I visited Laurence (by a great route) � I went South West along Fosse Way as the sun was setting just off to the right. Views in every direction � England looking entmythical � then South East and up the Cotswold scarp between Greater and Lesser Rollright. I have only visited that area once before and have vouch that the Stones tend to be deceptive � more than uncountable. Then towards Blenheim Palace but soon dropping south across the valley of the Thames as a small stream to Witney � an attractive small town. Laurence lives in a stone cottage at the end of a row on a village green � one of several in the town. His cottage is classic � white-wash walls, books and records.

In one sense we covered the unusual territory � but the fact that we hadn�t met meant that the material was new. Laurence�s son�s band is doing very well � they have been on Radio One and are up for consideration as support to the Foo Fighters on their UK tour which even I can see is pretty hot � especially for a non standard formar such as a power duo. Laurence gave me a copy of their current CD of just four tracks. Apparently is a medium age Les Paul and a Marshall � Laurence couldn�t say whether it was a plexi or some later vintage. I talked about Music for the Highveld.

But mostly it was grand theory. How Laurence�s paradigm was out of kilter with the one ruling at Ashridge � as luck would have it I picked up a book with Davidson�s 1963 article on reasons and causes. We both thought that was pretty funny. A lot of time was spent on Bernard Williams � Laurence got out his copy of Shame and Necessity. I skimmed a fantastic appendix where BW builds up the psychogenesis of shame and guilt � so different from the way he did philosophy when I was meant to be learning from him � and so much better. Shame is the powerlessness which arises from public transgression where our potency as an agent is removed by the communal will. Guilt is more complicated and is rooted in our fear of the anger (at the anger) of the victim of our transgression. Williams shakes this stuff out of a reading of the classics of ancient Greek literature. He also seems to have harnessed his concept of moral luck to a Rawlsian agreement collaboration to provide a network of rights in the face of uncertainty about our personal endowment.

I took Laurence through elements of my grand leadership plan � there are bits that link up with the project he worked on with at the Defence Logistics Organisation. It is an enormouse transformation project � which involves (I would say fatally) one of my organisation�s deadliest rivals.

We laughed at the thought that we ever collaborated on the Strategic Leadership venture � that conditions were such that we could actually get away with it and get paid for it And we coined the term Heigederrian walk for one of the punctuating elements in the process and knocked out a theory of it. If the biggest questions are rooted in our being in the world then the right walk will enable people to find the threads which lead to them.