Snippets from LegacyNOW Leadership Project: Why People Make the System Work, Not the Other Way Around

Opening Thought:

Great advances have always come from ideas; ideas do not fall from the sky; they come from people. People write the software, design the products and start the new businesses. Every new thing that gives pleasure or productivity or convenience is the result of human ingenuity.’

-Paul Michael Romer, who won the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences in 2018, jointly with William D. Nordhaus.

Since May 3, 2025, we’ve been in session with the 4th Cohort of the LegacyNOW Leadership Project and what a powerful learning journey it’s been for all of us.

 Here’s one ideology I’ve consistently hammered on:

In the ongoing search for safer, stronger families and better outcomes for children, many call for systems. Systems of discipline. Systems of care. Systems of accountability. But we must ask, what makes a system work?

Here is my firm belief:

A system only works because the majority of people submit to it, willingly.

Not because they fear it, but because it reflects their shared values and beliefs.

At its core, every functional system, whether in families, institutions, or society, is a mirror. It reflects what the people inside it believe is important. A system is not magic. It is not self-executing. It is powered by human will.

And so, I define a policy, the codification of a system, as:

A statement of will, predicated on the dominant value system of those who created it to govern their affairs.

This is the foundation upon which we must build any effort toward Family Strengthening, Child Safeguarding and Protection, and Purposeful Parenting.

It means that our safeguarding policies will only be effective when they are born from a deep cultural, moral, and emotional commitment to the dignity and worth of every child.

It means that parenting models will only produce results when they resonate with the internal convictions of parents and caregivers, not just external pressure or obligation.

And it means that the system must never be separated from the soul of the people who operate it.

So, what does this mean for us?

1. In Family Strengthening: We must co-create systems that honor the lived realities, hopes, and struggles of families. Systems that reflect their language, values, and faith, not imposed blueprints.
2. In Child Safeguarding and Protection: We must build policies not just for compliance, but for conviction. Children are not protected because a manual says so, but because the hearts of caregivers say, “Never again.”
3. In Parenting: We must move from trial-and-error to intentionality. Systems in the home, routines, consequences, communication, only work when they are anchored in the parent’s own transformation. You cannot raise what you haven’t become.

In summary:

The system is a tool. The people are the power.

A weak system with strong values may still survive. But a perfect system with no value alignment will collapse.

So yes, we build systems. But even more, we build people.

Because a system can be copied, but conviction must be cultivated.

And in this sacred work of parenting and protecting children, our systems must rise, not from trends or templates, but from the timeless truth that every child matters, and every adult has a role in making that truth real.

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Do have an INSPIRED weekend with the family.