I am writing this edition en route to Toronto the second day after the closing of the Vancouver, 2010 Olympics. The plane is full. People from all over Europe along with a collection of media, TV and sports groups are heading home. Many still wear the uniforms of their countries; others have the big, brown Moose horns given out at the closing ceremonies firmly set on their heads. It’s as if no one wants the Games to be over.

Something happened in Vancouver over the past seventeen days that’s hard to describe. The city came alive in celebration. Huge crowds filled the downtown all through the day and long into the evening.

Last week I was privileged to spend an evening with friends in Pasadena celebrating the publication of my new book Missional Mapmaking (Jossey Bass/Leadership Network). Nina Lau Branson cooked some extraordinary Asian food with amazing rice pudding and other things for desert. I felt so honored with the presence of the group. Scott Cormode and I were sitting on a chair beside each other as he fingered through the boom. Scott is the Hugh De Pree Professor of Leadership Development at Fuller Seminary and a very talented, gifted teacher. We were comparing notes on issues around leadership development and teaching when both of us, almost in the same breath, noted the biggest challenge we face in the classroom and with leaders in the field is how to teach and innovate culture change.