teamwork
Want better meetings? Meet Helmut, the rubber chicken
Don’t we all love meetings that go on forever? And people who love listening to the sound of their own voice? Obviously, the answer is “no”. Do we all want better meetings? Yes! I’ve sat in I-don’t-know-how-many business meetings over the course of my career where the discussion went forever, but was going nowhere. The […]
Reflections from Pink Elephant: how IT teams are shaping up in 2017
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cb185lziS3E?version=3&rel=1&fs=1&autohide=2&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&wmode=transparent&w=600&h=368] They say what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, but we can’t help but share what we learned about how IT teams are gearing up for a fast and furious 2017. Last week, Atlassians and our solution partner, Rightstar, descended on Pink Elephant’s 21st Annual International ITSM conference at the Bellagio Hotel in Las […]
Can humans thrive in the bot economy?
On the go? You can listen to this blog, read by the author, using the player below. [soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/311721882″ params=”color=0066cc&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /] Artificial intelligence (AI) might turn out to be the single biggest change the business world will see in our lifetime. Even bigger than the internet. Bots, like those little customer […]
Kitesurfing with ex-presidents: what Richard Branson taught me about leadership
If I told you that you were going to meet a 66 year-old business man worth 7 billion dollars who owns his own island, you’d greet that person with certain assumptions and expectations. Right? Well, when I met Sir Richard Branson for the first time, I brought in my own assumptions of what he’d be […]
5 things I learned about product (and people) management this year
This last year has been a blur. At the start of 2016 I was working in Product Management at Twitter, and then I moved to the other side of the world to work at Atlassian in Sydney, Australia. Despite the massive geographic and timezone change, I’ve learned a lot from both places about being a […]
If your company’s idea of teamwork is BS, here’s how to fix it
Teamwork and tools that support it get a lot of hype. But teamwork isn’t a technical problem – it’s a people problem. You can’t solve it with tools.
Iterate on your team: how to stay agile and keep improving
It’s the start of a new year, and everyone is thinking about how to improve themselves and their work. I’m not here to offer a list of resolutions to take on, or tips to make the most out of 2017. My message for the coming year is simply this: keep working on your team. It […]
Desktop zero: how to manage unproductive digital clutter
I used to have many files scattered across my computer desktop, making my immediate files easy to find. Or so I thought. While fighting tight deadlines, I came to realize that finding that one vital file amid the mess on my desktop was a slog. Wasn’t the point of having folders and files right in front me the purpose of having a desktop at all?
Say sayonara to business jargon with corpspeak haiku
I know. Everybody’s too busy blowing things out of the water and knocking things out of the park to start talking and writing like actual humans. Well, guess what. The machines are coming, and they’re coming fast. If we don’t stop talking like machines and start re-engaging our clever human minds to come up with fresher […]
Moving down the corporate ladder
On the go? You can listen to this blog using the player below. [soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/311607484″ params=”color=0066cc&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /] “I don’t think I’ve been doing a very good job lately.” Not the way I usually kick off 1-on-1 meetings with my boss. But that day, it’s what needed to be said. I’d been managing […]
Inside Atlassian: stopping team dysfunction before it starts
This is not the story of a team that was obviously broken. On the surface, we looked like your typical, high-powered marketing team. Busy, ambitious, and fueled by constant pressure from crazy deadlines. We played nicely together, collaborating early and often. We respected each other. We liked each other. Collaboration, respect, a bit of office-appropriate […]
Teamwork is really f*cking hard – here’s how to make it better
Society loves to celebrate and glorify the individual – Jobs, Musk, Lebron James. We all do it. But individuals don’t accomplish monumental achievements on their own. Success is driven by teams. From sending a rover to Mars to decoding the human genome or building driverless cars, teams accomplish far more than any single person ever could. Take […]
The 10 biggest misconceptions of remote work
Remote work is on the rise. Believe it or not, employees are opting for 30 more minutes of shut eye over 30 minutes in traffic. Turns out they prefer home cooked meals at a kitchen table over microwaved frozen meals in the breakroom. They’re also choosing impactful co-worker collaboration over water cooler gossip. In short, remote work is working.
Why group brainstorming doesn’t work
We’ve all been there. You’re on hour two of too many. The wall is covered in sticky notes. The coffee is running low. Everyone’s eyes are starting to glaze over. You’re thinking about all the work you aren’t doing while sitting in that room. And the three loudest people on the team are having an unofficial competition to see who can contribute the most ideas, quality be darned.