It’s all about being a part of something bigger than ourselves, embracing the magic of authentic community, thriving with people who share different interests, bound together with a common goal —that is, to rediscover humanity at its very best.
~D.J. Pitocco
The city of Texarkana sits squarely on the state border between Texas and Arkansas. The city of 70,000 inhabitants has two mayors, two city councils, and two police and fire departments. The cross-town sporting rivalry between high schools draws an uncommonly high attendance, reflecting the deep allegiance each has to their own state’s school. More significant challenges arise as well, such as disputes over the shared water system, governed by two sets of state laws. Yet the town is known for its unity despite the line that divides it. Residents gather annually for a dinner held on State Line Avenue to share a meal in celebration of their oneness as a community.
Oneness of a community —what a brilliant sentiment and worthy celebration. And precisely our objective over many years of developing what we like to refer to as our “conscious community”, where folks can be seen, valued, and heard without judgment, and where authenticity and genuine relationships reign supreme. A community built upon the kind of connection that makes this big, chaotic world feel like our own, very special little village, populated by “like-hearted” people. Real people bringing real compassion, commitment, and openness. Real people communicating with their heads and their hearts via their writing, their comments, and their online voices. It’s not about how many show up, but about who shows up with a spirit of inquiry and curiosity. Because depth and breadth of engagement are, and always will be our “secret sauce” in the recipe for inspiring real relationships. And because when all the dust settles and the day is done, that’s what really matters within our community —and that’s how we embrace and celebrate our special brand of “oneness”.
And Then Came Tags
As one way of inspiring community engagement across LinkedIn, we —like so many others began using tags to alert folks of new posts. A great tool, but one that brought with it over time the challenge of “tagging fatigue”. We’ve written about time and again as have certain of our authors and have collectively done our very best over time to scale back tagging by being a bit more selective — a real balancing act given our publishing volume and the thirst of many folks who don’t want to miss anything. On one hand, it’s a great way to alert folks about a new post. On the other hand, it can be overwhelming to those who tag and those that are tagged. How much is enough? Have we left someone out? Etc. Etc. Along the way, we even came up with a streamlined way for folks to get a daily recap (beyond LinkedIn) of all that we’ve published. But that didn’t resolve the tagging dilemma. With this as a backdrop, we were very pleased to discover a new LinkedIn feature —as our collective opportunity literally be “saved by the bell”…
Saved By The Bell
A new feature has been gradually rolled out by LinkedIn over the past few months in the form of a Profile “Bell”. If you are a first-degree connection with someone on LinkedIn, you can click at the top right part of their profile and change the (newly pictured) Bell from white to gray (to receive notifications). If you change your mind, you can click it again, turning it back to white (to turn off notifications). If you do click the Bell, this will signify that you want to receive a notification (alert) whenever this person publishes something new and you want to see their content in your feed. It’s as simple as that.
We’re told that the “Bell” is not available across all Profiles just yet. But it IS now available on my/our Profile. So here’s your chance to signal us that you would really like to be notified when we share a new post, by clicking on our Bell. See the illustration below ⤵︎
It doesn’t mean that we’ll immediately stop tagging, as we want to be sure that no one is left out when we introduce a new writer or perhaps share a special article, such as this one. But it does mean that we can continue to scale back / be more selective and intentional with our tagging, hopefully lowering the “fatigue” on both ends of the process. And by the way, the bell feature is also available for LinkedIn Groups and there are three choices: all new posts, highlights, or no new posts. This will come in handy if you are a Member of any of our 30+ Groups. Thanks in advance if you decide to ring our bell :-).
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BizCats Unite!
Time for some fun. We’ve been asked repeatedly over the past decade to come up with a moniker for our rapidly growing conscious community or “tribe”. Well, here goes —officially introducing our new BIZCAT community Mascot.
Anyone “ringing our bell” above is hereby proclaimed an official BIZCAT community Member —with the rights, privileges, and honors appertaining thereunto. And along with that comes your opportunity to give our new friend above a name. Please take a moment to leave your ideas below!
A brilliant idea Dennis…. and one which will benefit the whole “tribe”
May I humbly present the following suggestion?
”Synacat” = Bringing and being together
(Cozy, cuddly, caring, comfort, peaceful, graceful, reaching out…..)
Thought process:
The English prefix syn- along with its variant sym- mean “together.”
When two people possess synergy, they work well, creating positive, flowing energy “together.”
A symphony is the sounding “together” of many instruments.
1. synchronize: to place two clocks /worlds ‘together’ in time
2. synonym: a word that can be placed ‘together’ with another due to closeness in meaning
3. syntax: an arranging ‘together’ of words (or people) in a sentence to make it (oneness/togetherness )meaningful
4. synagogue: a place where people are led ‘together’ for worship and Fellowship of Sharing
5. synthesis: a placing ‘together’ of separate elements into a unified whole
6. symmetry: two objects which can be measured ‘together’ perfectly
7. symbol: a sign thrown ‘together’ with that which it represents
Getting together, either virtually or physically, is the key to “being together”, and thus sharing together edifies and adds to the meaningfulness and purpose of walking “together” while on our life’s journey
May all stay blessed.
Appreciate your synergistic thinking here, Jonathan – now on our List!
1)
“Koinonia-Cat”
koinonia means fellowship .. inspired by the Friendship Bench
2)
I share this perspective about “community”
.. the full measure is spiritual
.. made possible by knowing God
“God is LOVE”
1 John 4
“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.
Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.
By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us.”
“Love one another as I have loved you” – Jesus
In 1947 Phillip Britts presciently wrote: “Let us recognize how godless our times are, and how far we are from God. Nothing tells us this more than the torn & divided state of humanity, in mutually hostile & divided camps.”
As I read his words I thought … is this not today?
Time passes and things change … “progress” is made … we live in an age of technology & information (which is NOT knowledge) but as Phillip states in “the essential conflict: the final result of knowledge is determined by the spirit it serves”
Rich wisdom in Phillips writing: Water at the Root
“In the time of the breaking off nations” again, profound truths .. Phillip powerfully stated: “Let us not be misled by the symptoms of human power. The power of God alone is decisive in the end.”
Love your thought process here, Fay – added to our List of potential names!
Thanks, Dennis. This refreshed thing is pretty good, eh? Maybe we all need – and I mean everyone – to consider the value of considered absence.
Good to read your words again, Dennis, we hope the sabbatical was radically restful! Thanks for the LI bell info, we’ll be ringing it right away. As for a name for our new feline friend, I suppose Biz Cat is too predictable, so I propose Communa Cat.
See you Thursday!
Our sabbatical was both liberating and positively life-changing, Byron. Communa Cat is now on the top names list – thank you, my friend!
Yay Linkedin for “hearing” us and Yay Dennis for continuing to be a champion for this beautiful community! Since you included my old post, I re-read it for the first time since it was released. I’m saddened, because I ended up pulling away almost completely. It all started to feel meaningless to me and I needed to step away. Perhaps your beautiful invitation to read this was the crack in the wall I needed to let a little light in to examine my perspective. The irony of the whole thing is that it was because of…a tag. Hugs to you, Dennis!
Always grateful for your thoughtful insights, Kimberly. We’ve been joined at the hip with you for a long time when it comes to “tagging fatigue”… So it is with pleasure that we introduce this new feature from LinkedIn, allowing our entire conscious community to simply exhale, and engage “for good” … Hugs backatya across the miles, my friend.
Arthur the Author.
Nice touch, Deb – thank you!