Future Ready

Afterword: Why There's No I in Team—or CRS

When I was first contacted by Wiley Publishing to write a book, I chose to ignore it. I knew that our rapidly growing climate, resilience, and sustainability (CRS) business was successful and making a real, material difference. When I regularly spoke at conferences, interviews, training sessions, and panels, I always hoped that sharing my experience and industry leadership activities within the sustainability and resilience space would be a force multiplier. But writing a book? I'd need much more time—not to mention more personal knowledge across the full spectrum of CRS issues, actions, and opportunities—to be able to do justice to such an urgent and vital project.

A few months later, the publisher called back. Fortunately, this time my trusted assistant Irene Altman implored me to at least have an introductory meeting. “What could it hurt,” she asked, “to hear how the book might work based on the publisher's prior experience?”

As is usually the case with her, this was wise advice. During the exploratory conversation, I candidly shared why I ignored the first contact, then asked how we might use a team approach—something I have employed with consistent success and much enjoyment throughout my career. Happily, the response was yes—and the result is this timely and important book.

Though this was my first book writing project, I immediately recognized the value in the efforts of dozens of people—our writing, communications, and editing ...