In this episode of Culture Crush, host Dan Dowman interviews Ashley Faus, the Head of Lifestyle Marketing at Atlassian.  

Ashley unpacks her career journey and delves into the power of values, revealing how critical they have been in helping Atlassian maintain its outstanding culture as the organisation has rapidly expanded.

Ashley shares some practical tips for addressing culture and leadership challenges, such as using the Atlassian Team Playbook and implementing the Health Monitor with a brilliant way to describe team misalignment.  

Culture Crushes

🧡 Atlassian: For its practical and balanced values that unite the team in service of the customer.  

Takeaways

✅ Values are not just fluffy concepts; they have a real impact on business outcomes.

✅ Organizational practices, such as the Atlassian Team Playbook and the Health Monitor, can help improve team collaboration and address culture and leadership challenges.

✅ Implementing values from the start and aligning hiring practices with those values can contribute to a strong company culture.

✅ Continuous feedback and open dialogue are essential for employee growth and development.

✅ As companies grow, it becomes more important to have visibility, shared goals, and effective collaboration across teams.

Sound Bites

📢 “We have had to be very intentional about talking about how do we keep those values at the forefront."

📢 "We are all trying to solve the problem. We all ultimately want an excellent outcome for the customer."

📢 “They don't understand that it [values] has an actual business output." 

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Ashley Foss's Career Journey

04:47 The Power of Values in Company Culture

09:29 Founders Sleeping on Values

13:50 Product and Service Alignment with Internal Organisation

16:43 Culture Crush: Atlassian

24:55 Implementing Organisational Practices

31:37 Practical Tips for Addressing Culture and Leadership Challenges

Links

🔗 Atlassian Team Playbook