Have you ever joined a project and thought, “Wait, what exactly am I supposed to be doing?” Or found out – after weeks of work – that another team was tackling the exact same thing?
Turns out, this problem is everywhere. Our research shows:
- Over half (56%) of knowledge workers say their company lacks a consistent approach to planning and tracking work, which makes it hard to collaborate.
- A full 50% have worked on a project and only later found out that another team was working on the same thing.
When every team in your company has a clear plan, the “who, what, why, when, and how” is clear. From day one of every project, everyone knows what needs to be done, who’s doing it, and why it matters.
That leads to fewer “What am I supposed to be doing?” moments. Less duplicated work. No more hunting through Slack threads and slides for critical info. Fewer status meetings where nothing really happens. Your team can finally get the projects that matter done.
Molly Sands, head of Atlassian’s Teamwork Lab, sums up Atlassian’s research-backed solution to this planning problem: “Every team needs a map that reflects where they’re going and why, so they can co-create a plan to get there.” Let’s break it down.
How to turn team goals into meaningful work
Research shows teams with clear processes are 4.6x more likely to be productive. What do these high-performers actually do?
- Build a shared understanding of the “who, what, why, when, and how” of their work
- Break projects down into clear tasks with owners, milestones, and mapped dependencies
- Keep everyone informed through real-time project status updates
- Continuously improve by regularly reflecting and adapting plans
Your teams want to make an impact – they just need a clear path to get there. Here are three research-backed work planning practices your team can use to immediately collaborate better, move faster, and achieve meaningful results.
Practice 1: Create a shared understanding of the plan and purpose
For way too many teams, projects are a “figure it out as you go” (or not) situation. In contrast, high-performing teams don’t skip the project rituals and documentation that create clarity. Here’s how they do it:
Create a project brief to establish a shared understanding. Start by answering three critical questions: What are we doing? Why are we doing it? What does success look like? Make sure every project connects to a specific goal, so the “why” is always clear. Define roles, responsibilities, and decision-makers from day one, so everyone understands how they – and their collaborators – are expected to contribute.
Try the Play: Roles and Responsibilities →
Map stakeholders and collaborators to keep things running smoothly. At the start of every project, make a clear list of everyone who has a stake in your project’s success – from decision-makers to supporting teams. Determine how much each group needs to be involved, their level of influence, their specific interests, and the best way to keep them updated. Set up the right communication channels and meeting schedules so nobody feels left in the dark.
Try the Play: Network of Teams →
Set team working agreements to keep everyone on the same page. Shared expectations help teams move faster and collaborate more effectively. Decide together how you’ll communicate, when you’ll meet, and how you’ll track work. Set up ground rules for everything from meeting etiquette to how you’ll handle disagreements. This creates clarity, saves time, and makes collaborating much smoother.
Try the Play: Working agreements →
Practice 2: Get clear on what needs to be done – and how you’ll get there
Once the plan is in place, high-performing teams zoom in to clarify work at the task level. Here’s how they do it:
Break down work into tasks – with clear owners and outcomes – to avoid confusion. Make sure every task has a clear owner, someone responsible for seeing it through. Define what “done” actually means, with specific outcomes or criteria. That way, no one’s left guessing, and you won’t get stuck in the frustrating loop of redoing work because expectations weren’t aligned.
Map task-level dependencies to prevent scrambling. Identify which tasks depend on others before they can start – and make that clear to everyone up front. For example, you can’t “Send the company-wide announcement” until you’ve “Gotten internal comms approval.” Mapping dependencies upfront helps teams sequence work realistically, spot bottlenecks early, and avoid those frantic deadline surprises.
Keep progress visible to build trust and reduce chaos. Update task status in real time so the entire team knows where things stand without having to ask. Every Monday, managers can share a quick Loom video with core contributors and stakeholders, highlighting big wins, flagging potential roadblocks, and previewing what’s next. Atlassian teams recently swapped status meetings for Loom videos and saved 5,000 hours of meeting time in just two weeks. Transparency isn’t just a “nice to have” – it cuts chaos, boosts trust, and helps everyone pitch in exactly when they’re needed.
Try the Play: Weekly team updates →
Practice 3: Learn and adapt your plans to maximize impact
Even the best-laid plans hit roadblocks. Teams that consistently deliver great results aren’t the ones that never face challenges – they’re the ones that learn fast, adapt quickly, and keep moving forward. Here’s how they do it:
Build reflection points into every project to keep improving. Schedule time to check in before, during, and after projects. Kick things off with a premortem to spot risks early, use midpoint check-ins to assess progress, and wrap up with a postmortem to capture what you’ve learned. These simple habits help teams solve problems faster and improve with each project.
Create processes to quickly unblock work. Set up clear, dedicated channels so teams can get help if they get stuck. Clearly define how and when to escalate issues to leadership – because the faster your teams can clear roadblocks, the faster everyone can move forward.
Break projects into clear milestones to stay on track and adapt fast. Set specific deadlines for each phase, and check in on progress every two weeks. Regular checkpoints help teams keep momentum and pivot on the fly as they learn what’s working (and what’s not).
Try the Play: 4Ls Retrospective Play →
How Atlassian keeps everyone on the same page – literally
Our product teams use Jira and Confluence to write and document project briefs, track work progress in real-time, and maximize visibility across the organization.
When Atlassian teams start a new project, we kick things off with a Confluence page (or a Loom video that AI then turns into a page) outlining the problem, who it’s for, and why it matters. Rovo then automatically turns that brief into Jira tasks, so everyone immediately knows what needs to be done.
We use Jira Program Boards to make dependencies, objectives, and milestones visible across functions. We make sure every Jira task has a clear owner and a definition of “done”. We track progress by updating task statuses in real time.
Questions and explanations happen in Jira and include links to Confluence pages that contain essential context. That means every discussion stays tied to the task, so our team’s knowledge grows with the work. No sorting through long email threads or searching in folders.
Rovo lets us quickly search for and discover insights from other teams that may impact or inform our work. Loom videos help us scale what we’ve learned. If several teams are stuck, they can often be unblocked by a single, two-minute Loom.
To make sure we’re applying those insights, we review progress as a team every two weeks.
The result? Less time coordinating, more time delivering.
Jira created visibility of work and goals up, down, and across the company. It drove clarity, confidence, and speed. Plus, since everyone had access to every piece of work, we got rid of pesky status meetings.
Leith Stevens, Head of Product
Work planning is just one piece of the teamwork puzzle
Planning and tracking work together is critical, but it’s most effective when combined with three other pillars of the Atlassian System of Work (our core philosophy for making teamwork work):
- Align work to goals: High-performing teams don’t just set goals – they set fewer, bolder goals that tie directly to the company’s strategic priorities. They build systems and rituals that make those goals clear, actionable, and continuously relevant. Learn more.
- Unleash collective knowledge: When teams document and share knowledge in a centralized platform, everyone benefits from what’s already been learned. AI can surface insights teams didn’t even know they needed, eliminating time wasted searching for context.
- Realize the full power of AI teammates: AI can help teams cut through information overload, gain insights faster, and accelerate innovation cycles – but only when it’s treated as a true teammate with clear roles and responsibilities.
What could your team accomplish if everyone was clear on the plan? The right work planning approach doesn’t just reduce confusion – it’s the key to turning your most exciting visions into reality.
