This Focused Performance Weblog is a "business management blog" containing links and commentary related primarily to organizational effectiveness with a "Theory of Constraints" perspective. TOC is noted for its applications in Project Management and Multi-Project Management (Critical Chain) and Operations Management (Drum-Buffer-Rope), as well as in Marketing, Strategic Planning and Change Management (TOC Thinking Processes). If you are on an archive page, current postings are found here.
Tuesday, June 10, 2003
Word of the Day - Procrustean -- From The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition, via Bartleby...
Procrustean SYLLABICATION: Pro·crus·te·an
PRONUNCIATION: (audio link) ADJECTIVE: Producing or designed to produce strict conformity by ruthless or arbitrary means.
ETYMOLOGY: After Procrustes, a mythical Greek giant who stretched or shortened captives to make them fit his beds, from Latin Procrustes, from Greek Prokrousts, from prokrouein, hammer out, to stretch out : pro-, forth; see pro + krouein, to beat.
In order to avoid sempiternal, profligate projects, some managers rely on procrustean adherence to milestone schedules and budgets, only to encounter iatrogenic loss of quality.
(Eschew obfuscation.)
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