How to Read Harvard Business Review for Free

What is Harvard Business Review about? It showcases articles from subject matter experts ranging Managing Yourself to Organisational Culture to Decision Making. I like to read it for self improvement and when I am unsure of how to handle certain situations at work. Reading Harvard Business Review is like getting advice for free.

A quick check online shows that a Harvard Business Review annual subscription costs SGD $221. Many of you may be 'broke' and are not willing to pay to read the articles especially when you do not intend to read all the articles on offer. The non-subscription business model is limited to three (3) articles per month.

Read: How to Read Books for Free

How to Read Books for Free

These days time starved professionals do not have much time to read books, much less pay a visit to their nearest library to borrow books. Gone are the days where people visit the library as a past-time. With the advent of technology gadgets and entertainment (read: distractions), the amount of time spent reading has dropped. 

According to a study done by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the average time an adult spent reading is 25 minutes/ day in comparison to spending 200 minutes/day watching the telly. Various articles have been written about why you should spend time to read, such as allowing one to be more creative and open-minded and being successful in life. 

Reading should not be an expensive and inconvenient habit. In fact, it is free and easily accessible as long as you have access to a mobile device. 

How to Borrow National Library Board's eBooks using the OverDrive App for FREE

Good to Great by Jim Collins

Book Review on Good to Great 


Why some Companies make the Leap... and others don't

1. Level 5 Leadership
- builds enduring greatness through a paradoxical blend of personal humility and professional will

Lean in by Sheryl Sandberg

Book Review on Lean In 

Facebook COO, Sheryl Sandberg on Women, Work and the Will to Lead.

I have extracted the key points here. 

1. Sit at the table
- literally
- don't sit away from the board room table. be at the table. 

Reading List

Reading List

1.Option B: facing adversity, building resilience and finding joy by Sheryl Sandberg 

- an open tell-all book by Sandberg. really enjoyed reading this book as i see her in her most vulnerable state. Not being a sadist here, more like the reader can click better with the writer and see that after-all, we are all humans. 

- i never knew that we have the capacity to increase our resilience by taking concrete steps in the face of adversity

- thru the eyes of Sandberg, she took the readers on an emotional healing journey with her

2. Never split the difference : negotiating as if your life depended on it by Voss Christopher

- STRONGLY RECOMMENDED

- before reading this book, I always think of negotiation as 50-50, give and take. Only when going through this book did I realize I got the concept wrong all these time. To truly win at negotiation, we have to make the other party give in fully, without them thinking that we are extracting more than we deserve. 

3. Blink: the power of thinking without thinking by Gladwell Malcolm

- I personally feel that Malcolm has a similar writing style with the Freakonomics writer duo. Their tongue-in-cheek writing style, combined with eccentric ideas makes this book really enjoyable to read. 

- so do I see things differently now? .. applying "out of the box"/ innovative ways of going about my daily routine tasks? I hope :)

4. Get the truth : former CIA officers teach you how to persuade anyone to tell all by Philip Houston

5. Emotional intelligence 2.0 by Bradberry Travis

- Understanding the 4 skills

  - Self awareness

  - Self management

  - Social awareness

  - Relationship management strategies

- accurately identifying our emotions as we experience them. Don't generalize.

- good to know. my main takeaway? be mindful of my own emotions; think of the big picture, long term consequences, don't get carried away in the now. 

6. The Panama papers : breaking the story of how the rich & powerful hide their money by Obermayer Bastian

- the reveal- all book by Bastian, a German investigative journalist who received The Panama Papers from an anonymous source. The source went on to forward extensive volume of internal documents which forms the basis of the investigations for this book. A compelling read for those who are curious how the rich get richer by evading taxes and much more. How Bastian et al research helped launched investigation by local authorities and made us aware of the legal loopholes out there.

7. Super Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner

- interesting applications of economics and everyday "common sense" logic that most of us fails to think of, or even bother to sit back and ponder.

8. Think like a Freak by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner

- Authors challenges us to think out of the box. Many a times the solution to everyday problems is very simple and right in front of us. We don't have to think deep, just take a step back and look at the big picture. 

Book Review - Never split the difference

Book Review

Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss

1. Be a Winner

- How to quickly establish rapport

- use the late- night FM DJ voice

- start with "I'm sorry..."

- Mirror - use the last 3 words of what someone just said

- Silence for at least 4 seconds. to let the counterpart reveal their intentions when you stay silent

- Repeat

- Don't commit to assumptions. Instead, view them as hypothesis and use the negotiation to test them rigorously

- put a smile on your face


2. Don't feel the pain. Label it

"it seems like..."

"it sounds like..."

"it looks like..."

- use labels to encourage them to be responsive

- if they disagree with the label, it's OK

- step back and say, "I didn't say that was what it was. I just said it seems like that."

- they need to feel understood and appreciated

- Do an accusation audit

- list every terrible thing your counterpart could say about you

- acknowledge counterpart's situation while simultaneously shifting the onus of offering a solution to the counter party.


3. Beware "Yes". Matter "No"


- "No" starts the negotiation

- people need to feel in control

- give them permission to say "no" to your ideas

- when someone says "no" - re- think the alternative meaning

- I am not yet ready to agree

- you are making me uncomfortable

- I do not understand

- I don't think I can afford it

- I want something else

- I need more information

- I want to talk it over with someone else


Ask them, "what about this that doesn't work for you?"

"what would you need to make it work?"

"it seems like there's something here that bothers you."

Persuade them from their perspective to say "yes", not ours.

Everyone you meet is driven by 2 primal urges - the need to feel safe and secure; the need to feel in control.

"Is now a bad time to talk?"

How never to be ignored - Provoke "no" with - "have you given up on this project?"


4. Trigger the 2 words that immediately transform any negotiation


"that's right" --> trigger the CP to say these 2 words with a summary


- Effective pauses - use for emphasis

- Minimal encouragers - yes, ok, uh- huh, i see

- Mirroring - listen and repeat back what CP has said

- Labelling - label his feelings, identify with how he feels.

e.g "it all seems so unfair. I can see why you're so angry"

- Paraphrase what CP said

- Summarise

If CP says "you're right" --> means the CP is not convinced.


5. Bend their Reality


- Don't compromise. No deal is better than a bad deal.

- The "fair" word - when to use and how to use

"we just want what's fair"

IF - "we have give you a fair offer"

"fair?"

"it seems like you are ready to provide the evidence to support that"

- anchor their emotions

- accusation audit by acknowledging all their fears

- by anchoring their emotions in preparation for a loss, you inflame their loss aversion so they will jump at the chance to avoid it

- let the CP go first... most of the time

- establish a range.

- the actual amount you want is the lower range.

- pivot to non- monetary terms

- anything cheap to them but is valuable to me

- when you talk numbers, use odd ones

e.g. $37,643 sounds more thoughtful than a rounded figure



6. Create the illusion of control


- Summarise the situation followed by "How am I supposed to do that?"

- Asking calibrated questions.

- "how can I help to make this better for us?"

- "how would you like me to proceed?"

- "how can we solve this problem?"

- "how am I supposed to do that?"