Culture Is the Way

CHAPTER 9Be Fanatical About Sustained Impact

A strong sustainability culture exists if people share a belief in sustainability's importance and behave in ways that support it.

—Edgar Schein, MIT Management Professor

Fanatical is defined in this book in a way that may be similar to other definitions you'll find online: as having and being driven by an extreme and often unquestioning enthusiasm, devotion, obsession, or zeal for something. And for you, as a leader, that something needs to be culture. It is the air that organizations and leaders need to breathe. It is the food that they eat. The dreams of their sleep today and tomorrow. Being fanatical is an absolute must if you want to create a high‐performing and thriving culture that will last.

With the right amount of determination, guidance, and initial burst of inspiration, anyone can get started on something they are extremely passionate about. Whether it's regaining control of your health, breaking a bad habit, or implementing a new process that has been put off for years in your organization, getting started isn't the real challenge. The real challenge is to be consistent, to continue pushing even when you don't want to, and to make it part of your everyday life.

This isn't to say that getting started isn't difficult or incredibly hard at times, but achieving excellence isn't completely reliant on getting started. If it were, every organization with a strong desire to build a better culture, improve employee engagement, ...