Are Strong Passwords All That Strong?

pondering-on-passwords asks: "I work at a company that is planning to implement strong passwords to increase network security. Personally, I think that this may be counter productive since the passwords will tend to be more cryptic than most people are used to and I believe that they will write them down and leave them very close to their computers. I think this will be a greater risk for our traveling people using laptops. A strict security policy that is enforced may help some, but I still believe that people will end up making their passwords more accessible in the end. I am trying to find some information for or against implementing strong passwords, statistics on security breaches, etc. to back up my beliefs. Of particular interest would be material specifically on strong passwords, types of security breaches (i.e. social engineering, exploiting system vulnerabilities, password cracking, password theft, etc.), and possible alternative security methods (i.e. hardware tokens)."