Post-LIVE reflection: Revolution is a moment. Transformation is a process.

Earlier this week, I went LIVE with Jorge Chapa (Joch), the Chief Impact Officer at the Green Building Council of Australia. If you haven’t yet, listen Spotify and Apple Podcasts and watch on Substack (links below).

What I want to do here is land the six ideas the conversation clarified for me. Because it surfaced a tension that feels increasingly urgent.

#1. The temptation of revolution

On our preparation call, Jorge said something that stayed with me:

“Sometimes it feels like tearing down the wall becomes the point.”

When systems feel broken — politically, environmentally, socially — the desire for rupture can be overwhelming. Revolution promises something emotionally satisfying: a decisive break from what came before. It feels proportional to the scale of the problem.

And revolutions absolutely can produce transformation. History is full of moments when rupture created the conditions for new systems to emerge.

But the conversation with Jorge surfaced a distinction that matters.

Revolution is a moment.Transformation is a process.

The two are often confused.

#2. The invisible work of transformation

One reason this confusion persists is that many vital parts of transformation are rarely dramatic. They happen in rooms most people never see.

Standards committees. Industry working groups. Training programs. Pilot projects. Policy drafts.

This work is slow, technical, and often invisible.

In the green building movement, practices that now feel inevitable — commissioning, low-emission products, energy performance standards — were once fringe ideas.

They did not spread because someone invented a brilliant solution. As Jorge put it during the interview:

“Any monkey can write a rating tool. The trick is getting the jungle to agree.”

That line captures something changemakers know instinctively but struggle to explain.

The world is not short on solutions.The challenge is creating the conditions for them to work at scale.

Tearing down the old is only the beginning.

What replaces it — and how it is implemented — determines whether transformation actually occurs.

Revolutions are destabilizing by design. They break systems open. But what fills the vacuum afterward determines whether the rupture leads to progress or simply another cycle of collapse.

#3. Moral clarity is not the same as strategic effectiveness

Environmental and social movements are often moral movements. They emerge from a deep conviction that something about the current system is wrong.

That moral clarity is often the spark. But sparks alone do not sustain a fire.

One of the threads Jorge and I explored is the tension between moral seriousness and moral superiority.

Too many vital movements today choose moral purity over structural change. Self-righteousness has fueled some of the worst moments in human history. During the conversation we landed on a phrase that captures the risk well:

It does not behoove us to mistake being right for being effective.

Shared outrage can produce a powerful sense of belonging. But belonging is not transformation.

That distinction matters.

Because the world does not change when we prove we are right. It changes when complex systems shift.

#4. Migrants and the inside game

Another thread running through the conversation was the experience of changing complex social systems as outsiders.

Both migrants, Jorge and I built our careers in countries that were not originally ours. That position creates an unusual vantage point. You belong — but never entirely. There is always a part of you observing from the outside. That distance can sharpen perception. It can make assumptions visible that insiders rarely question.

#5. We overrate charismatic leaders

When I asked Jorge what his younger self misunderstood about transformation, his answer was simple: he used to overestimate the importance of charismatic leaders.

My PhD research confirms that transformation requires so much more.

Charismatic leaders can catalyze change, but they are only one element — and not even a required one.

* Transformation requires people able and willing to stay long enough to build.

* People willing to work inside imperfect systems without losing sight of what’s possible.

* People willing to hold moral clarity without abandoning strategic maturity.

In other words: competent changemakers.

#6. Why this distinction matters now

Across politics, culture, and activism, the appetite for revolutionary energy is growing. Some of that disruption is necessary. But we must not collapse transformation into revolution.

Revolutions break systems open.

Transformation determines what replaces them.

And that work requires something less dramatic — but far more demanding:

Coordination. Legitimacy. Patience. Responsibility.

In other words:

The willingness to build.

A question worth sitting with: How do we build the future we want — not just collapse the present we reject?

If you haven’t already, I encourage you to listen to the source material for this reflection: my full conversation with Jorge. Because beneath the stories about green building, policy, and institutional change sits a deeper question.

LINK: https://changemakershandbook.substack.com/p/on-revolutions-and-responsibility?r=1i4aw7

What does it actually take to change the system — not just protest it?

Thank you, Krsna PROUT Domine, Susan Kain, Larry Riggs, Philip Buxton, and all others for joining live!

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Upcoming LIVE conversations:

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* On transformational movements with Jason McLennan (US): Thursday, March 19 at 2pm Pacific (San Francisco) / 5pm Eastern (New York) / which is Friday, March 20 at 8am for Sydney/Melbourne.

* With H. G. Chissell (US): Monday, March 23 at 1pm Pacific (San Francisco) / 4pm Eastern (New York) / which is Friday, March 24 at 7am for Sydney/Melbourne.

* On centering women in changemaking with Sujatha Ramani (India) and Jenna Davey-Burns(Australia): Wednesday, March 25 at 6pm Pacific (San Francisco) / 9pm Eastern (New York) / which is Thursday, March 26 at 6:30am for Bengaluru, India and noon for Sydney/Melbourne, Australia.

* With Dr. Whitney Austin Grey (US): Thursday, April 2 at 2pm Pacific (San Francisco) / 5pm Eastern (New York) / which is Friday, April 3 at 8am for Sydney/Melbourne.

* On changemaking within the “unspeakable” with Andrew MacLeod (Saudi Arabia): TBC.

* On With Guy Eames (Russia): TBC.

* On power and legitimacy with Dr. Laura Mae Lindo (Canada): TBC

* On the role of emerging tech with Sheree Ip (Australia): TBC