Dustin (Narration) Essay -- essays research papers

Composition One: Narration   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  I can remember receiving the news like it was yesterday even though it feels like a lifetime since I last heard Dustin’s high pitched laugh. It’s still hard for me to talk about his suicide.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Even though Dustin had angelic features, such as light green eyes, dark blonde hair, and a smile that would get him out of anything, he was no angel. I remember the time he shot the windows of the bus with his B.B. gun or the time he put a flower in the ditch then gave it to the bus driver. He wasn’t too fond of the bus driver.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  He was always the first to try something new. when we went to San Antonio for vacation, there was a cliff that over looked the water and we were all scared to jump. Well, everyone except Dustin that is. I guess that’s the ironic part of his death, he was the first person almost everyone at school knew who had committed suicide.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  It was no later than 10:30 when, I was sitting in my Health class. I just opened the Health book, was flipping through the pages and I wasn’t paying much attention to Coach Andree’ when the intercom came on. â€Å"Coach Andree’,† the secretary announced. â€Å"Yes,† he answered. â€Å"Would you please send Dara Wilson to check out?† â€Å"Sure will.† he responded.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  I got up, packed my bag, and started walking out. I smiled at my friend Beau who said â€Å"you’re so lucky.† I had no clue why I was checking out, but I knew something wasn’t right. I started thinking of all the bad things that could have possibly gone wrong. I knew my brother went out the night before and he hadn’t come home when we left for school that morning, so I was worried about that. Maybe something had happened to him was all that was racing through my mind. I didn’t even notice that Dustin was absent that day. I walked up the hall to the office, a walk that was prolonged by the impatience of my curiosity. I wanted to know why I was leaving, especially so early in the school day. When I got to the office, I saw my Nanny Lisa there, all I could think was something was wrong with my mom or dad. I could read the sadness on the secretaries faces. Nanny Lisa was facing towards them and all I could see was her wavy fire red h air. Once she realized I was behind her, she turned to me and said the words that cha... ... a prayer for him and his family. It was a great amount of people in that hall, but not even one-fourth of the amount of people they had at the wake.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The wake was held two days later. There were hundreds of people, I never even realized how many people he had affected. Dustin’s family insisted on an open casket, to show all the children the effects of suicide, the reality of suicide. It was the saddest experience of my life. I didn’t feel as though I lost a friend, I felt like I had lost a family member.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  I once thought of suicide when I was depressed, but I have now seen the tolls that suicide takes on loved ones. I now realize that life is precious and I realize that all actions have consequences. Dustin was always the first to try something new, different, or scary. His death helped me grow up, and stop being as superficial. It helped me change my opinions on suicide. I once thought of it as an only escape from life or hard times. I now see that suicide only causes more problems. I now realize that suicide is the most selfish act a person could do. Dustin taught me that and I wish I could thank him personally for that.

Change, Follow, or Get Out of the Way Essay

Change in an organization can be and usually is difficult for various reasons. Much of the difficulty is in the approach used to initiate change and the willingness to stay engaged and stamina to sustain change through to the end. Organizations can choose to lead by recognizing and implementing change, follow in the shadow of organizations leading the market, or get out of the way by standing still and eventually going under. With this said; if change was easily done and successful for every organization there would be no need for change management specialists and years and years of study to establish approaches and models for implementing change. Change would be a natural evolutionary process such as a caterpillar evolves into a butterfly, but it is not that simple. Seemingly simple changes to processes or procedures can cause an unbalance with leaders and employees alike. First the need for change needs to be identified; followed by the proper model or approach used to implement this change. During this paper, I will discuss implementing the Advanced Skills Management (ASM) software change in an organization by using Kotter’s Eight-Step Approach. First it is important to give some background on how organizations are structured specifically aviation squadrons with respect to the Marine Corps. The military branches are large separate decentralized organizations that are controlled ultimately by the President of the United States. Since it is impossible for the President to efficiently manage all branches and all the separate divisions within them, each branch has a leader or CEO. Aviation squadrons are made up of different Military Occupational Specialties that pertain to the type model series aircraft assigned. Each specialty has different responsibilities in the care and maintenance of the aircraft; therefore, requires separate and different training and is broken down into separate departments. It has all the typical levels of management expected; executive managers, middle managers, and frontline managers as well as managerial types such as staff managers and line managers. The Commanding Officer would be considered the CEO with the Executive Officer, Sergeant Major, Maintenance Officer, and Maintenance Training Chief falling into the general manager level. The Officer in Charge of each division would fall into the mid-level and the Senior Marine in each department being the front-line managers. Each has similar reporting criteria, responsibilities, and decision making power as would a civilian organization structured this way. As one might imagine with a military unit it has a mechanistic structure with a high use of rules and procedures, with formal relationships between workers. In regards to the degree of delegation of decision making authority and power the organization is primarily centralized; however, some decentralization does exist to allow latitude in day to day business. The organization I have chosen is an organization I was previously attached. Diagnosing this change falls under the Action Research Model, primary because an outside agency comes in to perform audits looking at our processes and procedures to ensure proper adherence to applicable rules and regulations are being followed and to train or advice on changes required. Through their process they discovered our organization’s documentation was incomplete or not correctly annotated. This probably does not seem like a very difficult change to make considering it is just documentation; however, it does go deeper than simply changing how maintenance training is documented. The Chief of Naval Operations has established goals of seventy three percent MC (mission capable and fifty six percent FMC (full mission capable) as the overall material readiness goal (Aircraft Material Condition Readiness, 2012). When qualifications and training are not properly documented the ability and efficiency of the squadron is impaired causing the organization to struggle to me larger goals such as those of the Chief of Naval Operations, not to mention not being able to execute our Marine Corps mission. This change is difficult to determine if it should be referred to as first or second order changes, because it will and has affected the organization as a whole and for most members this will be a radical change. Within aviation squadrons each member is required to complete training syllabi for each of their different Military Occupational Specialty, ground support equipment, and advanced qualifications. Other training requirements such as safety training, NAVOSH (Navy equivalent to OSHA), Military Occupational Specialty classroom training, and on records of on-the-job training are maintained. All of this information is recorded on paper and kept in each members training jackets requiring large amounts of time to keep current. The first of Kotter’s Eight-Step Approach is establish a sense of urgency to have a pressing importance of action towards addressing issues and without this sense of urgency employees will not be motivated to examine markets and competitive realities needed to identify and discuss crises, potential crises, or opportunities the organization may be faced with (Weiss, 2012). In this instance the sense of urgency or the pressing importance of this change intervention on saving time on administrative actions, providing an efficient process for accurately recording training information for auditing purposes, and using that time on aircraft maintenance to enable the organization to better meet the Chief of Naval Operations goals for aircraft readiness. Also, confronting the brutal facts that training, because of the time consuming process now is not being documented accurately or in a timely manner, sometimes not at all. The goal here would be to help others recognize the need for change and generate a need to act immediately at all levels. To help all levels of leadership see the urgency, showing them the advantages to implementing the software would be my immediate action. First demonstrating the reduction of man hours spent maintaining and updating records. The work performed in military aviation is not measured in by a monetary bottom line as is the case in most civilian organizations. Success is measured by maintenance hours versus flight hours and mission readiness of the aircraft we maintain, so the more man hours saved the more can be spent towards the mission. Second advantage is the ability to standardize training and syllabi not only as an aviation community, but for each platform or type aircraft. This will allow easier transfer of personnel and qualifications from one squadron to another again easing the administrative burdens as well as better audit results. Third advantage is the software will link with the maintenance management system used to record all maintenance on the aircraft. This link will transfer on-the-job training for each member from the maintenance document to the on-the-job training section in ASM again saving administrative time of having to physically write each job performed in the training jacket. Second step of Kotter’s Eight-Step Approach is forming a powerful guiding coalition; done by assembling a team of top-level officers or other key influential members from the various levels with enough power and credibility to lead the changes and encourage these members to work as a team (Weiss, 2012). In the military, changes are often implemented simply through adherence to orders given by superiors. Members roger up and get the job done whether they agree or not, but the reason for change should be deeper than this. Sustaining the change under this type of implementation is very difficult and often does not hold. To be able to form a powerful coalition and convince leaders this proactive change is good and get buy-in both the implementation and the sustaining will be easier. In the case of ASM, it seems being able to demonstrate and show leaders at all levels of the management the advantages to implementing the software would be the first step in getting buy-in from them and to begin the coalition. These leaders will not entirely be those with legitimate power, but include those members whose expertise will also lend credibility to the need for this change. An example of this would be those who are responsible for ensuring training is properly conducted and recorded. Furthermore, to demonstrate how the software will save them administrative time, how it will enable better record keeping, show them the data warehousing to enable easier and more accurate reporting of core competencies, and eventually allow them to focus more man hour time on the mission. Third step in Kotter’s approach is developing a vision; meaning to create a vision as a guide to direct the changes along with the strategies that will be needed for achieving the vision (Weiss, 2012). Vision, or common goal, is something for the organization to strive for. This is not likely to be immediately achievable, but gives employees something to believe in and a direction for the company to focus their efforts (Weiss, 2011). The Marine Corps vision states â€Å"The Marine Corps of 2025 will fight and win our Nation’s battles with multicapable MAGTFs, either from the sea or in sustained operations ashore. Our unique role as the Nation’s force in readiness, along with our values, enduring ethos, and core competencies, will ensure we remain highly responsive to the needs of combatant commanders in an uncertain environment and against irregular threats. Our future Corps will be increasingly reliant on naval deployment, preventative in approach, leaner in equipment, versatile in capabilities, and innovative in mindset. In an evolving and complex world, we will excel as the Nation’s expeditionary â€Å"force of choice† (Marine Corps Vision & Strategy 2025, n. . , pg. 6). The Marine Corps vision mentioned, among other things, being â€Å"innovative in mindset†. Part of being innovative is finding ways to be more engaged in the mission and making sure assets are ready whenever and for whatever called upon. Innovation and change normally bring about efficiency and hopefully savings in either money or in this case man hours. The vision for implementing ASM is to create efficiency through innovation; simplifying indirect mission essential tasks allowing more focus on the direct mission goals. Strategy for implementation would be fairly simple and would require to first receive classroom training to learn basic functions of the system. Next phase would include implementing the system at the organization, which would include loading and entering all required qualifications and training from the paper versions of the training jacket. This would include further over the shoulder training from the company who developed the software to help speed the implementation process. This would serve two purposes; first it would allow members to get further training and confidence in the system by learning where information is stored and second they would have experts available to answer questions and issues during the implementation process to help further personal mastery. Fourth step is for the coalition or team formed in step two must communicate the vision by any means possible ensuring employees understand the vision requiring these team members to model the behaviors needed for the vision and strategies to be successful (Weiss, 2012). The vision will be communicated at every opportunity through emails, meetings, flyers, screen savers, texting, and memorandums throughout the squadron to ensure people are aware. Part of communicating the vision would include leaders receiving the training first to help during the implementation process and to show or be visible to the other members by setting the example using the new software with the intent that they will begin to communicate further to members below them. â€Å"A vision is not a vision if people don’t know about it. Repeat the vision, keep it simple, use metaphors and analogies, spread it in many forums and forms. Above all, lead by example. If integrating EH&S into every decision and business process is the vision, make sure you do it, no matter how trivial the decision. This sends a powerful message to everyone you encounter† (Lawrence & Ruth, 1998, para. 7). Step five involves empowering others to act on the vision. At this stage it is important that members become involved in the change and begin to take ownership in determining the success. Members will have received their training and will be operating the system on a day to day basis. This is where those members that have not bought into the change will begin to manifest themselves. They will begin to create barriers and want to revert back to the status quo, because they are comfortable with the old way of conducting business and where short-term wins will be important in showing them how the system is or will benefit them. â€Å"With the urgency established, the vision created, the guiding coalition and communication vehicles established, give employees the chance to take ownership. Eliminate obstacles that impede progress, such as lack of skills, or people who poison the water against change. Facilitate the use of cross-functional teams and allow employees to push the envelope with fresh ideas and renewed energy† (Lawrence & Ruth, 1998, para. 8). Step six is generating short-term wins to solidify the benefits of the change. Short-term wins with the ASM system would include saved time for the administrators maintaining the system and training records. By now there should be noticeable or measurable results available showing the amount of saved man hours or more than likely a measurable increase in man hours spent on the aircraft maintenance mission. As a result, the aircraft readiness should also be increasing allowing the squadron to reach or exceed the CNO goals. Another short-term win will include improved results on audits related to training management with more timely input of information and better accuracy. This in turn should increase the urgency and begin to create or solidify the new culture of using this system. â€Å"To ensure success, short term wins must be both visible and unambiguous. The wins must also be clearly related to the change effort. Such wins provide evidence that the sacrifices that people are making are paying off. This increases the sense of urgency and the optimism of those who are making the effort to change. These wins also serve to reward the change agents by providing positive feedback that boosts morale and motivation. The wines also serve the practical purpose of helping to fine tune the vision and the strategies† (Kotter International, 2012, step 6, para. 3). Step seven requires consolidation of gains and the production of more change. This is done by using increased credibility to change systems, structures and policies and hiring, promoting, and developing members to further implement and reinvigorate the change (Weiss, 2012). Policies such as time limits on completion of syllabi, testing procedures, and access permissions for example would be generated to better control and further enhance the efficiency of the system. Also those members who were causing the barriers for progress of the system would need to be dealt with in order for the change initiative to continue. Unlike many civilian organizations, hiring and firing employees to better position the organization is not an option. Leaders in the upper levels can be relieved, but at lower levels positions are filled by external agencies and you have what you get and make the magic happen with the talent that exists. This often times is very difficult to juggle putting the right people in the right positions to conduct day to day business, much less initiate change and sustain it; so much time is spent trying to develop Marines. During this paper, I discussed implementing the Advanced Skills Management (ASM) software change in an organization by using Kotter’s Eight-Step Approach. It can be a difficult task to implement change, especially when dealing with the various different personalities involved. Having a plan to be able to create urgency for the change, creating coalitions with leaders, and empowering employees with knowledge can make the change process easier by ensuring employees are a part of and take responsibility for the success. In civilian organizations removing those who do not want to be part of the change is an option; however, in the military setting this is not a likely solution making the idea of getting buy-in from members even more important.

Indian Socks Essay

Trivial though usually looked upon, ‘Socks’ is definitely an important part of a person’s wardrobe. Still, since long the segment is not taken to be vital. Attributing towards negligence from policy makers and business developers for the sector kept unattended or least valued, Mr Rohit Pal, MD- Renfro India speaking exclusively for News team at fibre2fashion describes â€Å"This segment within clothing has never got its due respect for many years, but I think that outlook has to be changed, and to an extent it is changing now.† â€Å"Socks may not be playing major part as economy driver, but still if the segment is taken seriously it can earn good profits for players,† opines Mr Vineet Bhatia, Properitor of V K Knitting Industries. Mr Raj Kumar Jain, MD – Bonjour, bringing out the importance of sector, comments â€Å"Socks is a requirement of common men for everyday needs. It is estimated to be having over 3000 manufacturing units out of which 85% is in and around Delhi and its national capital regions. And out of this, over 95% business is unorganized and fragmented. I estimate it to be around Rs. 3000crs. Business.† According to Mr Pal’s estimates, Indian knitwear market size is more than Rs. 25000crs, and socks in region would be between around Rs. 600 to 700crs at both organized and unorganized retail end excluding wholesale. He accentuates, â€Å"I think that socks would turn as part of what I call accessorization and accessories adds as a vital sector under garmenting. I estimate it’s been of importance in growing at a very rapid pace around 10 to 25% annually. If it has not got its due importance in the past, it has now got a pace today and it is likely to grow.† Analyzing the impediments in the growth of this category, Mr Bhatia draws attention to lack of good technology in India on this front. He highlights, â€Å"I am interacting with many customers internationally. Overall, our line of players lags behind international competitors in technology. Otherwise, we have better opportunity in international market than in India. Export from India is not much as far as socks is concerned. But domestic market is good.† Mr Jain also notes that for the socks industry there is no training college which will help socks industry get groomed in India. Not a single institution is established to give any training on skills honing in this line. Even for operating machines both- hand operated and automated, training is essential in his view. Mr Ajit Lakra, president of Chamber of Knitwear and Textile Associations of Ludhiana, sees a very big scope for domestic consumption and exports of knitwear. He points up, â€Å"I believe knitwear sector has a big role to play and what is required to have is more good institutes for improving the skills at all levels.† 10% excise duty is a detrimental aspect for Socks sector too. Mr Bhatia expresses, â€Å"Socks is a low cost product and bearing 10% excise duty is justsinking our product. Already cotton prices in the entire year have increased too much and above that excise duty that too 10% is just a suicidal kind of a thing† â€Å"It is either you pay 10% on wholesale or you pay 6% on MRP whatever higher,† mentions Mr Pal.

Analysis Of The Novel Scarlet Letter Essay -- The Scarlet Letter, Na

Hester Prynne is adorned with namesake of this novel as a result the sin that she committed. Although she is a â€Å"sinner†, she is far from an evil character; instead showing compassion and offering help often. She made a mistake but accepted her punishment, and became a better person because of it. Prynne did not allow her sin to define who she is as a person. She has committed far less sin than many of the characters in the book, but because of the society she lives in she is made an outsider because of her actions. There is very little evil behind her sin. She was left alone, and was unsure ifte. He saw a sin enacted against him, and instead of letting it go, or growing because of it, he lets himself become such an evil person, that it is subtly implied that he is the devil himself. He prevents the happiness of many, and directly leads to a man’s death. The actions of this man are certainly CHILLING. Sin and evil are driving forces of â€Å"Scarlet Letter†, and they are shown in different ways in different people. The way people act in the face of evil is very indicative of who the person truly is. Some people grow from sin, while others let it eat them alive. Those who commit the most visible sin can be the most good-natured, while someone who commits their sins unknowingly to others can be the most evil. Hawthorne is able to provide clear examples of the varied types of people in the world, and how their evil actions can affect the community around them.

Developing Hospitality properties Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Developing Hospitality properties - Essay Example So, the advertising will consist of direct mail, banner ads, and inserts. Also, special efforts will be taken to ensure the appearance of special articles about the restaurant in newspapers and other health magazines. This is so because it has been found that such articles have the potential to attract people easily and convince them. It has been found that restaurants and other businesses which manage to have articles published in newspapers and magazines experience dramatic growth in business. So, personal relationships will be utilised to achieve this aim. Allen Pasta Restaurant aims to offer its customers the best and most delicious pasta meal in the city. Also, this will be offered in the best and most pleasing ambience. Furthermore, special attention will be taken to ensure that the customers are given a better service than they anticipated (Marketing strategy, 2000). Thus, it becomes evident that Allen’s customers are aged from 25-55, who are responsible for 62% of the total consumption in the city of -------. Though age is not a matter of important concern, Allen’s customers will be young working people and families with an income above $ 40,000. Another point is the increasing health-consciousness in the city. So, a considerable proportion of the customers will be the health-conscious eaters of the city who are willing to spend money for healthy eating options. Allen Pasta Restaurant wants to position itself as an average-priced, upscale, pasta restaurant. The customers will be the ones who love quality and tasty pastas, health-conscious, educated individuals, groups, and families, usually within the age of 25-50. Service- In order to ensure that the customers are offered the best service experience in the city, the employees will be given special training. Only quality employees will be deployed. It is calculated that better product along with better service will help the company beat its rivals. The most important

TMA 01 (essay) Option 1 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

TMA 01 ( ) Option 1 - Essay Example It will focus in the various psychological processes that are involved in this learning process by relating the specific problem with how children learn and develop where theories such as behaviourism, social constructivism among others will be focused on where each theory will be focus on in detail. The paper will then relate the key points in these theories with the example of brushing teeth. Finally, it will conclude by summarizing the learning outcomes of this exercise. Context Alex’s case is being used as context to examine what processes the brain requires to undertake when it comes to learning in children. One of the Major aspects of the brain, which is crucial in teaching Alex how to brush his teeth, is memory. This is because, it is important for Alex’s mind to remember how he saw his mother brushing her teeth in order for Alex to learn how to brush his teeth. For instance, Alex’s mother congratulates him when he is able to brush his teeth. When the memo ry part of Alex’s brain associates brushing with a reward, which is in this case, is the congratulations, then it will result in Alex being able to learn how to brush his teeth by himself. This is mainly so since deep in his mind he feels that his mother will congratulate him. However, there are more processes involved in the process of Alex learning how to brush his teeth other than memory. These processes are well defined in the various theories of learning. In this case, the paper will consider social leaning theory, Behaviourism theory, social constructivism theory, and the constructivism theory. Behaviourism Between the 1920s and 1950s, behaviourism was the major paradigm that was used to understand human behaviour. It combined methodology, psychology, theory. The theory was generally based on various assumptions (Crain, 2000). The first assumption was that psychology was a form of science hence theories should be supported by data that is empirical gotten from the contr olled and careful observation and the measurement of behaviour. Thus, its goal was to predict and control. The second assumption that the theory took was that the primary concern when it came to understanding human behaviour as observable without the influence of things such as emotion or thinking. The theory was based on the assumption that the environment around them determined human behaviour thus people did not possess free will. The theory also assumed that very little difference existed between the learning process of human beings and animals. The theory assumed that the brain was born blank and that human beings assimilated behaviours because of some stimulus. This meant that any behaviour that human beings can be traced down to a specific stimulus and from the stimulus the different way in which the human would assimilate certain behaviour could be determined. Behaviourism theory was also used in philosophy. Though somehow similar , the philosophical approach of the theory s tipulated that the behaviour of human beings should be viewed as natural science where what they do can be traced to a stimulus assuming that they did not think or be emotionally influenced into perfuming the action. Edmund Fantino developed this aspect of behaviourism Social learning Theory The social learning theory is an approach to psychology in understanding the learning process in human beings. The theory stipulates that human beings learning outcomes are indeed based on the social context that they are in. This theory, relates more to children where

Dunkins brands strategic performance Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Dunkins brands strategic performance - Article Example The growth rate is healthy due to lucrative returns for franchisee and surging sales in the Dunkin’ Donuts outlets in U.S. Answer: In the fourth quarter of 2013, the corporation announced an increase by 13.3% in terms of revenues to about $183.2 million. It is believed that the performance was optimistic due to rising sales of Dunkin’ Donuts same-stores which was about 3.5% and at Baskin-Robbins U.S. sales increased by 2.2%. Despite the decline in consumer spending power and harsh conditions of weather, Dunkin’ Brands appears to be doing extraordinarily satisfactorily. We are optimistic about future sales as we are expecting that our sales of Dunkin’ Donuts will increase in between 3-4% in U.S. and Baskin-Robbins in between 1-2% during the period of 2014. Moreover, dividends were also increased by 21% in the quarter which is a positive indication of our firm’s financial performance. Dunkin Brands Group Inc. is the well-known QSR Company which has more than 17,000 distribution points in more than sixty countries globally. It is recognised for being the world’s top ranked franchisors of QSR which is serving a unique range of baked goods, hot and cold coffees and ice creams. In order to effectively manage the business operations, it has four vital components classified as Dunkin’ Donuts, Baskin-Robbins, Nutrition Advisory Board and Culinary Dream Team. Since it has international operations, it is employing franchise model in global destinations. As of 2011, there are 100% franchised business models which comprise of about 10,500 restaurants of Dunkin’ Donuts and 7,000 outlets of Baskin-Robbins. For the period of 2012, Dunkin’ Brands reported sales of more than $8.8 billion generated from its franchisees. The corporation has its headquarters in Canton, Mass. Dunkin’ Brands is well-aware of the fact that the strength of a company lies in its skilled, loyal and experienced workforce and it strives to develop