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A Committee Is Organic Rather Than Mechanical In Its Nature: It Is Not A Structure But A Plant. It Takes Root And Grows, It Flowers, Wilts, And Dies, Scattering The Seed From Which Other Committees Will Bloom In Their Turn.

-C. Northcote Parkinson

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A Committee Is Organic

C. Northcote Parkinson

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A Committee Is Organic Rather Than Mechanical In Its Nature: It Is Not A Structure But A Plant. It Takes Root And Grows, It Flowers, Wilts, And Dies, Scattering The Seed From Which Other Committees Will Bloom In Their Turn.

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The Man Who Is Denied The Opportunity Of Taking Decisions Of Importance Begins To Regard As Important The Decisions He Is Allowed To Take. He Becomes Fussy About Filing, Keen On Seeing That Pencils Are Sharpened, Eager To Ensure That The Windows Are Open (or Shut) And Apt To Use Two Or Three Different-colored Inks.

The Vacuum Created By A Failure To Communicate Will Quickly Be Filled With Rumor, Misrepresentations, Drivel, And Poison.

People Of Great Ability Do Not Emerge, As A Rule, From The Happiest Background. So Far As My Own Observation Goes, I Would Conclude That Ability, Although Hereditary, Is Improved By An Early Measure Of Adversity And Improved Again By A Later Measure Of Success.

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Expansion Means Complexity And Complexity Decay.

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The Nice Thing About Standards Is, There Are So Many To Choose From. Work Expands To Fill The Time Available For Its Completion.

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Procrastination

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Administrators Make Work For Each Other So That They Can Multiply The Number Of Their Subordinates And Enhance Their Prestige.

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The Man Who Is Denied The Opportunity Of Taking Decisions Of Importance Begins To Regard As Important The Decisions He Is Allowed To Take.

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