Programmes and seminars · Autumn 2026
Keeping a secret is a discipline,
not a matter of character.
Nobody betrays out of bad faith. Information leaves through courtesy, through vanity, through haste. Whoever wants it knows this perfectly well, which is why they do not attack the system: they attack the person holding the keys. Two programmes, always in person, small groups. No platform, no recorded video, no certificate to hang on a wall: you leave knowing what to do on Monday morning.
Always in personSmall groupsAlso delivered in-house
The programme · by application · one to one or very small groups
The art of keeping a secret
Nobody betrays out of bad faith: information leaves through courtesy, through vanity, through haste. Whoever wants it knows this perfectly well, which is why they do not attack the system but the person holding the keys. Two days on how to recognise that moment, and how to close it.
Who it is for
Executive assistants
Secretariats and office managers
Press officers and spokespeople
Personal staff and security
Lawyers, accountants and trusted advisers
Family offices and wealth managers
Operational staff
Anyone handling confidential information daily
Anyone running negotiations or transactions
People in the public eye
Board members
Chairs and principal shareholders
Chief executives
Entrepreneurs
What counts here is what you hold, not how much you know about computers. This is for people who keep information that would do damage if it got out: a negotiation, a transaction, a private life. Executive assistants and secretariats are on that list for a reason: whoever screens the calls and sees the diary is the most targeted person in the building, and almost nobody ever trains them. The group stays very small precisely because we speak openly.
- How information actually leaves: vanity, courtesy, haste
- Phishing, smishing and vishing: the mechanism underneath, not the individual trick
- The three levers that always work: authority, urgency, reciprocity
- Recognising when someone is drawing you out, and how to close the conversation
- Answering without lying and without confirming
- Your own footprint: what your diary, movements and habits say about you
- Compartmenting: who needs to know what, and how to hold it over time
- What to do in the first hours, once the secret is already out
MilitaryWhere these rules come from, and where a mistake cannot be undone.
CorporateTransactions, negotiations, boardrooms, information that moves a share price.
PersonalPeople who live exposed and still need a private life that stays private.
The seminar · two days · classroom or on site
Whoever holds the keys.
Two days on what that entails.
Two days for people who, inside an organisation, hold information that is not theirs: a negotiation, a case file, a personnel record, somebody else's diary. It starts from how you decide whom to trust, and from who in that building is allowed to know what. It ends with who answers when something gets out, and what to do in the first two hours. You leave with written rules your own department can apply on Monday, not with a certificate.
Who it is for
Executive assistants
Secretariats and office managers
Operational staff
New joiners
Anyone working with confidential information
Sales teams
Marketing and communications
Procurement and supplier management
Engineering and R&D
IT technicians
IT managers and IT support
HR leadership
Compliance and legal
CFOs and finance teams
CISOs and security leads
Heads of function
Chief executives and managing directors
Anyone moving into this field
One thing is required: being responsible for information that must not get out. Engineers and computer scientists have nothing to do with it. Technical people still find new material, because this is not a conversation about systems.
Day one
Whom you trust, and how you decide
- Who, in this organisation, is allowed to know what: the map almost nobody has ever drawn
- Trust by role and trust by habit: where they come apart, and what happens when somebody changes desk
- Third parties: advisers, agencies, suppliers, interns. Who comes in, what they see, for how long
- How access is granted, and why almost nobody ever takes it away
- The three levers used to get information out of a person: authority, urgency, reciprocity
- Recognising when someone is drawing you out, and how to close the conversation without giving offence
- Real cases without names: where the information actually came from
Day two
Who answers, and what to do once it is out
- Who answers for what: delegations, powers of attorney, minutes. What actually holds up in a dispute
- The written rules people follow, and the ones they work around on day one
- What falls on the people who decide: GDPR, NIS2, DORA and the AI Act, in two pages and without statute numbers
- A document of your own, followed step by step: how many hands and platforms touch it in a single day
- Artificial intelligence in the office: what it can be given and what it cannot, and how to write the rule
- The first two hours: who speaks, to whom, and in what words
- What is said and what is not said, while the thing is still running
It is the only public date this autumn. Few and certain. The group is twelve people and the venue is given to those enrolled, who are also asked to bring a document from their own organisation for the day-two exercise. Sessions in English, and sessions held behind closed doors at your own offices, are arranged on request — write to me.
Two programmes, and neither of them is a course. The restricted programme for people who hold information that is not theirs, the seminar for a whole department or a whole organisation. Both can be delivered on site, behind closed doors.
Arrange a session