“I was in the car the first time music seemed strange: the instruments less distinct, the vocals less crisp.” John Cotter was thirty years old when he first began to notice a ringing in his ears. Soon the ringing became a roar inside his head. Next came partial deafness, then dizziness and vertigo that rendered him unable to walk, work, sleep, or even communicate. At a stage of life when he expected to be emerging fully into adulthood, teaching and writing books, he found himself “crippled and dependent,” and in search of care. When he is first told that his debilitating condition is likely Ménière’s Disease, but that there is “no reliable test, no reliable treatment, and no consensus on its cause,” Cotter quits teaching, stops writing, and commences upon a series of visits to doctors and treatment centers. What begins as an expedition across the country navigating and battling the limits of the American healthcare system, quickly becomes something else entirely: a journey through hopelessness and adaptation to disability. Along the way, hearing aids become inseparable from his sense of self, as does a growing understanding that the possibilities in his life are narrowing rather than expanding. And with this understanding of his own travails comes reflection on age-old questions around fate, coincidence, and making meaning of inexplicable misfortune. A devastating memoir that sheds urgent, bracingly honest light on both the taboos surrounding disability and the limits of medical science, Losing Music is refreshingly vulnerable and singularly illuminating—a story that will make readers see their own lives anew.
Today, change flashes across the landscape like lightning. Simple, single-focus fix-it schemes no longer work, and isolated, unintegrated, one-time improvement efforts fail miserably. Organizations require periodic revolution, not just constant evolution." —John J. Cotter The first law of the jungle is that the most adaptable species are always the most successful. In the struggle for survival, the winners are those who are most sensitive to important changes in their environment and quickest to reshape their behavior to meet each new environmental challenge. As author John Cotter makes abundantly clear in this groundbreaking book, the law of natural selection holds as true for business organizations as it does for animal species. For Cotter, the key to getting a jump on change and beating out the competition in today's tumultuous, hypercompetitive business jungle is Rapid RedesignTM. A dynamic new approach to formulating and implementing strategic change, Rapid Redesign is based on the ongoing, systematic assessment of "the 20% of what you do that will contribute most to your success in the future," and then doing less to accomplish more by concentrating your time and energies on that 20%. Cotter demonstrates how Ford, Hewlett-Packard, Canon, and many other outstanding companies have successfully used this technique to become leaders in their respective industries. More important, he provides managers with a comprehensive blueprint for making Rapid Redesign work in companies of any size to increase their efficiency and effectiveness today and in the future. Cotter begins by spelling out the changes in perspective required of every member of a company attempting to make the transition to a flexible, change-centered organization. This is followed by a series of interrelated chapters in which he provides step-by-step guidelines on how to go about designing, planning, building, and managing such an organization. You'll learn how to identify and prioritize key strengths and weaknesses in your organization's structure, work routines, and personnel in the context of tomorrow's opportunities. You'll discover hundreds of innovative new approaches to improving productivity—such as horizontal business teams and internal and external alliances—and you'll learn how to tailor them to the unique demands of your own organization and industry. You'll also learn how to reshape your organization in the three key areas of structure, support, and staffing, and how to build mechanisms for continuous reflection and renewal into the new organizational structure. Read The 20% Solution and find out how to help your organization make the leap from merely surviving change to thriving on it. Don't wait for change to happen . . . make it happen! A dynamic approach to building flexible, change-driven business organizations for greater profit and productivity Rapid, unrelenting, all-encompassing change and uncertainty are the only constants in business today, and the most successful organizations aren't the ones that have learned how to survive change, but the ones that actually thrive on it. Now, find out how to transform your company into a sleek, hard-driving glutton for change in The 20% Solution. Written by one of the world's leading authorities on redesigning organizations for changing times, this groundbreaking book shows you how to design, plan, build, and manage a super-flexible, change-centered organization. John Cotter presents hundreds of real-life success stories that show how leading companies have applied The 20% Solution, and provides detailed, step-by-step instructions on how to make it work for you. He tells you everything you need to know to redesign your organization for success in the future. The 20% Solution shows you how to: Identify your company's core competencies and capabilities Zero in on the small number of key issues that are critical to your company's future growth and profitability Reshape your organization around the three key areas of structure, support, and staffing Create innovative new approaches to improving performance and custom-tailor them to your company alone Guarantee continuous rethinking and renewal of the way your organization does business
This book discusses the key areas that every stock market investor should consider. Starting with the reason for buying shares in the first place it then goes on to consider a host of essential topics, including: ratios, dividends, diversification, directors' deals, technical analysis, ETFs, commodities, dealing techniques and much more. Cotter On Investing is your straightforward guide to the not always straightforward world of stock market investment. The markets can be a dangerous place and the risk involved can put people off the whole concept of stock investing. It shouldn't. Successful investors are those who manage risk and use mechanisms that reduce it to a level they are comfortable with. The stock market is potentially extremely rewarding in financial terms, but when the investor takes control of his or her own money it can also be fun, interesting and immensely satisfying. Throughout the book the author gives his own opinions not only on the different investment vehicles you can use but also on the ways in which you can improve your performance as a self-directed investor. With nearly 40 years of stock market experience, John Cotter is the ideal guide to help you make your investment decisions. Slicing through the jargon and with a solid, 'keep it simple' approach, this book is the ideal companion for anyone building and running their own share portfolio.
Explore the early days of Paleoindian archaeology in this engaging retrospective of Edgar B. Howard's Southwest Early Man Project, 1929-1937, cosponsored by the University Museum and the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. This book contains a detailed analysis of the world-famous Clovis artifacts, discovered among the bones of mammoths and extinct bison in the Dust Bowl of eastern New Mexico. Blending traditional and current ideas, the authors offer an extended reference to the lifeways of early humans in the Americas, accented by a series of unique insights on their origins and adaptations. Well appointed with photos, line illustrations, and schematics, Clovis Revisited is essential reading for professionals, students, and avocational enthusiasts.
Contradicting the conventional political wisdom of the 1970s, which said state political parties were dormant and verging upon extinction, this book reveals that state party organizations actually grew stronger in the 1960s and 1970s. Reprinted with a new preface that covers changes in the 1980s in electoral politics, Party Organizations in American Politics encourages a reappraisal of scholarly treatment of party organization in political science.
The Buried Past presents the most significant archaeological discoveries made in one of America's most historic cities. Based on more than thirty years of intensive archaeological investigations in the greater Philadelphia area, this study contains the first record of many nationally important sites linking archaeological evidence to historical documentation, including Interdependence and Valley Forge National Historical Parks. It provides an archaeological tour through the houses and life-ways of both the great figures and the common people. It reveals how people dined, what vessels and dishes they used, and what their trinkets (and secret sins) were.
This book explores the life and spirituality of John Cennick (1718–1755) and argues for a new appreciation of the contradictions and complexities in early evangelicalism. It explores Cennick’s evangelistic work in Ireland, his relationship with Count Zinzendorf and the creative tension between the Moravian and Methodist elements of his participation in the eighteenth-century revivals. The chapters draw on extensive unpublished correspondence between Cennick and Zinzendorf, as well as Cennick’s unique diary of his first stay in the continental Moravian centres of Marienborn, Herrnhaag and Lindheim. A maverick personality, John Cennick is seen at the centre of some of the principal controversies of the time. The trajectory of his emergence as a prominent figure in the revivals is remarkable in its intensity and hybridity and brings into focus a number of themes in the landscape of early evangelicalism: the eclectic nature of its inspirations, the religious enthusiasm nurtured in Anglican societies, the expansion of the pool of preaching talent, the social tensions unleashed by religious innovations, and the particular nature of the Moravian contribution during the 1740s and 1750s. Offering a major re-evaluation of Cennick’s spirituality, the book will be of interest to scholars of evangelical and church history.
Within the Common Worship order for Holy Communion, there is a core of texts and material which must be said or done in order that the service can be recognized as authentic. However, there are other variants which may be used. This book provides new alternative texts for those variable points in the liturgy to refresh the celebration of Holy Communion.For each Sunday of Years A, B & C there are new liturgical texts for the Kyrie eleison, the psalm, the acclamation that introduces the Gospel of the day, and an additional collect which could be used at the end of the sermon or after the distribution of communion.Very few writers have the poetic sensibility and ability to take ordinary language and imagery and create prayers and responses of beauty and depth. Rooted in the tradition of scriptural imagery and metaphor for speaking of God, Jim Cotter's poetic richness will enlarge our imagination and capacity for worship.
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