I am convinced there are a finite number of rules we need to follow to live a happy and productive life. I also think we complicate rule-making by creating a rule for every edge case. That creates confusion and in many cases, dysfunction. Why not keep things simple?

Remember the book – “All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten”? That.

Even when we have few rules, we can use those rules in many different ways to achieve our goals.

Now, I’m no “law of attraction” guy – and I’m not a “new-agey” spiritualist (pay no attention to those pyramid shaped crystals under my dreamcatcher) but I do think the 12 Laws of Karma is a pretty good starting point for the “list.” Some would argue the 10 Commandments are a good starting point, and I agree there are a couple of good ones on that list, too. But quoting Karmic laws doesn’t seem to raise the collective blood pressure of folks below the 37^th Latitude as much as getting into the “big 10” does.

So here’s my riff on the 12 Laws of Karma – and audience engagement.

 
The Great Law

“As you sow, so shall you reap.” Also known as the “Law of Cause and Effect.”

To experience engagement, you must be engaged yourself. To be disengaged and expect others to be engaged contradicts the fundamentals of engagement.

The Law of Creation

Engagement requires our participation to happen. It does not happen by itself.

The Law of Humility

One must accept something in order to change it. You are part of the problem and part of the solution. You must accept your role in the negative and the positive in order to make a change.

The Law of Growth

It is we who must change and not the people, places or things around us if we want to have engagement. We must change and grow to affect the system in which we work and play.

The Law of Responsibility

If there is something wrong in one’s life, there is something wrong in them.

We mirror what surrounds us, and what surrounds us mirrors us; this is a Universal Truth. One must take responsibility for what is in one’s life. If there is disengagement in your work, look to yourself first.

The Law of Connection

The smallest or seemingly least important of things must be done because everything builds on the small step before it. There is no “more” important element of engagement. None of the elements work if the smallest, least significant one is ignored.

The Law of Focus

One cannot think of two things at the same time. Engagement is the focus. Not ROI. Not business outcomes. Just engagement.

Those other things we try to hold simultaneously with engagement happen after engagement happens – they are not available to think and talk about until after engagement occurs. Focus on engagement. The rest will follow.

The Law of Giving and Hospitality

If you believe it is possible to be engaged, you must practice and demonstrate that belief. Belief must be put into practice.

The Law of Here and Now

Old thoughts, old patterns of behavior, and old dreams prevent us from having new ones. Blaming and recounting why we are disengaged doesn’t help us become engaged. Focus on today’s issues, not yesterday’s mistakes.

The Law of Change

History repeats itself until we learn the lessons that we need to learn to change our path.

You will fail. Accept that. Endeavor to keep making changes until you find your next level of failure.

The Law of Patience and Reward

All reward, recognition, and incentives require initial toil.

Rewards of lasting value require patient and persistent toil.

True engagement comes from doing what one is supposed to be doing and knowing that the reward will come in its own time.

The Law of Significance and Inspiration

One gets back from something whatever they put into it.

The true value of something is a direct result of the energy and intent that is put into it.

Every personal contribution is also a contribution to the Whole.

Lesser contributions have no impact on the Whole, nor do they work to diminish it.

Loving contributions bring life to and inspire the Whole.

Engagement is a karmic experience.

As I repurposed the 12 Laws of Karma with an engagement spin I had to resist the impulse to leave them alone. The laws, as they were written on the site I “borrowed” them from, could easily be taken in whole with no edits, and they would apply to how you should approach engagement in your own organization.

In fact #12 is a direct quote – I didn’t change anything from the site.

See – there are so few rules. Learn these. Apply these. Your engagement will soar.

And as the Karmic Law of Focus suggests, the results will come, grasshopper. The results will come.

Image from https://www.flickr.com/photos/jamesjordan/

…  In other words, attention and connection with individuals is a zero-sum game. Where I spend time “socializing” in the digital space takes away from other places I could spend time. Digital and analog.

Show of hands, how many of you actually know your neighbors? If the answer is yes, now think about those who live three doors down from you. Do you know them?

If you’re representative of a study highlighted in an article from the Atlantic called “Why Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”, about 30% of you don’t know your neighbors.

I’m not surprised by this statistic at all.

I was a military brat until high school. I never lived next door to anybody for any length of time. The last place my parents lived was Ohio. They lived there 40 years and were very close to their neighbors. However, my own experience here in South Carolina, where I have lived for 20 years in the same house, is that I know the neighbors, but I’m not friends with them.

Is Social a Zero Sum Game?

But here’s the interesting thing and the point of this post.  The article suggests that we don’t know our neighbors anymore because we can only manage so much social capital. Each of us has a limit to the time and attention we can spend with people other than ourselves or our immediate families. I think this borrows heavily from the idea of the “Dunbar Number” – the theoretical limit to the number of close relationships we have.

In Dunbar’s case, the limit was based on the number of connections (ie, people) – this discussion focuses on the limit of what they call “social capital.”  The speculation is that the more time we spend on social networks, X, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, etc., burns up social capital. And if you think of social capital like a bank account, each time we connect, regardless of the method, we deduct from that account.

Therefore, the more we spend in the digital social world, the LESS time we have for face-to-face in the analog, real world. And vice versa.

Does that mean attention and connection with individuals is a zero-sum game? Where I spend time “socializing” in the digital space takes away from other places I could spend time.

Not Just Personal – It’s Professional Too

I find this interesting, not just from a sociological standpoint in our personal lives, but whether this occurs in our professional lives as well? I’ve been banging the drum for 15+ years that technology is getting in the way of being human. Technology isn’t helping as much as it is making it more difficult for us to connect and engage professionally and personally. I think the referenced article on The Atlantic is validation that technology is robbing us of our need to connect and be more human.

So the question you have to ask yourself:

Is my spending so much time online limiting my ability to have face-to-face and one-on-one relationships professionally and personally?

I am watching companies adding more and more technology to the mix to make human beings more efficient in their jobs and more efficient at getting consumers to buy one more thing. That additional technology comes packaged with the ability to connect with people digitally, whether that be on instant messaging apps or through shared workplace apps like Slack. And that interaction is taking the place of what we normally would’ve done in face-to-face meetings or phone calls. And therefore, we are missing out on learning and knowing about the individuals we work with. And that same process is being repeated in the consumer space.

I think we are trading out human-to-human interaction for technologically enabled interaction. And because it’s a zero-sum game, we can’t get that human-to-human connection back.

In the meantime, start thinking about the sum total of your interactions on a day-to-day basis, both personally and professionally. See if you can dial up the face-to-face  (that can be phone calls) and dial down the digital.

Human beings were meant to be analog.

We are adaptable, and that’s what’s allowed us to become what we are today, but sometimes we need to kind of dial it down a little bit and become what we were yesterday.

Which is (was) a group of people sitting around a campfire telling stories and bonding.

Go do that. Create those experiences for your customers, your channel partners and your employees.

Or are we all Reddit, substack and medium?

One thing I know to my core…. no one want’s me on tiktok dancing.

I remember Chris Brogan saying never build your house on rented land and that made so much sense to me. I always hate putting anything at risk with such a huge single point of failure.

As if it would matter anyway.

But I digress.

Paul Hebert 3.0

I’ve been heads down for a few years now. I was doing sales for a while (pro-tip: don’t start a sales job during a pandemic.) Most recently I’ve been designing consumer loyalty and email programs. During that time, I didn’t really have much energy or desire to work on my thought leadership (followership? who really is a thought leader?).

Not that I didn’t have opinions. I’ve never been at a loss for those.

I should have been talking about technology getting in the way of engagement and loyalty.

I should have been talking about the new “pig in the python” (google it if you don’t know the reference.)

I should be talking about how companies are training their audiences to response to “deals” and “offers” instead of responding to support and future success.

I should be talking about how loyalty is so one sided it’s one dimensional.

I should be talking about how nostalgia is the next marketing wave IMO.

But I didn’t. But I should’ve.

And now I will.

It’ s not me – it’s them.

I’ve been given the wonderful opportunity to again brave the internet – provide opinion – and suffer the slings and arrows of Dunning-Kruger acolytes.

Not a welcome opportunity but an opportunity none-the-less. And when I say unwelcomed, it’s only unwelcomed in the sense that it was unexpected and didn’t allow me to do any real planning.

Start working on new material.

Such as getting the blog back together.

More to come. I hope.