Tools for Team Collaboration

Consider the wisdom you might share with your 16-year-old self: there are other fish and a much larger sea, that outfit is not all that, and you will actually use what you’re learning in school out in the real world. If your index cards on PEMDAS and affect vs. effect are buried in a box in your parents’ home, we have you covered with a handy cheat sheet going over all the basic math, extra credit art, and long-forgotten grammar tips and tricks you learned in school that literally might come up in your next meeting. Get the printable Math For some, no math counts as “basic,” sweat forming on our brow the second the bill comes at the offsite or we’re shared o…

Play details Prep time15 – 30 minsRun time20 – 120 minsPeople1What you’ll needPreferred AI tool that lets you build an agent (e.g., Rovo) 5-second summary Come up with ideas for AI agents. Build your first agent. Test and edit your agent Play resources Get started quickly with Rovo Learning Path Get help from Rovo Chat and Agents Learning Path Get the most out of Atlassian Intelligence (AI) Learning Path About this play What is an AI Teammate play?This play helps you understand the full potential of AI teammates by guiding you in building your first agent, specifically tailored to meet your unique needs and workflows, offering far …

Subscribe to Work LifeGet stories like this in your inbox Subscribe There’s been more than a little buzz about habits lately. To take just one example: James Clear’s 2018 book “Atomic Habits” spent an eye-popping 260 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. Books like these – including the 1989 classic “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” – promise that habits are a key to transforming your personal and professional life. And they draw on our collective, perennial desire to form good habits (and break bad ones) as a way of optimizing our life. But does the power of habits live up to the hype? Experts point to a deep well of neuroscience to show that ha…

Subscribe to Work LifeGet stories like this in your inbox Subscribe Burnout at work is nothing new, but it has gotten more attention since the height of Covid-19). There’s no shortage of advice on how individuals can beat burnout, but there’s a growing understanding that burnout prevention also has a lot to do with systemic factors – like workplace culture – and not just individual coping mechanisms. Plus, some aspects of burnout overlap with symptoms of depression, which can have implications for how we treat it. “We always focus on the professionals themselves. That is a very narrow-minded view,” says Yi-lang Tang, a clinical psychiatrist and associate prof…

Subscribe to Work LifeGet stories like this in your inbox Subscribe Here on Work Life, we kinda live and breathe the practices and strategies that make teams happier and more productive. And music, in its various iterations, has long been known as a key instrument, if you will, of that coveted flow state we’re all after. We pored over the research on which sounds are best for productivity, busting some myths and adding tracks to our playlists in several genres. So plug in your headphones we have a feeling you’re about to find your next favorite productivity playlist. Research and productivity playlists by genre 1. Classical Maybe you’ve seen the countless…

5-second summary Research shows that weather impacts mood, focus, and energy. Seasonal Affective Disorder and disrupted circadian rhythms reduce winter productivity, while summer sun boosts mood but offers distractions. Mindset matters: People with a positive view of winter stay more engaged. Studies from Harvard Business School show people are more focused on rainy days, and that time of day and weather conditions affect ethical decision-making and performance. Tips: Adapt workspaces and schedules to match the season, such as cozy, light-filled spaces in winter and flexible hours with outdoor breaks in summer to support different personality types. Subscri…

Subscribe to Work LifeGet stories about tech and teams in your inbox Subscribe By the time you finish this article, your brain will be different. The reason for this cerebral shift is neuroplasticity _ the brain’s ability to change and restructure itself. Every time the brain processes new information, neurons fire, new pathways form, and the malleable brain alters its shape and structure. In recent years, several researchers have posited that it’s possible to consciously direct neuroplasticity to optimize brain function, improve work performance, and even influence team performance. What is neuroplasticity? In a nutshell, neuroplasticity is the brain’s …

Subscribe to Work LifeGet stories like this in your inbox Subscribe Most of our work calendars are chock full of appointments we can’t miss: Team meetings, project huddles, performance reviews – you name it. But have you ever made an appointment with yourself, and treated it with the same level of commitment? That’s the idea behind time-blocking, the practice of reserving time on your own calendar to knock out specific projects. This has two big benefits: First, it carves out space in your workday to accomplish important tasks that otherwise might get pushed to the sidelines. Second, it reduces the temptation to try to multi-task your way through a giant to-do …

Subscribe to Work LifeGet stories like this in your inbox Subscribe 5-second summary Divergent thinking is a creative process that generates new ideas through free-flowing, unstructured brainstorming. It encourages exploring any and all possibilities, rather than taking the fastest, straightest path to one answer. Divergent thinking is most effective when the people doing it feel safe, have the time and space to get inspired, collaborate with others, set expectations as a group, and warm up first. Using divergent thinking exercises can help you get started by providing a little structure and inspiration to a purposely unstructured process. If you’ve ever c…

Subscribe to Work LifeGet stories like this in your inbox Subscribe In psychology, an internal locus of control is a key predictor of life satisfaction. People who see themselves – not external forces – as in charge of their life outcomes feel more grounded, fulfilled, and empowered. This principle applies to our professional lives, too. But as an employee, it might feel like you don’t have much power to control what you spend your days working on. In her new book Managing Up: How to Get What You Need from the People in Charge, Melody Wilding demonstrates that we often have more self-determination than we think we do. Managing Up gives readers a map for shapi…

Subscribe to Work LifeGet stories like this in your inbox Subscribe AI is changing the way we work at lightning speed. Tools that once felt experimental are now handling everything from scheduling to drafting reports. By 2030, executives predict only 1/3 of work will be fully done by humans. That leaves us with an urgent question: How do we future-proof our skills? As part of our 2025 AI Collaboration Index report, we asked leaders and knowledge workers around the world: As AI takes over more routine tasks, which human qualities will matter most? Their answers reveal a clear direction. Taken together, their answers highlight the timeless skills that become even mor…

Subscribe to Work LifeGet stories like this in your inbox Subscribe Sharing information freely makes it easier for everyone to do their jobs. For example, opening up project plans and retrospective notes can save teams from re-inventing the wheel, and makes aligning on goals much simpler. Documenting why a decision was made and what other options were explored helps teams understand the “why” behind where the company is headed and how their work fits in. There’s the proactive kind of sharing, where you send out a link, document, or video to a select group of people because it’s relevant to what you’re working on together. There’s also the passive kind of sharing, …

Subscribe to Work LifeGet stories like this in your inbox Subscribe AI tools often claim to make our work (and our lives) easier, faster, lighter. Instead, many of us are feeling in the dark and, at the same time, sprinting to keep up – juggling tools, prompts, and pressure to “leverage” all that functionality, all at once. The result? AI fatigue. That drained-yet-frantic feeling of trying to stay relevant in a system that never stops changing. Is the solution to stop using AI altogether? Probably not, considering AI can be such a powerful unlock. Instead, the solution lies in how we’re collaborating with it. Just like email overload wasn’t really about the technol…

Subscribe to Work LifeGet stories like this in your inbox Subscribe Though it’s become something of a cliche, it’s probably not too often that we’re actually posed the question “Where do you see yourself in five years?” Some among us will have that five-year plan mapped out and memorized – they’d be able to answer without missing a beat. But for many more of us, even if we’re happy at work, there’s a distinct lack of ownership over our professional paths. A whopping nine in 10 workers say they feel stuck in their jobs. Rapid changes in the workplace — from shifting priorities to new AI-powered tools – can make it feel like your career is happening to you instead o…

Subscribe to Work LifeGet stories like this in your inbox Subscribe Making work visible is crucial for minimizing misalignment and maximizing efficiency. Indeed, a lack of visibility can lead to soul-crushing amounts of wasted time and energy. “I met with a car manufacturer who has several brands under their umbrella,” says Sven Peters, AI Evangelist at Atlassian. “Two different brands had their engineers developing essentially the same braking system for more than a month before they realized it.” Collectively, they would’ve accomplished twice as much if they hadn’t been duplicating efforts. And they’re not alone. Atlassian’s 2025 State of Teams report revealed th…

Subscribe to Work LifeGet stories like this in your inbox Subscribe This is the season for drafting goals and dusting off New Year’s resolutions. Maybe you’ve got a big, audacious dream you want to achieve in 2026, but you’re a bit scared of the growth and work it will take to get there. That’s understandable enough. But the good news is, you’d be following a path that many others have trodden before you. So, how do the most successful people think about growth? How do they overcome fear? How do they deal with mistakes along the way? We collected a list of quotes about growth to help you understand and navigate it all – and keep you inspired along the way. …

Subscribe to Work LifeGet stories like this in your inbox Subscribe 5-second summary The traditional annual goal cycle is too slow for fast‑changing environments, which can leave teams focused on outdated priorities and running in the wrong direction. A quarterly refresh cycle helps teams quickly adjust as reality changes. Use this five-step process to set clear annual goals, then review and refresh them throughout the year so everyone stays focused on the work that’s most relevant and impactful. At the beginning of the year, setting annual goals can feel like cracking open a fresh notebook – clean and full of possibility. By the end of the year, that same …

by Laura Stack, MBA, CSP, CPAE “Over-communicating is the glue that holds a high-performing team together and keeps them focused in the same direction. And, it circles back to clarity. Without good, consistent communication, you don’t have clarity.” ― Lee Ellis, leadership consultant, author, presenter, retired colonel, USAF. As managers, it’s drilled into us that we shouldn’t micromanage —that instead, we should hire well-qualified, intelligent self-starters, then give them their instructions and get out of the way. And while this strategy is generally sound, you’ll always find some exceptions that test the rule. In recent years, some business experts have begun back…

by Laura Stack, MBA, CSP, CPAE Few things have changed the modern workplace more than the COVID-19 pandemic. Large-scale remote work, which many corporations tried and discarded as unmanageable not so long ago, suddenly became required in most businesses. Nascent and underutilized technologies experienced rapid development and widespread implementation. While the pandemic paralyzed some industries for a while, the white-collar world not only adapted quickly, but it also thrived. According to most studies, individual productivity increased slightly after employees went home to work. Familiar surroundings, flexible schedules, and a lack of commutes led to happier, more eng…

by Laura Stack, MBA, CSP, CPAE “The two most powerful warriors are patience and time.”—Leo Tolstoy, Russian novelist, in War and Peace. Late in June 2022, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released the results of the previous year’s American Time Use Study (ATUS), as it has annually since 2003. I’ve reported on it each year for more than a decade. The ATUS data for 2020, released in 2021, reflected significant effects from the COVID-19 pandemic that has gripped the nation since March 2020. Fortunately, during 2021, the crisis loosened its stranglehold on the economy, allowing it to bounce back to pre-plague levels. However, the economy has since fallen behind again d…

by Laura Stack, MBA, CSP, CPAE “The best way to predict the future is to create it.”—Peter Drucker. Making predictions about the future of productivity can be dangerous business. Remember all those people who predicted that the Internet would be a flash in the pan? Yeah, me neither. What I do remember is how wrong they were. That said, I’m going to make a few predictions about what might happen in 2023 in the productivity field, based on what we’re all hearing lately. Inflation will continue to eat at your productivity. Inflation has many causes, so we’re not looking to blame it on anyone here. But as prices for everyday costs like food, housing, and energy rise, so…

by Laura Stack, MBA, CSP, CPAE “Some people call this artificial intelligence, but the reality is this technology will enhance us. So instead of artificial intelligence, I think we’ll augment our intelligence.” — Ginny Rometty, American business executive Artificial intelligence (AI) gets a bad rap in pop culture. For every fictional Jarvis or David, there are a half-dozen Skynets or Ultrons. In the real world, most workers believe artificial intelligence is something we’re still waiting on. But it’s already off and running in corporations around the world, though not necessarily in forms people tend to think of when they hear the term “artificial intelligence.” Some vi…

by Laura Stack, MBA, CSP, CPAE “…A new generation is on the rise, and the first step to communicating with them is understanding they aren’t just another Millennial.” ― Pamela La Gioia, American business author. The post-Millennial generation of workers, born from about 1995 -2010, has now entered the American workplace in earnest. Some 74 million strong, this diverse cohort comprises about one-quarter of our population, and almost 40% of the workforce. They’re more plugged into the digital world than any generation before them and have never known any other lifestyle. Although Generation Z’s oldest members have worked steadily for a decade, some business pundits still…

by Laura Stack, MBA, CSP, CPAE “Don’t count the days; make the days count.” ― Muhammed Ali, American boxer. We’d all like to work less, wouldn’t we? It would be nice to take our retirement in installments, like John D. McDonald’s sleuth Travis Magee, but that’s not an option for most of us. One thing many of us try to do is arrange to work fewer days. This usually involves cramming the same 40 hours into fewer days, such as working four ten-hour days while taking Fridays off. But with “flex-time,” as it’s generally called, you still end up working 40-hour weeks, minimum. But how about shorter workweeks, period? Study after study has shown that workweeks of 32-36 hours…

by Laura Stack, MBA, CSP, CPAE “The best laid schemes of mice and men/often go astray.” ― Scottish poet Robert Burns Sometimes, unexpected events occur that tear apart a carefully planned life. Hopefully this hasn’t happened to you, but if it ever does, your productivity is likely to come crashing down… and really, no one could blame you. But some people might anyway. You may even lose a job, especially in this gig economy where speed reigns supreme. This recently happened to a colleague of mine, who had been his mother’s primary caregiver for several years. In March 2023, they experienced a perfect storm of health crises, culminating in his mother entering her final i…