Steal Atlassian’s playbook for building stronger teams without an office

·36 min·3 clips

Atlassian's chief people officer reveals why real connection happens when you ditch the water cooler chats.

The episode begins by challenging the notion that office culture is built through casual interactions, introducing Atlassian's finding that real connection comes from intentional gatherings. Avani Pruvakar explains the Team Anywhere model as a distributed work approach offering choice, not just remote work. She distinguishes between remote-first and distributed-first models, emphasizing optimizing for remote participants in meetings. The discussion moves to challenges in implementing the model, highlighting a 'one-way door' decision-making approach and experimentation with collaboration zones. Connection is addressed through the framework of 'intentional togetherness' (ITG), where teams meet quarterly to solve strategic problems, building lasting bonds. Workday design is structured into three blocks: 20-30% for meetings, 30-40% for deep work, and 30% for collaboration, to prevent Zoom fatigue. Avani shares her personal routine, starting with gratitude and meditation, and prioritizing three top tasks daily. Asynchronous communication is explored, with Loom used to make decisions, saving time and fostering inclusive discussions. The no-PowerPoint culture at Atlassian is described, favoring written pages for meetings to promote substance over style. AI adoption is discussed, with HR teams building agents like Nora for onboarding without technical support, driven by a culture of experimentation. Avani outlines four stages of AI collaboration, from basic use to strategic partnership, and predicts that future work will focus on how we work, asynchronous communication, and human-AI integration. The episode concludes with reflections on designing connection purposefully.

As heard by us

Purposeful connection beats accidental office time.

This episode treats Atlassian's Team Anywhere model as a practical question: how do you make connection happen on purpose, instead of hoping the office does it for you? Avani Pruvakar is strongest when she stays concrete.

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Why you'd press play

Steal a distributed-work playbook built around fewer meetings and more intentional connection.

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