The hard stuff is measurable, quantifiable and easy to put into a spreadsheet. This concrete stuff gives you an easy way to demand a bonus or track progress.

The soft stuff is merely essential, the real reason you do what you do.

Ironically, then, hard is easy and soft is difficult.

According to Seth Godin:

“Measurement is fabulous. Unless you’re busy measuring what’s easy to measure as opposed to what’s important.”

The question, I guess, is whether or not you and your team spend most of your time on the hard stuff, merely because it’s easier to measure, to argue about and to hide behind?