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If My Book 'Manage To Engage' Was A Poem

Inspired by Poets Everywhere




When night comes we must ask ourselves

‘did we really engage our people

wisely, in this almost post pandemic world?’


That's the responsibility we carry.

A world we must create

where we prioritize people

and leverage our technology.

Because, we know that people power everything

and to manage to engage

creates relationships

that builds leadership.

And, as our management models age now

as quickly as

our operating models

and business models,

so we must level them up.

Step up to our accountabilities

creating fair-trade,

being fair-dinkum

and giving people a fair go

no matter a person’s position,

their gender, their race.


We do an exchange

our equivalent to meet a fair days work.

We must create a scorecard,

one that builds social capital,

management capital, a leadership license to operate.

Turning vision into verbs

and purpose into plans.

Turning aspirations in to actions,

strategies into schedules.


Before this bleak period of crisis of health and wealth,

of wellbeing,

there was already a crisis.

A pandemic of under engagement,

of people feeling less than all-in.


It cannot remain.

It can not be common place.

Because common sense says we won’t bounce back.

You have an impact.

As a leader of one or many.

What you do by day goes home with your people by night.

You make a difference,

you are the most important person in other people’s lives.

For better or for worse

you create the state,

you make the culture work, or not.


What climate change is to the planet

engagement is to the world of work.

We must remember

people power everything.

They rise up or sit down.

They persist or resist.

They create or debate.

They power our world of work.

You power theirs.


When we manage to engage

We must say ‘I've got this’,

we recognize our influence on

others, their willingness to participate and