How do you keep engagement going over the long term?

We've all been there. You have a great meeting, a great conference, a great offering, a great communication, a great product. And you have engagement now — but how do you keep it going?

This makes us wonder things like: What is too much? What is too little? Do I keep it the same next time? Do I add more? Do I subtract? Do I try different things? Do I reboot things when they go quiet?

It can be very hard. Here are some thoughts:

1. Whatever you do, don't do it out of desperation

This is very important. Whatever you do to keep engagement going — whether it's keeping things as they are, trying something new, doing less, or choosing to "reboot" to create new energy — don't do it out of desperation. Do it out of experimentation, or expectation, or service, or excitement.

When you're desperate, people know it. And you execute things differently. Better to leave it until you're not desperate, than to do it from that place.

2. Doing the same and doing things differently both work

As Rory Sutherland says, "the opposite of a good idea can be another good idea".

Some stuff works because it's the same every time. Other stuff works because it's different every time. And some stuff works because it changes over time. It's more about finding out what is best for you and what you're doing — which means:

3. Experiment

Try doing things differently and see. It's quite liberating to say, "I'm going to try X", rather than "from now on, I'm going to do X". When we frame things as experiments, we lose our desperation, become far more comfortable with failure and learning, and create a way of handling that failure publicly: it was an experiment.

4. But — caveat: don't try to recreate the past

One exception to all the above: leave the past in the past. Don't try to recreate it. You can look to the past for inspiration, and you can "reboot" something in a way that is updated for a new audience. But going back to what you did previously — I've never found that works, nor ever seen it work.