Why “why” matters — the secret to fast, focused execution

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With teams spread across departments, projects, and even time zones, it’s easy to lose sight of what truly matters in a project and to get swept up in daily tasks, losing track of the bigger picture. As we introduce new tools and tweak our workflows, it’s worth asking: are you actually making progress or just spinning your wheels? What were the original goals and expected outcomes of this project?

The key to avoiding costly missteps and misalignment all tracks back to maintaining clarity of purpose not only at the beginning, but also throughout a project. This is why a shared understanding of “why” is one of the most important first steps to move a team forward together.

A shared sense of “why” keeps teams aligned, minimizes wasted effort, and drives real progress. Without it, teams often fall into common traps — such as duplicating work when departments unknowingly tackle the same project, or missing deadlines due to competing priorities.

When you understand not just the task you’re doing but the “why” behind it, distractions fade and the work feels more meaningful. Let’s explore why a purpose-driven approach is essential, and how Teamwork Collection apps can help your team channel that purpose to execute more effectively.

The proof of how shared purpose drives results

Teams waste time and energy when information is scattered or goals are buried. According to Atlassian’s State of Teams report, team members spend a quarter of the workweek searching for what they need, and 74% of executives say poor communication slows their teams down.

When teams know not just what needs to get accomplished, but why it matters, their work gains focus and momentum. The data backs this up: teams with well-aligned goals are 6.4 times more likely to produce high-quality work and nearly 4.9 times more likely to hit deadlines.

The takeaway? Setting clear goals and making information more visible can lead to real progress and effective collaboration. When everyone can see what they’re aiming for, ambition turns into daily inspiration and purposeful action.

Now that we’ve established why purpose-driven work is at the core of productive teams, let’s uncover how you can integrate a “why”-focused project approach from planning through execution.

Fostering alignment with Teamwork Collection apps

Teamwork Collection — featuring Jira, Confluence, Loom, and Rovo — is more than just a set of apps and agents; it’s a practical solution for aligning your team around meaningful work, from setting clear goals to confident execution. Here’s how it can be used to create a framework that puts effective collaboration at the core of every phase of a project.

Align work to goals: Centralize your strategy to ensure everyone understands the purpose behind their work. Jira and Confluence integrate with platform apps like Goals to help teams connect their daily tasks directly to broader company objectives and track progress with transparency. Maintaining clarity of goals keeps your teammates focused on what matters most.

Plan and track work together: Clearly translate big-picture objectives into actionable plans to turn strategy into coordinated action. Use Confluence to brainstorm and shape your strategy, then convert those ideas into trackable work in Jira. With Smart Links, you can seamlessly embed Jira views in Confluence and vice versa, giving everyone shared visibility and ensuring that the whole team is moving forward together.

Unleash collective knowledge: Break down information silos by transforming meetings, ideas, and updates into a single, accessible source of truth. When you make it easy to capture and share knowledge, everyone understands the bigger picture and can contribute more effectively. Using apps like Loom and Confluence promotes such a culture, as they share context and collective intelligence to drive better outcomes.

Automate and accelerate execution: Streamline workflows and boost productivity by using AI to automate routine tasks, find answers quickly, and surface key insights. With Rovo's AI-powered search, chat, studio, and agents, your team can move from idea to action faster, freeing up time to focus on more strategic, high-impact work.

While too many moving parts in the tech stack can create problematic silos, Teamwork Collection apps flip the script by transforming complexity into an advantage with AI — learn more here.

Practical tips for embedding the “why” in your team’s workflow

Recognizing purpose is transformative in driving results within your team. But how do you ensure it becomes part of your team’s everyday work rather than just a concept on a strategy slide? The key is grounding everyone in shared goals, vision, and knowledge — and keeping them aligned from day one, once the “why” behind the work is clear.

Here are actionable ways you can infuse the "why" and purpose-driven reminders into your project workflows so your entire team is aligned with the big picture.

1. Document ideas where they happen: Great insights and those “aha!” moments often crop up during brainstorming, casual chats, or quick syncs. Don’t let these disappear. You can create Confluence pages and notes from wherever those ideas happen, ensuring the “why” is captured in real time and shared with your team. This transparency helps everyone see the bigger picture and understand how their work connects to team objectives. Here are a few ways you can do that with Teamwork Collection:

• Loom's AI-powered meeting notes automatically capture ideas and summarize discussions during meetings.

• Loom recordings can be seamlessly turned into searchable Confluence pages or actionable Jira work items using Loom AI workflows.

• The Jira and Slack integration allows you to quickly capture ad-hoc ideas from Slack and convert them into Jira work items, keeping your team aligned and your workflow organized.

2. Automate meeting notes and context sharing: Meetings should move your project forward, not add to the noise or confusion. With Loom’s AI-powered meeting notes, you can automatically capture, summarize, and highlight key takeaways from every discussion directly into Confluence. This creates a centralized knowledge hub that keeps everyone (whether they attended the meeting or not) on the same page. By automating your meeting notes, decisions and action items are kept accessible. This helps keep the “why” behind your project front and center. With the purpose of each task crystal clear, your team can prioritize the work that needs to be done.

3. Organize and surface knowledge in Confluence: When notes, plans, and meeting recaps are scattered across tools, teams often lose valuable time searching for information. Confluence eliminates this chaos by centralizing documentation and knowledge into a single hub. With structured folders and searchable Smart Links, it keeps rationale and context in an organized space.

4. Move from planning to doing, faster: Ready to turn a conversation into action? Transform Confluence notes or Loom recaps into Jira work items with a single click — turning purpose into action. Teams can immediately assign, track, and manage deliverables that remain directly tied to the original “why.” As you work, dependencies remain clear, helping you avoid task churn and keep execution outcome-driven.

5. Keep documentation and decisions concise and discoverable: Rovo provides instant access to the information your team needs. Use Rovo Chat to ask questions with your internal data, or have it call on Rovo Agents to perform tasks and workflows. Whether it’s Confluence documentation, Jira work items, or Loom recordings, Rovo helps your team instantly find the context, decisions, and updates you need, so nothing gets lost in translation. For broader documentation access, Rovo Search draws from your internal knowledge and connected third-party apps.

How Atlassian uses Teamwork Collection apps for product launches

Now that we’ve shared tips for improving your workflow with Teamwork Collection, let’s explore how these apps perform at scale. A great way to do that is by looking at how Atlassian’s own teams use these apps to launch products — managing everything from planning to post-launch.

At Atlassian, it all starts with alignment. Company-wide OKRs and annual plans are shared upfront across the organization, so everyone understands the "why" behind each initiative. This clarity lays the groundwork for teams to plan, track, and execute their work with both purpose and precision.

Here’s how teams at Atlassian use Teamwork Collection apps to stay connected and deliver results:

Confluence: Atlassian’s most widely used app, almost every team member (in addition to contractors, partners, and vendors) uses it daily for planning, documenting, and sharing. Confluence acts as the single source of truth where plans are documented and updates happen in real time.

Jira: The go-to app for project management and staying on track. Daily tasks are mapped to high-level goals within the app, ensuring work doesn’t stray from the bigger picture and launch milestones.

Loom: Makes it easy to share readouts of plans and goals with other teams and stakeholders, providing visibility into work without scheduling lots of meetings or disrupting deep work. When meetings are needed, Loom AI captures notes and action items, seamlessly integrating discussions into product plans.

Rovo: Rovo Agents are used to scale the impact of projects with autonomous, specialized agents that automate routine tasks, surface key updates, and provide contextual information when needed.

Atlassian teams collaborate throughout the project process to manage dependencies and iterate based on feedback. This approach helps the company handle diverse projects effectively, while keeping teams motivated to consistently deliver high-quality work and impactful results.

Keep in mind, this is a quick glimpse into how Atlassian uses each of these apps to support the System of Work philosophy — you can also check out the full case study here.

The bottom line? Keep “why” at the heart of your work

It’s easy for noise and busywork to derail even the best teams. But the secret to meaningful progress always starts with a clear “why” (and having the right tools to bring it to life). Teamwork Collection isn’t just a suite of apps — it’s a connected ecosystem designed to keep your team operating in a purpose-driven way from start to finish.

Before starting your next project, define your “why.” Once you have clarity of purpose, harness the power of Jira, Confluence, Loom, and Rovo together to achieve true alignment. This will naturally result in seamless collaboration, faster execution, and a greater impact at every phase of a project.

[Valerie Knapp]

Hi @Anyi Weng , thanks for this.

I agree with what you are saying here AND I think this would be an opportunity for yourselves at Atlassian to take your own advice.

I refer to this article https://community.atlassian.com/forums/Jira-articles/Easier-status-updates-for-work-items/ba-p/3068881 

A change has been introduced and there is a lot of backlash about it.

However, the question I have been asking myself is why? Why all of this focus on messing about with the UI? What value does it add? The value, the why, is not being communicated effectively for these changes. 

I participated in a research interview this morning with one of your colleagues and I also pressed this to him. I understand that things need to change from time to time. But, do things need to be changed for the sake of it? At this speed? Without consideration of end users? Do things need to be changed so urgently that internal coordination, documentation and communication are skipped?

I would encourage you to reach out to your colleagues about the content of this article and to remind them, indeed, about the importance of the why and about communicating these messages with the wider user base.