the pledge

[Middle English engagen, to pledge something as security for repayment of debt, from Old French engagier : en-, in; see en-1 + gage, pledge, of Germanic origin.]

"Engagement" is a word that gets bandied about a lot. Employee engagement. Customer engagement. Citizen engagement. So I went off and looked at where it came from. And its origin is pretty simple. It means a pledge. But not just an empty promise. What we put on the line has to have value to both us and our counterparty in order to get what we want.

What are you going to give to get what you want?