Thursday, June 12, 2025

Soft Skills

 Recently, not so very long ago, a rather sad news item flashed on all sorts of screens, Lost to the cruel antics of the Hagwane  family drama and later the Sonam sadism, very few people noticed it. Yes, I am referring to the sad demise of Joseph Nye.

It was his concept of soft power that changed the world, in the political sphere, in the corporate culture, and oh, yes, in academic syllabi. Unfortunately, however many a student thinks of it as an alternative to professional expertise.

Which it is not! Yes, it could be considered an advance on the concept entitled "how to make friends" by Dale Carnegie. Carnegie's book in my opinion is the predecessor of the "how to" or the "DIY" wave.  Well, Nye's notion is not merely practical tips . It is a psychologically astute concept of inter-personal relationship.

A blog is not exactly the site for discussing the impact of behaviourism and/or cognitivism, and the Nye notion in such a theoretical paradigm. Suffice it to say that Nye's notion is both, academically strong and  practically relevant.

In international relationships, it means  co-option rather than coercion. That is to say, instead of brute coercion, it is better to use 'kid gloves' so to say.  Significantly, it was the LPG era of the '90's that coincided with the Nye-ian ideas.

Without getting cynical and wo(r)ld weary, it can be said that soft power means generating  more cultural and emotive responses to situations, and, oh, yes, to individual entities. Useful in its own way , it is not mere manipulation. It has helped many institutions to smoothen out crevices created due to egotism! Hence this remembrance!RIP, Nye. 

Pratima@ Sanju joined Bharat Forge on 8/8/88. In that company, often there used to sessions on soft skills. He used to practice them  at home! 

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