The three things the best teams do differently

Molly shared some of the latest from Atlassian’s State of Teams report. The data revealed what separates top teams from the rest:

1) Ruthless Goal Alignment

Not just having goals, but ensuring EVERYONE knows exactly what outcomes they’re driving.

No more “doing everything at once” syndrome.

2) Collaborative Planning + Tracking Too many teams still run projects like:

• Have kickoff
• Set deadline
• “Go do stuff”
• Hope for the best

The best teams track progress collectively & transparently. Sounds basic but it’s consistently the strongest predictor of team success.

3) Unlocking Collective Knowledge

Knowledge can’t be stuck in:

• People’s heads
• Side conversations
• Random desktop folders
• Lost email threads

Top teams make critical info accessible when people actually need it.

How Atlassian uses meetings to actually get work done

Make documentation a natural byproduct of how you work:

Run “page-led meetings” - create a doc with context beforehand, start w/ 5min silent reading

Use AI note-taking tools to auto-capture meeting content (Atlassian uses Loom AI)

Focus on documenting decision frameworks vs every conversation

The magic? This works at ANY scale - from 2 people to 12,000.

At Atlassian, they’ve mastered this by:

• Using Confluence as their single source of truth
• Starting meetings with cameras OFF (counterintuitive but effective)
• Letting everyone comment/contribute asynchronously

Documentation shouldn’t be extra work. It should flow naturally from how you operate.

Distributed teams have a head start on AI adoption

The gap between “could” and “are” is striking:

While most HR teams could automate 2-3 days of work per week using existing AI tech, most haven’t even started.

The blockers aren’t technical - the tech exists today. The blockers are: - Not knowing where to start - Fear of getting it wrong - Waiting for “perfect” solutions

Here’s the reality: Strategic AI adopters are already saving 1+ days per week. For us at MPL, we are seeing at least 2-3 days saved.

That’s 40-60% of your week back. Imagine what you could do with that time:

• Strategic planning
• Creative problem solving
• Actually talking to your people

Don’t wait for the “perfect” moment. Start small. Experiment. The future isn’t coming - it’s already here.

Advice for someone starting in HR today

"Learn to be a good strategist. That starts with really understanding your business — whatever space you're in — and how other people across the business work. The work we do today is so cross-functional. You’re going to collaborate with all types of people in all kinds of roles. Getting really good at being curious about their jobs, what they know, and what you can learn from them will set you up for success."

One thing they'd steal from another company

“One of my favorite products is You Need a Budget. It’s a budgeting app where you give every dollar a job — meaning every time you get money, you assign it to something specific. It’s a fundamentally different way to think about budgeting, and I think it’s such a cool product because they quickly teach you a new approach to something everyone’s familiar with. And it’s just better — it makes way more sense. It’s almost like having file folders for all your money, so you always know exactly where it’s going. That kind of strong point of view — showing people a totally different way to do something — is amazing. I love that part of their strategy."

See you next week!

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