Groove Management

04/16/2026

04/06/2026

𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗽 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗺𝘀 𝘀𝘂𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵 "𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗰𝗲𝗱 𝗳𝘂𝗻." 🛑
At Groove Management, one of our core values is the Peter Pan Principle: we take our work seriously, but not ourselves. When we design Team Timeouts, the goal is never to force engagement. The goal is to earn it.

I just published a new article breaking down the secret to a successful executive offsite. It covers:
🔹 How to pivot when a room is dreading an agenda.
🔹 The real purpose behind team-building activities (hint: it's about trust and alignment, not just games).
🔹 Why the magic doesn't happen during the activity, but during the debrief.
Check out the full story and learn how to earn your team's trust, respect, and laughter at your next offsite: https://www.groovemanagement.com/blog/forced-fun

03/17/2026

At Groove, we usually think of management and leadership as distinct. Different skills, different mindsets, different outcomes.

It can be useful to question even our most familiar assumptions. So here is one worth testing: what if management and leadership are not separate categories? What if they two aspects of the same function operating inside the same team at the same time?

Management creates enough stability to execute: alignment, consistency, and predictable rhythm. Leadership helps a team recognize when its assumptions, structures, or priorities no longer fit and need to evolve.

Every team needs both. Over-stabilizing reduces adaptability. Pushing change without enough structure burns people out.

Once you stop treating management and leadership as separate categories and start seeing them as an ongoing tension, a different question emerges:
𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝗿𝗶𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗺 𝗸𝗲𝗲𝗽𝘀 𝘀𝗺𝗼𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗺𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗯𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗮𝗹?

03/10/2026

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝟯𝟲𝟬 𝗙𝗲𝗲𝗱𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝗜𝘀𝗻’𝘁 𝗧𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗬𝗼𝘂

360 feedback tells you how people experience you. It doesn’t tell you what’s producing that experience.

A leader scores low on “empowers the team.” The standard move is predictable: delegate more. Step back.

But sometimes the team doesn’t trust each other, decisions don’t hold, and the leader is acting as the glue. In that system, “empowerment” isn’t a behavior tweak. It’s a structural issue. Backing off doesn’t fix it. It exposes it.

Most 360s turn signals into to-dos. Low score → action item → behavior theater. It looks like growth while the underlying pattern stays intact.

Before you build a development plan, ask a better question:
𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗯𝗲𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗶𝗼𝗿 𝘀𝗼𝗹𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗺?

A 360 tells you what the room sees. It doesn’t tell you what the room needs. #360

02/12/2026

New Leader Assimilation - one day that fast-tracks trust and alignment between a leader and their team.

02/10/2026

Teams that make the best decisions aren’t the ones that get along. They’re the ones willing to be uncomfortable together about something that matters.

That means someone says “I don’t think this will work” and the room gets curious instead of defensive. The quiet person’s pushback gets treated as data, not disloyalty. People walk out with a decision they actually own — not one they’ll silently work around.

That’s productive conflict — fighting about the work.

Positional conflict looks nothing like that. It’s not loud. It’s not dramatic. It’s the room where everyone nods, then leaves and does whatever they were already going to do. People stop pushing back not because they agree, but because they’ve decided it won’t matter.

So why don’t teams fix this? Because productive conflict feels risky and positional conflict feels professional. Disagreeing out loud might cost you something. Going along quietly never does — at least not right away.

One thing you can do even if you’re not the leader: next time you disagree and feel yourself about to nod anyway, say “I see it differently — can I share why?” You don’t need permission to change the culture of a room. You just need to go first once.

Comfortable teams produce compliance. Uncomfortable teams produce commitment.

Which one shows up more on your team?

02/05/2026

Appreciating Peter Thompson for submitting today’s quote for the Groove Calendar: “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”

The teams that go far aren’t the ones with the strongest individuals. They’re the ones where leaders stop being the fastest person in the room and start building the room that moves without them.

Going together isn’t about consensus. It’s about creating something no one person could carry alone.

Peter would know. Outside of leading at LucidLink, he co-led a cave diving expedition in northern Japan — surveying and mapping an underground sump system in Iwate prefecture. It took five years and a team to make it happen.

Some things you just can’t do fast or alone.

02/03/2026

“Stay hungry” is common leadership advice. It’s also incomplete.

There are two appetites that drive performance. Most leaders only feed one.

01/22/2026

“Care about people’s approval and you will be their prisoner.” — Lao Tzu

The same drive that gets someone promoted—being responsive, managing perceptions, delivering what stakeholders want—can become the thing that limits them at the next level.

The question isn’t whether to stop caring what people think. It’s whether you’re willing to act before you have everyone’s blessing.

01/20/2026

Last week the Reltio Revenue Leadership Team assembled to reflect on the successes of FY26, plot out
FY27, bond as a team and work on their end zone dances.
Special thanks to Alyson Welch for inviting Groove Management to facilitate

01/13/2026

“It’s always about the people.”

Stefan Reinartz, CTO at Utility Global, on what sets Groove apart.

His team was navigating the challenge every distributed company knows: two locations, two functions, and the friction that comes with it.

The result of our work together? Fewer surprises. Clearer ownership. Teams that troubleshoot together instead of handing off and disappearing.

Grateful to work with leaders who let us go deep. Led by Brian Formato.