Best-selling author of Thinking in New Boxes and Fellow in a $5 billion international consulting firm, BCG, Luc de Brabandere shares the secrets to change that are not just vital to businesses, but life itself. Throughout history, human beings have adapted to improve their lives and shape the world as we know it. But as the world changes, so must our perception of it—even what we create. Using approachable, witty, and engaging examples from philosophy, science, technology and linguistics, Luc de Brabandere explores the dangers, both in business and in life, of relying on habit and repetition. Behaviors that work for us one day may not the next. To truly move forward, we must not just embrace what works, but constantly explore what could work better. This constant exploration is what drives change, inspires creativity, and fosters dynamic strategy in all facets of life, especially business, where innovation and out-of-the-box thinking has led and will lead to humankind’s greatest tomorrows. Both a clever and eye-opening guide and an invaluable vault of knowledge, The Forgotten Half of Change provides tools for strategic management that adapt to the test of time.
In a society where everyone is supposed to go to college, the problems facing high school graduates who do not continue their education are often forgotten. Many cannot find jobs, and those who do are often stuck in low-wage, dead-end positions. Meanwhile employers complain that high school graduates lack the necessary skills for today's workplace. Beyond College for All focuses on this crisis in the American labor market. Around the world, author James E. Rosenbaum finds, employers view high school graduates as valuable workers. Why not here? Rosenbaum reports on new studies of the interaction between employers and high schools in the United States. He concludes that each fails to communicate its needs to the other, leading to a predictable array of problems for young people in the years after graduation. High schools caught up in the college-for-all myth, provide little job advice or preparation, leading students to make unrealistic plans and hampering both students who do not go to college and those who start college but do not finish. Employers say they care about academic skills, but then do not consider grades when deciding whom to hire. Faced with few incentives to achieve, many students lapse into precisely the kinds of habits employers deplore, doing as little as possible in high school and developing poor attitudes. Rosenbaum contrasts the situation in the United States with that of two other industrialized nations-Japan and Germany-which have formal systems for aiding young people who are looking for employment. Virtually all Japanese high school graduates obtain work, and in Germany, eighteen-year-olds routinely hold responsible jobs. While the American system lacks such formal linkages, Rosenbaum uncovers an encouraging hidden system that helps many high school graduates find work. He shows that some American teachers, particularly vocational teachers, create informal networks with employers to guide students into the labor market. Enterprising employers have figures out how to use these networks to meet their labor needs, while students themselves can take steps to increase their ability to land desirable jobs. Beyond College for All suggests new policies based on such practices. Rosenbaum presents a compelling case that the problems faced by American high school graduates and employers can be solved if young people, employers, and high schools build upon existing informal networks to create formal paths for students to enter the world of work. A Volume in the American Sociological Association's Rose Series in Sociology
A sobering account of a disenfranchised American working class and important policy solutions to the nation’s economic inequalities One of the country’s leading scholars on economics and social policy, Isabel Sawhill addresses the enormous divisions in American society—economic, cultural, and political—and what might be done to bridge them. Widening inequality and the loss of jobs to trade and technology has left a significant portion of the American workforce disenfranchised and skeptical of governments and corporations alike. And yet both have a role to play in improving the country for all. Sawhill argues for a policy agenda based on mainstream values, such as family, education, and work. While many have lost faith in government programs designed to help them, there are still trusted institutions on both the local and federal level that can deliver better job opportunities and higher wages to those who have been left behind. At the same time, the private sector needs to reexamine how it trains and rewards employees. This book provides a clear-headed and middle-way path to a better-functioning society in which personal responsibility is honored and inclusive capitalism and more broadly shared growth are once more the norm.
In Half Forgotten Song, fourteen-year-old Mitzy Hatcher’s lonely life on the wild Dorset coast is changed forever when renowned artist Charles Aubrey arrives to summer there with his exotic mistress and daughters. Mitzy develops a bond with the Aubrey household, gradually becoming Charles's muse. Over the next three summers, a powerful love is kindled in her that grows from childish infatuation to something far more complex… Years later, a young man in an art gallery looks at a hastily drawn portrait and wonders at its intensity. The questions he asks lead him to a Dorset village and to the truth about those fevered summers in the 1930s. With Sunday Times bestselling novel Half Forgotten Song, Katherine Webb spins a historical tale of long kept secrets and obsessive love that fans of Kate Morton and Susanna Kearsley are sure to love.
The 10 papers in this report review what the United States has accomplished for late-adolescents and young adults in the past decade since publication of "The Forgotten Half." The consensus from the 15 authors is that many developments have not been encouraging. "Today's Forgotten Half: Still Losing Ground" (Samuel Halperin), a review of demographic and economic data, paints a generally discouraging picture of noncollege youth losing ground on a host of social and economic indexes. "Public Opinion and the Youth of America" (Daniel Yankelovich) sees the balance among important trends shifting toward the negative in education, governmental responses, moral values, and public attitudes toward youth. "The Changing American Family" (Carol Emig) examines how conditions and circumstances have changed for the American family. "Communities: Powerful Resources for America's Youth" (Martin J. Blank, Carol Steinbach) highlights initiatives at the community level that are of positive consequence for improving the lives of The Forgotten Half. "Youth and School Reform: From the Forgotten Half to the Forgotten Third" (Jack Jennings, Diane Stark Rentner) reports that more students do not end their education after high school, but those left behind face a bleaker future. "Postsecondary Education: Student Success, Not Just Access" (Lawrence E. Gladieux, Watson Scott Swail) argues the key to success is completion of postsecondary studies. "Preparing Youth for the World of Work" (Thomas Bailey, Vanessa Smith Morest) concludes that no strategy or policy change has caused a broad, consistent national movement. "Ten Years of Youth in Service to America" (Shirley Sagawa) focuses on development of service opportunities for students and young people. "Reflections on a Decade of Promoting Youth Development" (Karen Pittman, Merita Irby) offers suggestions to strengthen the insights and thrust of the youth development movement. "On the Horizon: America's Youth Face the New Century" (Harold Howe II) describes two main tasks to complete the youth agenda. A summary of the report is included. (YLB)
Abstract: This report concludes the study of the Forgotten Half -the approximately 20 million 16 to 24-year-olds who are unlikely to attend college and will miss out on the priviledges accorded to the college-educated. Report commendations focus on four major strategies: (1) to enhance the quality of youth-adult relationships, both in and out of the family; (2) to expand community supports, with an emphasis on youth services and youth leadership activities, to help integrate all young people into their communities and the nation; (3) to extend and improve current opportunities for more non-college-bound youth; and (4) to take a long stride toward more equitable youth education and training policies with a proposed new Fair Change: Youth Opportunities Demonstration Act. A chapter suggests methods for youth organizations to be more effective meeting the needs of these youth. The resource directory, appendix and publications list suggest many sources of youth development information.
Among Napoleon's lesser known activities was matchmaking. Alix, widow of the Prince of Montpierre and known for her elegance and intelligence, seemed to the Emperor a good match for one of his most successful generals, Laroche. But Alix is loath to marry anyone, her first marriage not having been happy. An unexpected proposal by the Comte de Berthol - a mere acquaintance, but like herself a Luxembourger - seems suddenly more attractive than submission to the Emperor's palns. On reaching the Comte's castle at Falkenberg she finds a more interesting yet more mystifying personality than she had anticipated. The attempted murder of General Laroche begins a chain of events which leads her to discover a depth of emotion she had not known she could possess.
