocker; "Discovery-Driven Digital Transformation," by Rita McGrath and Ryan McManus; "Keep Your AI Projects on Track," by Iavor Bojinov; "A New Approach for Strategic Innovation," by Haijian Si, Christoph Loch, and Stelios Kavadias; "The Rise of the Chief Project Officer," by Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez; "Make Megaprojects More Modular," by Bent Flyvbjerg; and "What the Next Generation of Project Management Will Look Like," by Rachel Longhurst and Woojin Choi.

HBR's 10 Must Reads paperback series is the definitive collection of books for new and experienced leaders alike. Leaders looking for the inspiration that big ideas provide, both to accelerate their own growth and that of their companies, should look no further. HBR's 10 Must Reads series focuses on the core topics that every ambitious manager needs to know: leadership, strategy, change, managing people, and managing yourself. Harvard Business Review has sorted through hundreds of articles and selected only the most essential reading on each topic. Each title includes timeless advice that will be relevant regardless of an ever‐changing business environment.