# Soft to Each Other, Hard on the System

*Tom Geraghty · Politics, Diversity & Equity, Complexity & Systems, Interpersonal Practice*

A brief article accompanying a sticker design: 'be soft to each other and hard on the system'. A distillation of Deming's insight that a bad system beats a good person every time — and that compassion and structural critique are both necessary, not in tension.

- **This page:** https://explore.psychsafety.com/n/be-soft-to-each-other-and-hard-on-the-system/
- **Read the full article on psychsafety.com:** https://psychsafety.com/be-soft-to-each-other-and-hard-on-the-system/
- **Interactive map:** https://explore.psychsafety.com/?node=soft-hard-system

## Connected concepts (8)

- [Core Principles](https://explore.psychsafety.com/n/our-core-principles.md)
- [Some Social and Psychological Consequences of the Longwall Method of Coal-Getting](https://explore.psychsafety.com/n/trist-bamforth-1951.md) (paper)
- [PS is Political](https://explore.psychsafety.com/n/psychological-safety-is-political.md)
- [Blametropism](https://explore.psychsafety.com/n/blametropism.md)
- [Deming's 14 Points](https://explore.psychsafety.com/n/demings-14-points-of-management.md)
- [Individual Resilience](https://explore.psychsafety.com/n/individual-resilience.md)
- [WAI vs WAD](https://explore.psychsafety.com/n/psychological-safety-work-as-imagined-vs-work-as-done.md)
- [Understanding Variation](https://explore.psychsafety.com/n/understanding-variation.md)