In a Provocation newsletter a few months ago, #366, I wrote about Joseph Nye, the creator of the concept of soft power:
The late Joseph Nye developed the idea of soft power. His argument was simple: influence does not come from force. It comes from attraction. When you create a culture that people want to be part of, that culture is defined by values that are visible in action. In a governmental sense, it means policies feel legitimate because they line up with what people say they stand for.
That theory, applied to nations, should be a daily reality in schools.
I wrote that schools can let themselves down on the small stuff, the routines, rituals and habits of the everyday, and over-emphasise the big things: mission statements, strategies. Because the habits don’t match up with what the school says it’s trying to do, there’s no legitimacy, less cohesion, a dent to the power of the community.
Scotland’s football team has once more failed to force its way into winning enough goals to proceed in the World Cup. But with some confidence, I can say that Scottish football fans have achieved quite the opposite.
They have advanced through attraction.
The soft power of the Tartan Army in Boston has led to city twinnings, romance, lifelong friendships and a beer drought. It has also probably achieved more for US-UK relations than any governmental initiative in the past five years.
Soft power is anything but soft.
And the best soft power is lightly organised, just like the Tartan Army.
Largely democratic. Built on the natural strengths of the team. Forgiving of its foibles. Relentlessly positive, even in the face of (certain, it seems) defeat.
That is a further lesson for any learning organisation: find your people’s strengths, then work out a vehicle for amplifying them and celebrating them with anyone who’ll listen, or dance, with you.