Work needs a “why”: 7 team practices for sharing purpose

All work has a purpose. Companies don’t build things for fun (even if we have fun doing it, sometimes). But that purpose doesn’t have to be a world-changing mission. Put simply, it’s the outcome you’re trying to achieve – in five years, next quarter, or by the end of this week.

The hard part is staying connected that purpose. But it is possible, and it’ll make your whole team not just more productive, but more empowered and fulfilled.

Why start from why? 

If your company is a ship, think of purpose as your North Star.

It’s keeping everyone – sailors, skippers, and captain – on track to a specific destination. Without that guiding point, teams might argue (or even mutiny) on the best course of action. They might overfocus on how many miles they sailed, instead of where they sailed to.

Not only does that prevent you from reaching your destination, it makes work miserable along the way.

By contrast, this is what it looks like to lead with purpose:

• Make informed decisions, faster: When people aren’t doing things by rote, they can pivot and adapt quickly if it suits their goal. They know why, not just what, so they can do whatever it takes to get there.
• More satisfying and fulfilling work: People are happier at mission-driven companies. It’s more fulfilling to feel like you’re supporting a goal, not acting like cog in a machine you don’t understand.
• Clearer, efficient prioritization: Without clear purpose, it’s much harder to know what to work on next. Knowing your ‘why’ makes prioritization and resource allocation much easier.
• Easier cross-team collaboration: Collaboration is more efficient when we know what other teams are actually trying to achieve. When teams only share what they’re working on, not why, colleagues don’t have true visibility.

All this adds up to improved business outcomes. To continue the above example, you’d focus on onboarding if your company’s top priority was customer retention. If you’re focused on growing an audience or demand generation, it makes sense to invest in brand.

When you don’t know your purpose

If you don’t know your North Star, it doesn’t mean your team isn’t doing a good job. Getting clarity on big-picture goals isn’t easy, and it’s not always in teams’ direct control.

Purpose typically comes from leadership, but if seas are foggy, there are things teams can do to get clarity. 

• Senior managers can ask for goal clarity during face time with leadership, or push for quarterly alignment meetings 
• Managers can try out practices like those below, and team members can ask for them if visibility isn’t there
• Individuals can do their best to frame work, results, and updates around what they *do* know about purpose and goals

7 team practices for sharing purpose

With intention, we can keep purpose close. The way to get there isn’t a mystery – it’s about small, repeatable practices that compound over time.

Think of these habits as your compass, keeping your ship on track to its North Star.

Practice 1: Think in terms of outcomes, not outputs 

Outputs focus on what we’re building, while outcomes focus on why we’re building it. What are we trying to achieve, and what value does that create for the company? 

Shipping a feature on time is an output: a specific task your team’s agreed to achieve. Providing a better user experience is an outcome, and could be measured by a reduction in support tickets.

Without purpose, it’s easy to slip from an outcome-focused paradigm to an output-focused one. It’s not that outputs don’t matter – but they’re not the best way to measure productivity or success.

Practice 2: Phrase goals in clear, human-first language

Often, goals are written in business jargon or use many technical terms. That can actually obscure purpose. Why are you trying to reach this metric or outcome? 

When sharing goals, use plain language wherever possible. Where metrics or technical terms need to be used, explain what they mean and why they matter. 

Instead of  “increase platform efficiency by 15%,” try “make it 15% faster for customers to solve their own problems without asking for help”.

Team can also restate goals in their own words that help people stay focused – just double-check that you’re still grasping the intention of the goal.

Practice 3: Frame goals as OKRs

OKRs (objectives and key results) are one great framework for turning goals into measurable outcomes. At Atlassian, we use OKRs because they’re so effective at translating lofty, ambitious goals into tactical milestones that can be adjusted over time.

Objective (the “why”)

• A clear, inspiring, time-bound statement of what we want to achieve.
• Ambitious but realistic, and aligned to Atlassian’s mission and long‑range plan.
• Qualitative: it describes the desired outcome, not the tasks.

Key Results (the “how we’ll know”)

• Quantifiable indicators that show whether we’re achieving the objective.
• Must be specific, measurable, time-bound, aggressive but realistic, and verifiable.
• Always outcome-focused (e.g., “reduce average response time from 48h to 24h by June 30”), not output-focused (“launch a marketing campaign”).

Practice 4: Use purpose to guide prioritization 

When purpose is clear, it becomes a North Star for discussions about prioritizing and tradeoffs. Encourage teams to always reference goals when debating – For example, in a planning phrase a suggestion as: “Given our goal to reduce customer friction, option B aligns better even though it’s slower.”

You can also consider a prioritization framework:

Impact vs. Effort Matrix

Impact vs. Effort is an easy way to understand tradeoffs. It’s particularly useful in conversations between technical and non-technical teams. 

RUF Pyramid: Reliability, Usability, Features

Reliability, usability improvements, and new features are the three components of a software product that meets users’ needs. The core product needs to be reliable and user-friendly – then, new features are the icing on the cake. 

Practice 5: Build project documentation around purpose 

Purpose shouldn’t live only in strategy decks or planning docs. Weave purpose into every part of your work documentation, like project pages, dashboards, and work management tools. Some tools, like Jira Product Discovery, make it easy to tasks and work items with the goal they support.

For example, you could include a short, persistent line at the top of your project page, like “this project exists to reduce support tickets caused by unclear documentation.”

Milestones and updates are especially crucial to connect to purpose. Instead of sharing which tasks you completed, explain progress towards your goals. As a prompt, encourage teams to answer: “What does this move us closer to?”

For example, instead of, “we shipped the new onboarding flow,” try framing it as: “We shipped the new onboarding flow. Next month, we’ll analyze how much it reduced early churn.”

Practice 6: Reconnect to purpose with reflection rituals 

Throughout the rhythms of ongoing work, build in regular moments to check whether you’re on track toward your goals. Sometimes priorities themselves have changed, and other times, you’ll need to adjust your plan for achieving them.

These check-ins are a chance to reconnect with purpose, and pivot when that’s the best path forward. Sometimes company priorities themselves have changed, and other times, you’ll need to adjust your plan for achieving them.

Set a cadence to look back at goals, and refresh them as needed. We suggest a full refresh every 90 days, with smaller check-ins monthly. This is your time to discuss progress towards future goals, mull over what’s worked so far, and adjust your path forward as needed.

A few tips:

• As you look back, be sure to discuss tradeoffs and failures, not just wins. This will help you learn how to make realistic tradeoffs and pivots going forward.
• Be as specific as possible, in terms of what yoy worked on and what goal it served. Instead of “We decided to build X instead of Y,” you might say “we deprioritized X so we could focus on reliability, which better supports our retention goal.”

Purpose, not perfection

Above all, remember that purpose is a journey. Your company’s ‘why’ will always fluctuate and evolve over time – and so too will your team keep re-discovering the best ways to get there.

By listening to one another, sharing information, and keeping purpose close through daily habits, you’ll get closer to that vision every day.