“Hard (plans, numbers, org charts) is soft. Soft (people, relationships, culture) is hard.” Those two sentences-ideas have been the core of my work for decades.
So how about this, from a 12/20/17 Washington Post article:
“Project Oxygen [data from 1998-2013] shocked everyone [at Google] by concluding that among the eight most important qualities of Google’s top employees, STEM expertise comes in dead last. The seven top characteristics of success at Google are all soft skills—being a good coach, communicating and listening well, having empathy toward and being supportive of one’s colleagues …”
The paper attached here—”Hard is Soft. Soft is Hard. Google Gets a (Big) (Soft) Surprise”—starts with the Google case and moves into other arenas to discuss “Hard is soft. Soft is hard.” It is very short and intended to be a thought starter. It’s also, frankly, an excuse to get the Google finding in front of more people: If the Google tale doesn’t make you stop in your tracks, I honestly don’t know what would!!!!!!!!!! (The excerpt included from Rich Karlgaard’s book The Soft Edge is also a “showstopper”—giving conventional wisdom a well deserved good, swift, kick in the butt.)
Over to you …