You apply for this, and applications get turned down.

Nine people, one intake a year — Small enough that everybody speaks every session, large enough that you are not the only one with your particular problem
A narrow seniority band, on purpose — Everyone runs something and reports to somebody who also runs something. Mixing a founder with a first-time team lead makes a worse room for both of them
Different sectors, deliberately — Nobody is competing with anybody, which is what makes people say the true version rather than the presentable one
No two people from the same company — Ever, including different divisions. One reporting line in a room changes what the whole room will say
It is not a network — There is no directory, no alumni platform and no introductions service. People stay in touch or they don't, and that is theirs to arrange
Facilitated, not taught — There is a structure and there are no lectures. The useful answers in a room like this come from the other eight far more often than from the front

Fixed before applications open — So you can check them against your year before spending an hour on a form. A programme that dates its modules after taking your money is telling you something
Missing one is survivable, two isn't — Miss one and you get a call and the material. Miss two and the cohort has moved past you, which is unfair on the other eight rather than on you
Between modules — One paired conversation a month with somebody else in the cohort. It is scheduled by the two of you and nobody checks up on it
Replace these with your own — And publish them this far ahead. Fixed dates are a promise about how seriously the programme takes its own calendar

That you attended — Dates, attendance, and nothing else. That is the entire report and it is the same report every time
Never what you said — Not a theme, not a summary, not "some of the group raised concerns about". A sponsor who is told the themes can work out who said them in a room of nine
No assessment, no scoring — You are not rated, ranked or written up. Where a programme offers a sponsor a development report on an individual, that programme's client is the employer
You can say what you like — Including that you are thinking of leaving, which comes up in nearly every cohort and has never once travelled back
What the sponsor does get — An honest conversation at the start about what the programme is and isn't, and an invitation to the closing day if you want them there
Ask for this in writing — From us and from anybody else you are considering. A programme that will not put its confidentiality terms in an email does not have any

What is said stays unattributed — You may use anything you heard. You may not say who said it, inside or outside the group, including years later and including as a compliment
It is stated out loud every session — Not printed once in a handbook. A rule nobody repeats is a rule that quietly stops applying somewhere around module three
No recording, no notes taken for you — Take your own if you want them. Nothing is captured centrally, which also means there is nothing to be disclosed later
No phones in the residential — In a box by the door, which sounds theatrical for about ninety minutes and then stops being noticeable
If somebody breaks it — They leave the cohort, without a refund, and the group is told that they left. That has happened once
What the rule cannot do — Stop somebody talking. It is an agreement between adults rather than an enforcement mechanism, and pretending otherwise would be worse than having no rule

Why employer-funded costs more — Because it comes with invoicing, procurement and a sponsor conversation, and because it subsidises the assisted places. Both of those are said out loud rather than buried
The assisted places are real — Two every year, and they have never gone unfilled. Nobody in the cohort is told who is on one, including the facilitator's own notes
Withdrawing — Before module one, refunded in full. After it, the place is gone, because it was held for nine months and could have gone to somebody else
What it doesn't include — Travel, and any evening anybody organises themselves. There is no hidden second invoice