If all that Patricia Shaw, Ralph Stacey and the late Doug Griffin had done was re-invent the doctoral possibilities for non-academics, chucking in the bin the model of a solitary mind trapped in Cartesian splendour in a library, they would deserve much thanks. But they created the University of Hertfordshire DMan programme. It restores meaning to the word 'transformative'. Ralph certainly transformed my life, starting when I was 50.

I studied in the era where much of that personal transformation happened at Roffey Park, now undergoing its own repurposing. On one of this English summer’s many grey days I had the opportunity to wander through Roffey Park alone, accompanied by birds engaged in their own complex responsive processes of relating. I made this composite picture (all the buildings were closed so the interior photo was taken through a window, complete with reflection).

This year for me would have been very incomplete without reflection. It has included various benign prods to think about my age and mortality. Some days I’m ‘in flow’ and other days I wish I was younger. Now I can give myself a new ‘talking to’. I can say, ‘Why wish to be younger? You got to see the Ramones live. And you got to study under Ralph Stacey, and sometimes to buy him a glass of whisky at that bar in the picture and listen riveted to his stories, so sharp and gentle, so funny and serious.’

Two days ago I was a guest of fellow DMan graduate Rob Warwick, now a professor at the University of Chichester. I gave a talk* on the state of public leadership in the UK today. Already I can see Ralph’s eyebrows furrowing, alarmed at the prospect of ‘abstraction’ and ‘reification’. He was in my mind a few weeks ago when I wrote these words for the talk’s close:

‘The state of public leadership in the UK today isn’t an abstract concept: leadership is a physical experience. It’s about what happens when an axe takes away a life in a south London car park, or a lethal virus arrives from the other side of the world.’

It was with the deepest possible gratitude that I dedicated the talk to him. I hope you enjoy it, Ralph.

(*downloadable at www.douglasboard.com)