Good morning from a lovely spring-like day here in Vancouver. I’ve been having a great deal of fun over the past few evenings checking out photos on a Facebook group page from the Ottawa subdivision I lived in with my family in the last two years of high school. The High School　 was Col. By Secondary, and the attached picture is from a semi annual variety show that I was involved in. About a dozen of us, young men and women, aged 17 or 18, wrote and performed in these shows. I think this picture is from a sketch about Elvis, and yes, that is me!  (Apologies if you can't see the pic from here)

Of the many memories and chuckles from those years (1977 – 79) I have been struck by the wistfulness of some of the comments from people who attended the same high school in the subsequent years. The years of 77 – 79 were seen as a high point for the school academically, athletically and artistically. And I wonder what it was that happened that made those years so special. I believe in retrospect it was probably three factors; passion, freedom and skilled leaders (teachers and administrators).

All of us were passionate about one or more aspects of our school life; some were very passionate about academics, others passionate about athletics, and others, like me, passionate about our art. And to be sure, much to my parent’s dismay I was not recognized as academically gifted, much to my own frustration I was not gifted athletically, but I was recognized and honoured for my art. And I was given some freedom to explore it, as this picture attests. And very, very importantly the teachers and administrators were gifted leaders. One story will suffice as an example. The young men in the group who were producing the variety shows were all fans of Monty Python’s Flying Circus, and one day, we rounded up a larger group of our friends and arrived at school dressed as "Hell’s Grannies." In the Python sketch, Hells Grannies are a gang of ‘little old ladies’ who ride scooters and terrorize towns swinging their purses like batons. For about 10 minutes before and about 5 minutes after ‘first bell’ this high school version of the famous sketch, all of us wearing flannel nighties and hair nets, sauntered around the main hall of the school to gales of laughter from the students and teachers who were there. Now the Administration offices were right next to this main hall, and I remember seeing the Vice Principal (the same guy you were sent to if you crossed a boundary), laughing behind the office window. About 5 minutes after first bell, he came out and stood next to me. He said to me, "Al, I think it’s time we all went to class, don’t you?" "Sure", I said, and called out "Ok Grannies! Time for class", (or something similar) and in seconds the hall was clear, as the ‘grannies’ went to their respective classes, classmates in tow.

Now I’m sure that Vice Principal made a choice, he could have played the ‘heavy’, he could have ordered us back to class himself. But he made a leadership choice and let us play for a bit and then used the informal leadership in the group (he could have chosen any one of a few of us, I was just closest I think), to move the group in a particular direction. This story of course raises the question, who are the informal leaders in your team or organization? How can you use their skills and gifts to help the team or organization?

And may all of us find the time this week to allow for play!