Escaping the Procrustean Bed; The Bed of Sameness

In Greek mythology, Procrustes was a bandit who forced travelers to fit his iron bed—stretching or amputating their limbs to match its size. This brutal metaphor, the Procrustean bed, has come to symbolize the dangers of rigid systems that demand conformity, regardless of individual or contextual differences.

In today’s management landscape, this metaphor is more relevant than ever. Leaders often impose uniform frameworks, standardized KPIs, and one-size-fits-all strategies in the name of efficiency and control. But in doing so, they risk amputating the very diversity, creativity, and adaptability that organizations need to thrive in complexity.

The Crisis of Sameness in Modern Society and Management

Philosopher Byung-Chul Han, in The Agony of Eros, critiques the modern obsession with efficiency, sameness, and self-optimization. He argues that we are eliminating the Other—the unfamiliar, the unpredictable, the disruptive force that challenges and transforms us.

In leadership terms, this translates to:

• Over-standardization of roles and processes.
• Suppression of dissent in favor of harmony.
• Over-reliance on data at the expense of intuition and context.

Han warns that this culture of sameness—what he calls the “positivity of the Same”—leads to burnout, disengagement, and a loss of meaning. It’s not oppression from above, but self-exploitation in the name of performance. Negativity is the source of the Other, of desire, of beauty. Without it, we are trapped in the smooth hell of the Same.

Reintroducing Negativity: A Leadership Asset

Han’s concept of negativity is not about pessimism—it’s about creating space for difference, resistance, and reflection. In leadership, this means:

• Encouraging constructive dissent and ethical debate.
• Allowing ambiguity and silence in decision-making.
• Valuing emotional intelligence alongside data.

Negativity is what allows leaders to see what doesn’t fit, to question what’s taken for granted, and to adapt rather than conform.

The Procrustean Trap in Leadership

In management, the Procrustean bed shows up when:

• We apply identical performance metrics across diverse teams.
• We expect creative functions to conform to operational KPIs.
• We use rigid planning tools in highly uncertain environments.
• We treat people as interchangeable units, rather than unique contributors.

Example: A global company mandates that all departments use the same quarterly OKR framework. While this may work for sales or operations, it stifles innovation in R&D, where progress is nonlinear and discovery-driven.

Wardley Mapping: When Optimization Fits—and When It Doesn’t

Simon Wardley’s mapping framework helps leaders avoid Procrustean thinking by showing that not all parts of a system should be managed the same way. It maps components along an evolution curve:

1. Genesis – Novel, uncertain, experimental (e.g., new product ideas)
2. Custom-built – Tailored solutions (e.g., early prototypes)
3. Product – Standardized offerings (e.g., SaaS platforms)
4. Commodity – Highly industrialized, utility-like (e.g., cloud storage)

Optimization makes sense in the Product and Commodity stages, where:

• Processes are repeatable.
• Efficiency and cost control are key.
• Best practices and automation can be applied.

But in the Genesis and Custom stages, applying the same logic is a mistake:

• These areas require experimentation, failure, and iteration.
• Metrics like ROI or cycle time may be irrelevant or misleading.
• Over-optimization here kills innovation.

Example: A startup team exploring a new AI product should not be held to the same delivery cadence or cost-efficiency metrics as a team managing a mature CRM platform.

Leadership in Practice: Moving Beyond the Bed

To lead beyond the Procrustean bed, managers must:

• Design adaptive systems that respond to context, not enforce uniformity.
• Empower teams to challenge assumptions and propose alternatives.
• Balance metrics with meaning, and efficiency with empathy.
• Recognize that not all value is measurable, and not all success is scalable.

Example: A design team working on a new customer experience should be evaluated on insight generation and user empathy, not just delivery speed or budget adherence.

Final Thought

The myth of Procrustes warns us of the cost of forced conformity. Byung-Chul Han reminds us that true leadership begins where sameness ends—in the courage to embrace complexity, difference, and the unknown.

In a world obsessed with optimization, perhaps the most strategic act of leadership is to make space for what doesn’t fit the bed—and to lead not by cutting, but by expanding the frame.