We’re proud of our culture and the values that define it – and we’re not afraid to say so. We don’t assume our culture is right for every company, but we believe some of the ways we keep our culture flame burning brightly might resonate with other companies.
There are three levels at which we operate within Atlassian – as one organization, as an ever-evolving set of teams (for which the Team Playbook was built), and as a collection of individuals. Our culture and values have meaning at each level, and there are practices we’ve adopted to help us augment it as individuals, as teams, and as an organization.
Organization. At the organization level, Atlassian has practices that support fundamental aspects of our culture such as innovation, giving back, and transparency (among others). Take ShipIt, for example: a 24-hour period of innovation that happens every quarter at Atlassian, in all offices across the globe. We invite everyone to make, build, or design anything they want, then present what they’ve created. ShipIt infuses the whole company with innovation – not just the engineering teams.
Teams. We live and breathe teams. We rely on teams to create our products. We build our products to make teamwork work. We publicly released a report about the diversity within our teams (not just our overall organization). Our stock ticker symbol is TEAM for pete's sake! So it’s no surprise that we value team health and effectiveness. That’s where the Team Playbook comes in. Every day you’ll find Atlassians using the Team Playbook to assess their team's health, or to build muscle in their weak areas. Working as a team to maximize performance is core to how we operate.
Individuals. At the end of the day we’re all individuals. There is a “me” in team if you look closely. Atlassian believes unleashing the power of teams relies on unleashing the strength of each individual. That starts with valuing individuality, and Atlassian’s culture welcomes employees to “come as you are” to work everyday. At work, individuals are encouraged to maximize their own productivity in ways that work for them. A common practice among Atlassians at the individual level is setting aside time for deep work. Individuals are encouraged to block their calendars as needed to really get in the zone.
Atlassian’s culture is defined by our values and it thrives because of the practices we nurture at the individual, team, and organization level. For Atlassian, “culture” and “values” are alive and are to be lived. They’re not just a set of words written on a page gathering dust or painted on a wall. We encourage other companies to think deeply about their culture and the vales that matter to them, and then put practices in place that truly support and reinforce what’s most important.