<p>Peter Checkland’s groundbreaking work on soft systems has been central to reframing understanding of human activity systems and emphasising the role of people in decision making. But in the success of soft systems methodology, the practitioner and their praxis have received less attention. In this paper we explore some early influences on Checkland which led to the welcome shift of systemicity to the process of inquiry into the world and also the framing choices resulting in a trap of hard-soft dualism. Informed by our own teaching and research experiences, we offer some critical reflections on the ‘soft-approach’ based on the Open University’s 55-year relationship with Checkland and his influence on the systems teaching and research praxis developed at the OU. In seeking to address some of the limitations of SSM (soft systems methodology), we outline how systems teaching at the OU by reframing hard and soft into a duality affords new ways of conceptualising praxis and a renewed focus on the practitioner. In recognising that all practice is embodied and situated, we account for the emergence of Systems Thinking in Practice (STiP) as a systemic model of praxis. Extending this into notions of co-inquiry as an adaptive ‘soft approach’, we briefly explore aspects of the application of STiP-informed social learning approaches to socially owned sustainability issues. As calls for systems approaches increase, the paper concludes with a call for more overt scholarship of praxis beyond a primary focus on methodology if we are to secure systemic improvement and betterment in situations of concern.</p>