When Nancy Fox took the stage on the first morning of the Schlegel Villages Operational Planning Retreat, she invited everyone to pause and return to the heart of why they do what they do. Her session, The Why of Neighbourhood Teams, wasn’t a lecture on structure or systems; it was a reminder of humanity and an invitation to Schlegel Villages leaders to think deeply about what it means to move from “good” to “great.”
“The work we do in community is about saying yes,” she said. “Yes, to possibility. Yes, to the person in front of us. Yes, to the belief that everyone — resident, team member, or family — has something essential to contribute.”
Nancy spoke about belonging as the foundation of every thriving neighbourhood. When people feel seen and valued, she said, collaboration flourishes naturally. The essence of the neighbourhood team model isn’t a staffing configuration and an organizational chart but instead a philosophy of shared purpose rooted in relationships.
“Teams are the living expression of community,” she said.” When they function well, they mirror the best of what it means to be human – compassionate, adaptive, creative, and courageous.”
By the time Nancy returned on Day 2 for her follow-up address, Growing Cross-functional Teams: Turning Perception into Purposeful Progress, her audience was already thinking about how to bring “the why” into daily practice. Now, she shifted the focus from philosophy to action, from why to how.
“How do you get to yes?” she asked. “You gather the stakeholders — everyone with a stake in that elder’s experience — and you talk. You listen. You negotiate. You find a plan that works for everyone, and then you go try it. And if it doesn’t fully work, you tweak it and try again.”
In a world often driven by speed and compliance, Nancy challenged leaders to reclaim the time and courage it takes to build trust and co-create solutions. “That’s how human communities work,” she said. “It takes time up front . . . but the investment pays off on the back end. Because unmet needs, when ignored, always take more time to manage later.”
Her words echoed the message from Day 1: teams exist not to carry out routines, but to nurture relationships. On Day 2, she gave that belief structure — a framework of “rituals” that sustain empowerment and accountability in living communities.
“Don’t treat this as a program,” she warned. “It’s not a checklist. It’s a process — an organic process that grows from the soil of your community.”
She was clear to distinguish between routines and rituals. Routines are task-driven, she said; rituals are meaning-driven. When communities ritualize their processes — when meetings, huddles, and conversations become infused with purpose — they take root in culture. “It grows up from the soil of the community,” she said, “and it has meaning for us.”
For Nancy, empowerment isn’t about leaders stepping back; it’s about stepping differently.
“Empowerment is a function of leadership,” she said. “When you empower teams to make and evaluate their own decisions, they’ll still need you — just in a different way. You become a results guardian. You remind them of what’s right, proper, and good. You call them back to their best selves.”
Her conviction was clear: growing people and growing teams is sacred work. The skills teams develop together — communication, empathy, collaboration — don’t stay within the walls of the Village. “They’re life skills,” she said. “They make people better parents, better neighbours, better citizens. If the fifth-grade son of your PSW is doing better in school because she works in your organization . . . then you’re doing the right thing.”
Across both days, Nancy’s message was both simple and profound: empowered neighbourhood teams are built on trust, time, and shared humanity. The process is neither linear nor fast, but it is transformative.
From understanding why neighbourhood teams matter to embracing how they grow, she reminded every leader in the room that their role is not to manage compliance but to cultivate culture.
As she put it: “This is the work of growing human beings — and there is no more sacred work in the world.”
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