The Commitments

Barrytown, Dublin, has something to sing about. The Commitments are spreading the gospel of the soul. Ably managed by Jimmy Rabbitte, brilliantly coached by Joey 'The Lips' Fagan, their twin assault on Motown and Barrytown takes them by leaps and bounds from the parish hall to the steps of the studio door. But can The Commitments live up to their name? The bestselling book behind the long-running West End stage show. 'Unstoppable fun. A big-hearted, big-night out' The Times

This book examines The Commitments (Parker, 1991) for the first time as a film, rather than an adaptation of Roddy Doyle’s bestselling novel, and as a significant cultural event in 1990s Ireland. A major hit in Ireland and around the world, the film depicts the short-lived attempts of an ensemble of young working-class Dubliners to achieve success as a soul covers band, playing the hits of Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding, and others, on a mission to ‘bring soul back to Dublin’. Drawing upon interviews with key figures involved in the film and its music, including Roddy Doyle, Angeline Ball, and Bronagh Gallagher, as well as archival research of director Alan Parker’s papers, the book explores questions of authenticity associated with youth, music, class, and culture, and assesses the film’s legacy for the Irish film industry, Irish music scenes, and Irish youth. It also examines the film’s status as a truly transnational production. This concise, yet interdisciplinary case study will be of interest to students and researchers in popular music, cultural studies, and sociology, as well as film and media studies.

You'll never see leadership the same way again after reading this book. These fifteen commitments are a distillation of decades of work with CEOs and other leaders. They are radical or provocative for many. They have been game changers for us and for our clients. We trust that they will be for you too. Our experience is that unconscious leadership is not sustainable. It won't work for you, your team or your organization in the long term. Unconscious leadership can deliver short term results, but the costs of living and leading unconsciously are great. Fear drives most leaders to make choices that are at odds with healthy relationships, vitality and balance. This fear leaves a toxic residue that won't be as easily tolerated in an increasingly complex business environment. Conscious leadership offers the antidote to fear. These pages contain a comprehensive road map to guide you to shift from fear-based to trust-based leadership. Once you learn and start practicing conscious leadership you'll get results in the form of more energy, clarity, focus and healthier relationships. You'll do more and more of what you are passionate about, and less of what you do out of obligation. You'll have more fun, be happier, experience less drama and be more on purpose. Your team will get results as well. They'll be more collaborative, creative, energized and engaged. They'll solve issues faster, and once resolved the issues won't resurface. Drama and gossip will all but disappear, and the energy and resources that fueled them will be redirected towards innovation and creativity. Any one of these commitments will change your life. All of them together are revolutionary. Leaders who practice the 15 commitments: - End blame and criticism - Speak candidly, openly and honestly, in a way that invites others to do the same - Find their unique genius - Let go of taking everything-especially themselves and their problems-so seriously - Create win for all solutions - Experience a new relationship to time and money where there is always enough What do you need to bring to the table? Be curious. Sounds so simple, and yet in our experience it's a skill few have mastered. Most of us are far more interested in being right and proving it, than we are in learning, growing and shifting out of our old patterns. By default we gravitate towards the familiar. We're asking you to take a chance and explore the unfamiliar. You'll get scared and reactive. We all do. So what? Just stay curious and let us introduce you to a whole new world of leadership.

Why do some organizations regularly outperform their competition? ​What's the key to creating a united team that's an unstoppable force in your market? The answer lies in eliminating internal competition, people knowing and doing their job, and protecting each other. As a starting center for the Utah Jazz for over 10 years, Mark Eaton experienced the transformation of his team from cellar dweller to one with an extraordinary 20 consecutive playoff appearances. In The Four Commitments of a Winning Team, Eaton shares the lessons he learned in his incredible journey from a 21-year-old auto mechanic to a record-breaking NBA All-Star, distilled into a simple but powerful plan of action. This book will help you--whether you're a CEO, team leader, or individual--inspire, strengthen, and motivate your team to outperform your competition and achieve record-breaking success.

Regardless of your trading methods, and no matter what markets you’re involved in, there is a Commitments of Traders (COT) report that you should be reviewing every week. Nobody understands this better than Stephen Briese, an industry-leading expert on COT data. And now, with The Commitments of Traders Bible, Briese reveals how to use the predictive power of COT data—and accurately interpret it—in order to analyze market movements and achieve investment success.

Effective Leaders Don't List Commitments ... They Live Commitments What really defines leadership? Our concepts of leadership are usually based on our unique personal experiences, and it is clear that a leadership style that works in one situation can be a recipe for disaster in another. In leadership, one size does not fit all. In The Five Commitments of a Leader, Mark Leheney asserts that a more revealing way to examine leadership is through the commitments a leader makes (or fails to make). He focuses on five commitments a leader must make to be effective—commitments to: •The self •People •The organization •The truth •Leadership

The growing interest in multiple commitments among researchers and practitioners is evinced by the greater attention in the literature to the broader concept of work commitment. This includes specific objects of commitment, such as organization, work group, occupation, the union, and one's job. In the last several years a sizable body of research has accumulated on the multidimensional approach to commitment. This knowledge needs to be marshaled, its strengths highlighted, and its importance, as well as some of its weaknesses made known, with the aim of guiding future research on commitment based on a multidimensional approach. This book's purpose is to summarize this knowledge, as well as to suggest ideas and directions for future research. Most of the book addresses what seems to be the important aspects of commitment by a multidimensional approach: the differences among these forms, the definition and boundaries of commitment foci as part of a multidimensional approach, their interrelationships, and their effect on outcomes, mainly work outcomes. Two chapters concern aspects rarely examined--the relationship of commitment foci to aspects of nonwork domains and cross-cultural aspects of commitment foci--that should be important topics for future research. Addressing innovative focuses of multiple commitments at work, this book: *suggests a provocative and innovative approach on how to conceptualize and understand multiple commitments in the workplace; *provides a thorough and updated review of the existing research on multiple commitments; *analyzes the relationships among commitment forms and how they might affect behavior at work; and *covers topics rarely covered in multiple commitment research and includes all common scales of commitment forms that can assist researchers and practitioners in measuring commitment forms.

Revised edition of a classic text long out of print--a moral analysis of making, keeping, and breaking personal commitments. In this groundbreaking book, Dr. Farley explores how commitments, rooted in the story of God's love, are acts of free choice and love that yield a claim. Farley's reflections are also rooted in the concrete experiences of people who strive to be faithful to what they have claimed to love: "My concern is to name something that I think is, after all, common to all of our lives an experience, a reality, perhaps a problem, a challenge, something that is sometimes a source of joy, sometimes a cause of tragedy." In eight short chapters Farley explores the nature and meaning of commitment as it is played out in our lives, addressing love, fidelity, a sense of obligation, and covenant. She also reflects on whether each commitment must be kept, and what we should do if, despite our best efforts, our commitments break down. "A brilliant study, in the literal sense that it brings needed light and clarity to a great deal of our everyday experience of sorting out, changing, reaffirming, attempting to prioritize, and wrestling with the constantly varying demands of our many freely chosen commitments." Anne E. Patrick (of the original edition) Of the original edition, Paul Wadell wrote, "Personal Commitments is a superb book that cannot be recommended too highly. Though richly research and tightly argued, its style and method make it accessible to anyone wishing to explore the commitments we make and the wholeness we seek when we make them." Another reviewer wrote "Personal Commitments is far more than a book on the ethics of commitment and obligation; rather, it is a searching account of love in both the personal and social relationships that form human life.

Meet the Rabbitte family, motley bunch of loveable ne'er-do-wells whose everyday purgatory is rich with hangovers, dogshit and dirty dishes. When the older sister announces her pregnancy, the family are forced to rally together and discover the strangeness of intimacy. But the question remains: which friend of the family is the father of Sharon's child? By the bestselling author of The Commitments, now a long-running West End stage show. 'Unstoppable fun. A big-hearted, big-night out' The Times