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4 distributed work lessons from Gatheround and Atlassian

By  Gatheround  ·  1 minute read

Can you name a better duo than Gatheround and Atlassian? Our CEO and cofounder Lisa Conn recently hosted Atlassian’s Mark Cruth, Modern Work Coach, for a fireside chat to discuss how two very different teams navigate distributed work — and empower others to do the same. 

Atlassian — a distributed work pioneer since 2005 — is one of the largest distributed workplaces in the world, with employees across almost every time zone. Gatheround is a small startup with just twelve employees, but has an outsized impact: shaping how larger customer organizations like Calendly and Gusto approach flexible work. 

Despite big organizational differences, there are a lot of similarities in how Atlassian and Gatheround think about distributed work. Here are some of the key takeaways from Lisa and Mark’s conversation: 

  1. Meet only when it matters. Atlassian recently found that 72% of meetings are ineffective. Whenever you can, default to asynchronous communication. Use Slack for back-and-forth or Loom to record more complex thoughts, and save meetings (on Gatheround, of course) for the high-impact conversations that need to happen live.  

  2. “No agenda, no attenda.” A line we’re stealing from one of our wonderful participants, this says it all. If there’s no agenda for the meeting, the meeting is going to be a bust. Conversely, designing an agenda pushes the meeting leader to think deeply about how to make the time effective. (ICYMI, Gatheround just revamped our amazing agenda builder.)

  3. Know the tools of your trade. Distributed teams rely on shared sources of truth to get work done. You need good collaboration tools, like Slack and Loom, a workflow management tool like Jira, a knowledge base like Confluence, and a great video meetings tool. 😉

  4. Norms, norms, norms. Similarly, remote and distributed teams need a shared set of expectations about how they work. What are your core hours? How quickly should you respond to an email or message? How do you navigate time zones? These questions should have answers and those answers should be documented. (Need help? Start with our Norming & Forming Program.)

Book a demo to learn more about how Gatheround can help your remote, flexible, or distributed team reach the next level — or check out the library to host your own Fireside Chat. 

And check out the recording below to hear more of Lisa and Mark’s conversation or see the transcript.