Southwest Airlines got it first. They turned the compliance exercise of robotically spewing flight safety information to its passengers into funny stand-up routines. Industry folk thought its was alarming. Weary travelers found it disarming.

Chief sustainability officers and executives can learn a lot from Southwest, not to mention this new airline safety video from Virgin America, about turning compliance into culture.

Let’s face it, if you’re going to spur significant change in the operations of your organization to benefit people, planet and profit, most of your employees are going to view it as a compliance program. “We HAVE to do it because they’re telling us to.”

But imagine what might happen if you used the power of an emotion-driven story to involve your audiences in your change initiative. Turn the negative loop of compliance thinking into the positive loop of a cultural movement through storytelling. Virgin Airlines does this masterfully, while underscoring the archetypal personality of its brand.

So how can you pivot on what looks like a compliance project and make it a cultural phenomenon?