Following my note about Joining Dots' article on "Why is KM so difficult," I tracked down an article of the same title by Julian Birkinshaw from the London Business School. He says, "The problem with knowledge management is that most companies struggle to make it work." And then he gives some suggestions on how to make it work.

CIO Magazine published an excerpt from Why Great Leaders Don't Take Yes for an Answer by Michael A. Roberto. I like the author's focus on thinking about how to make decisions, rather than which decision to make.

I like coffee, so "Coffee: A Dark History" by Anthony Wild was a pretty sure bet as a gift. This book gave me lots of information to impress the people at my local coffee roaster as well as make sad about the "dark history" of the coffee trade that survives to this day.