Systemic Change Quotes

“Disruption is no longer a single or recurring event, but a steady state expanding its impact.”
― Roger Spitz, Disrupt With Impact: Achieve Business Success in an Unpredictable World

“Metaruptions cause widespread, self-perpetuating effects that extend beyond their initial disruptions. As early changes spill over, impacts combine, propagate, and modify other elements within the system. Imagining the interplay of metaruptions is a creative endeavour, not a number-crunching exercise.”
― Roger Spitz, Disrupt With Impact: Achieve Business Success in an Unpredictable World

“Imagining the interplay of metaruptions is a creative endeavor, not a number-crunching exercise.”
― Roger Spitz, Disrupt With Impact: Achieve Business Success in an Unpredictable World

“To make progress on climate, we need systemic change, not incremental change. Every business and every person has a role to play in that.”
― Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr, CEO of Mayflower-Plymouth

“But if the system is the problem, the truth is that there will not be satisfactory answers in the here and now for lots of people.
That is one of the (painful) ways you know that the problem is systemic.
Which means that either you build forward no matter what, or you lose. Period.”
― Gar Alperovitz, What Then Must We Do?: Straight Talk about the Next American Revolution

“Individual accountability is not a substitute for systemic change.”
― Jamie Arpin-Ricci

“Systemic change takes time, but individual choice can be immediate.”
― Jamie Arpin-Ricci

“It is not until you consciously decide to prioritize the elimination of stagnant, exclusive culture that your company will be in a position to make the systemic changes needed to both address and eventually abolish disparities.”
― Talisa Lavarry, Confessions From Your Token Black Colleague: True Stories & Candid Conversations About Equity & Inclusion In The Workplace

“Vandalism Ain't Activism (The Sonnet)

Systemic change is a slow and tedious process,
It doesn't happen overnight by vandalizing society.
If vandalism and activism were one and the same,
Our jungly ancestors would've been the ideal humanity.
Change habits, change yourself, submit to no primitivity,
The change that you dream of, be the epitome of that change.
Obstructing traffic and refusing to let an ambulance pass,
You're not fighting any crisis, but being a crisis yourself.
Go fly a kite, it is good for the mind as well as body,
Get lessons on common sense before appointing yourself king.
The line between activism and terrorism is so thin that,
Often many go astray without having the slightest inkling.
I repeat, systemic change is a slow and tedious process.
The more you rush with recklessness, the more you digress.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Esperanza Impossible: 100 Sonnets of Ethics, Engineering & Existence

“Vandalism ain't activism.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Esperanza Impossible: 100 Sonnets of Ethics, Engineering & Existence

“Systemic change is a slow and tedious process,
It doesn't happen overnight by vandalizing society.
If vandalism and activism were one and the same,
Our jungly ancestors would've been the ideal humanity.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Esperanza Impossible: 100 Sonnets of Ethics, Engineering & Existence

“Reconciliation requires systemic change. it is not about rote land acknowledgement, apologies, and carefully staged public relations events designed to give the impression of a sincere effort.”
― Michelle Good, Truth Telling: Seven Conversations about Indigenous Life in Canada

“Apologies must go hand in hand with substantive, systemic change, which, in turn, will support meaningful reconciliation.”
― Michelle Good, Truth Telling: Seven Conversations about Indigenous Life in Canada

“The World does not need antidepressants, the World needs anti-oppressors...”
― Rodolfo Peon

“Some systems are broken. Others were never meant to serve us at all. The work isn’t repair—it’s reimagining.”
― Lawrence Nault

“You can’t extract justice from a system designed for profit. You have to build something rooted in care.”
― Lawrence Nault