Plays of the month: Prioritize your team’s health before prioritizing the next project

Kristen Roth
Community Manager
Community Managers are Atlassian Team members who specifically run and moderate Atlassian communities. Feel free to say hello!
March 22, 2022

Does your team press pause before jumping into the next project? Or do you tend to go directly from one project to the next? If you fall into the latter category and haven't taken a breather in a while, there's no better time to hit that pause button than before you kick off your next one. 

⏸ Taking some time to evaluate your team's wellbeing, analyze your team's health, and understand your strengths and weaknesses is worth it. 

The Atlassian team has observed 8 attributes in common among healthy, high-performing project teams. The Health Monitor is a chance for your team to get a reading on each one. After running a Health Monitor, you'll be able to identify other Plays to run with your team that will help you build muscle in your weak areas. (And a quick note to those who might already be familiar with the Health Monitor: it might be time for another visit 😉).

To get even more out of your pause-and-reset moment, consider running the My User Manual play along with your Health Monitor to answer the nitty-gritty questions about how each team member likes to work. Delivering great work together requires empathy and understanding, but that doesn't always come along naturally. 

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When's the last time your team took some time to evaluate how well you're working together and set expectations? Has it been a while, or are you good about making it a regular thing? We'd love to hear from you in the comments! 

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Srinatha T
Atlassian Team
Atlassian Team members are employees working across the company in a wide variety of roles.
March 22, 2022

@Kristen Roth , very nice article. I will talk to my manager and see if we can try out the health monitor. Seems interesting to me.

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Kristen Roth
Community Manager
Community Managers are Atlassian Team members who specifically run and moderate Atlassian communities. Feel free to say hello!
March 23, 2022

Great! Please do let us know if you give it a go, @Srinatha T

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Patrícia Fortunato Montenegro March 23, 2022

Hi @Kristen Roth

Pretty important! Thanks for this reminder; we always need to check our development and improve as a team.

Thank you! 🤗🤗

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Kristen Roth
Community Manager
Community Managers are Atlassian Team members who specifically run and moderate Atlassian communities. Feel free to say hello!
March 23, 2022

Thanks for reading, @Patrícia Fortunato Montenegro . Yes we do! We're all a constant work in progress.

Patrícia Fortunato Montenegro March 23, 2022

It was my pleasure fo sure, @Kristen Roth 🤗🙏🏽

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Karthick S
Atlassian Team
Atlassian Team members are employees working across the company in a wide variety of roles.
March 25, 2022

Thanks for sharing this @Kristen Roth and emphazing on the health which matters the most!

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Kristen Roth
Community Manager
Community Managers are Atlassian Team members who specifically run and moderate Atlassian communities. Feel free to say hello!
March 25, 2022

Absolutely! No matter how well things seem to be going, regular team health check-ins are a must.

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James Richards
Atlassian Team
Atlassian Team members are employees working across the company in a wide variety of roles.
March 27, 2022

I've done this many times in my last team. It's a good way to rip the band-aid off some of the sores you have, but it's important to make sure you deal with any trends before they get worse.

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Dave Mathijs
Community Leader
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November 7, 2022

@James Richards What kind of "trends" for example?

Darryl Lee
Atlassian Team
Atlassian Team members are employees working across the company in a wide variety of roles.
March 28, 2022

Totally can relate. The periodical surveys and a team-health dashboard make the things clear!

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Elizabeth Barr
Atlassian Team
Atlassian Team members are employees working across the company in a wide variety of roles.
April 6, 2022

YES ^^

Valerie Knapp
Community Leader
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September 23, 2022

I really like this idea of a dashboard, can you share an example @Darryl Lee ?

Srinatha T
Atlassian Team
Atlassian Team members are employees working across the company in a wide variety of roles.
March 30, 2022

Nice article

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Srinatha T
Atlassian Team
Atlassian Team members are employees working across the company in a wide variety of roles.
April 2, 2022

Thank you for insightful articles @Kristen Roth . These are really helpful 

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Elizabeth Barr
Atlassian Team
Atlassian Team members are employees working across the company in a wide variety of roles.
April 6, 2022

Great food for thought, @Kristen Roth .

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Brant Schroeder
Community Leader
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April 6, 2022

@Kristen Roth this is a great reminder.  Having a healthy team is so important to being successful on any project.

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Fabio Racobaldo _Herzum_
Community Leader
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April 19, 2022

Great article, thanks for sharing

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Srinatha T
Atlassian Team
Atlassian Team members are employees working across the company in a wide variety of roles.
April 30, 2022

Great article . Thanks

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Srinatha T
Atlassian Team
Atlassian Team members are employees working across the company in a wide variety of roles.
April 30, 2022

This article is kind of eye opener for me. We get so busy with work that such small things which add so much value in building a great team are always missed. Again, thanks @Kristen Roth 

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Christel Gray May 3, 2022

We tend to jump from one project to the next, but do celebrate milestones, too. However, I think looking at the Health Monitor is a great option.

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Sri Kumar
Rising Star
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May 4, 2022

Thanks for sharing this 🙂

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Wouter Bruinings
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May 16, 2022

I love working scrum, but the name says it: "Sprints". It can sometimes feel like trying to get through a marathon by attempting to sprint short distances. Creating the opportunity to have a break can then be difficult. 

Anyway, I don't believe any long distance runner would recommend a sprint small distances to the end of a marathon approach. 

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Connor
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June 21, 2022

This is incredibly relevant considering the stress and turmoil the world has experienced the past couple years with Covid. 

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Brittany Wispell
Community Leader
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June 22, 2022

Thanks for the reminder of this playbook! 

Summer_Hogan
Community Leader
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June 30, 2022

Great idea! And great advice! 

Craig Nodwell
Community Leader
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July 20, 2022

No pause, directly into the next one.  A lot of folks experiencing burnout. 

Sakina
Rising Star
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September 7, 2022

well said :)

Zulfiqar Bin Zafar
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October 16, 2022

Great article to read and totally agreed

Dave Mathijs
Community Leader
Community Leader
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November 6, 2022

Our team organises a quarterly retro to discuss the health of the team. Of course, this doesn't prevent the team members to raise concerns whenever there are any, whether it is ad hoc, during the bi-weekly team meeting, a knowledge sharing session, a buddy talk, ...

Karim ABO HASHISH
Community Leader
Community Leader
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November 7, 2022

i do really like the playbook exercises to facilitate team assessments and building exercises. I'm planning to dive deeper with more practices utilizing the playbook games.

Sayed Bares [ServiceRocket]
Community Leader
Community Leader
Community Leaders are connectors, ambassadors, and mentors. On the online community, they serve as thought leaders, product experts, and moderators.
November 10, 2022

Thanks for sharing, great advice!

Jonathan V. November 22, 2022

I love this idea, thanks for sharing. As part of my year-end review with the team, I think this play will come in nicely to gauge how the team feels.

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