I first met Mike Baynes under unusual circumstances.  I had telephoned a woman friend on a Saturday afternoon to ask if she was free to dine that evening.   She was not, but she suggested I might try Mike Baynes's bottle party.

Alas, I confessed, I did not know Mike Baynes.  She then recalled that the party was being thrown on behalf of a social group (I think it was called the 51-Group, or some such, being the year its members had graduated university), but she suggested that I "gate-crash" on the basis that she had invited me to join her there . . . and find some way to explain her own non-attendance.

She issued a caveat.  Mike, she said, was very much a "lady's man" in that he tended to be somewhat of an intellectual snob with other men, but - in true MCP fashion - made allowances for diminished intellect on the distaff side.  "Maybe," she said, "in you he will meet his Waterloo."

Well, I don't know about that!  But we certainly hit it off instantly and each tended to gain insights and expanded ideas from the other.  On my side, I was introduced to a range of personal growth activities that I had earlier merely brushed against.  Together we studied co-counselling and neuro-linguistic programming.  Mike it was who encouraged me to write and publish my first edition of An ABC of NLP.  in 1988 we went together on a fortnight's holiday to the personal growth centre on the Greek island of Skyros.  The photograph shows us flanking Doreen, the catering manager at the Skyros Centre.

Some time later I finally succumbed to Mike's entreaties and agreed to join him at the annual conference of the Group Relations' Training Association.  I had not expected this to be of any real interest to me.

In the event, I found it fascinating and - in my timeworn and boring introjectory fashion - I threw myself head and shoulders into supporting the organisation, including (in due course) editing a magazine, which we named Groupvine, and becoming Group Treasurer.

Most notably, however, was the fact that at that first conference (and I subsequently attended four more) I made the acquaintance of another Mike.  This was Michael Mallows with whom I formed a wonderful, warm and intimate friendship, that persists to this day.   That meeting resulted in a collaboration in the writing of Peace of Mind is a Piece of Cake; an introduction to the NLP/Education Network and collaboration in publishing their magazine New Learning.  And, finally, when New Learning proved to be no longer viable, the wonderfully imaginative sessions that culminated in the setting up of Nurturing Potential.

The picture shows "The Two Michaels" at a GRTA conference.