Keep it on the one: From funk to management
I sometimes close my newsletters with the expression: "keep it on the one."
Some of you have asked what it means. Others have asked how a phrase rooted in music applies to the craft of management.
So here's a short reflection on both.
The musical foundation
"The one" refers to the first beat of a 4/4 time signature. Think of it simply as the one, two, three, four count that underlies much of Western music. James Brown would tell his band to "hit it on the one," emphasizing that first beat hard, anchoring the groove so everything else could lock in around it.
What I grew up with was mostly jazz, where the groove works a little differently. The bass lays down the one and the three; my guitar came in on the two and the four. That gave us a pulse—boom, clap, boom, clap—a conversation between instruments. Once that back-and-forth is in place, everything else can layer in. The horn section, the keys, the percussion, each doing their own thing, but all staying grounded.
It's not uncommon in a tune to have the bass lay out the foundation on the one and three for a while before the rest of the rhythm comes in.
You can drift in and out of solos, experiment with voicings, stretch the phrasing. But if you ever get lost, you just listen for the one.
That's where you rejoin the groove.
The management connection
The same holds true in management.
Just as musicians need a shared pulse to stay in the pocket, teams need a clear, dependable reference point, something that centers them.
In practice, keeping it on the one means establishing and sustaining the fundamental rhythms that hold a team together. The values you live by. The priorities you return to. The cadences you maintain. What that looks like will differ from one team to the next.
When projects get complex or improvisation runs wild, or when a new player joins the ensemble, it's those fundamentals that help everyone find their way back into sync.
It's not about rigid structure. It's about shared rhythm.
It's what allows people to play differently without falling apart.
That's why I say "keep it on the one."
It's a reminder, for myself and for you, to stay grounded. To stay in time with what matters. To keep the rhythm that makes both structure and creativity possible.
Because great performance, whether in music or management, is never just about the solo. It's about staying connected to the groove we build together.
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Keep it steady. Keep it human. Keep it on the one.
Introducing: Behind the Scenes
I spend a fair amount of time rereading what I’ve written—to understand how my thinking holds together and where it might be heading next. How do ideas I explored months ago connect to what I’m circling now? What threads have I been following without realizing it? Where did a particular angle actually come from?
It’s a way of making sense of my own thinking. But I’ve started to wonder if others might find that process interesting, too.
So I’m starting a monthly-ish Behind the Scenes series where I share some of that reflection. The first one looks at how my recent essay, What You Lose When You Lead, fits within the larger conversation I’ve been building about management and leadership. How ideas about craft, exemplarity, and human motivation have been circling each other in my work, converging around one of the most misunderstood transitions in professional life.
The weekly newsletter stays just as it is: free and open to everyone. This is simply the thinking I’d be doing anyway, made available for the cost of a coffee if you're curious to come along. Most Behind the Scenes entries will be for paid subscribers, though I’ll share one with everyone from time to time when it feels right.
If that’s not your thing, no worries. Nothing changes. The main conversation continues every week, just as it always has.
I’ll send the first one tomorrow.