The Slow Retreat
Three nights in the Cotswolds for twenty senior practitioners, with two facilitators, structured mornings, unprogrammed afternoons, and no phones from supper on Thursday until breakfast on Sunday.
About the day
The Slow Retreat is the part of our calendar that you book six months in advance or not at all. Twenty seats, a Georgian house at the edge of the Cotswolds, and three nights of structured conversation about the work you have been postponing thinking about properly.
Mornings are facilitated by Catriona MacIntyre, afternoons are unprogrammed by design, and evenings are long dinners with the rest of the room. We collect phones at supper on the first evening and return them at breakfast on the last.
The point is not silence and it is not digital detox. The point is what happens when forty hours pass without notifications, in the company of nineteen senior practitioners who have all written a personal brief in advance and are willing to share it. We have run this five times since 2022, and every cohort has stayed in touch.
What you will leave with
- A written personal brief on the next year of your working life, drafted on the Saturday
- Nineteen new peers who have read your brief and you have read theirs
- A standing invitation to the alumni breakfast every six months
The facilitators
Leadership coach to FTSE chairs and senior partners
Catriona MacIntyre has coached chairs, chief executives, and senior partners for two decades, mostly in the City and Edinburgh. She trained as a clinical psychologist before moving into executive work, and is known for facilitation that is patient, structured, and unwilling to let a group settle for the easier conversation. She is based in Edinburgh and walks the Pentlands most mornings.
The schedule
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16:00
Arrival and tea
Thursday afternoon. Rooms allocated, walk in the grounds.
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19:30
Opening supper and the phone box
Phones are handed in over the first course. The chair opens the conversation.
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09:30
Friday morning, the first frame
Two-hour facilitated session on the question you arrived with.
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14:00
Friday afternoon, unprogrammed
Walks, the library, the bar, the kitchen garden.
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20:00
Friday dinner, four tables of five
Place cards. You will not sit with the same four people twice.
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09:30
Saturday morning, the written brief
A guided drafting session. Three hours, in a room with twenty desks.
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11:00
Sunday morning, closing circle and breakfast
Both facilitators
Phones returned at breakfast. We finish by eleven.
Tickets
Early
£1,800
Early bird
Twin room, three nights, all meals, facilitation, and printed materials. Released in March.
Standard
£2,400
Standard
Single room, three nights, all meals, facilitation, and the alumni programme.
Patron
£3,200
Patron
Garden suite, three nights, all meals, plus a private hour with each facilitator and a follow-up call in November.
Register
How to book
Booking is at the register form above. Payment is taken in full at the time of registration. The venue is Thyme House, Southrop, near Lechlade, Gloucestershire. If you have a question that needs a conversation rather than a thread, send us a sentence on the contact page and we will reply the same working day.