Think Fast Talk Smart: Communication Techniques

The right rituals—and the right conversations—can transform how your team collaborates.

Strong collaboration starts with thoughtful practices and clear communication. As Molly Sands, Head of the Teamwork Lab at Atlassian, emphasizes, the teams that thrive are the ones that regularly pause to align on what matters and how they’re progressing. “You want to know if you’re making progress,” she notes, “and you want ways to redirect early—before you’re scrambling at the end.”
Through her research with teams across Atlassian and around the world, Sands has seen how small, consistent habits—monthly goal reviews, transparent updates, shared spaces for spontaneous interaction—build alignment, psychological safety, and momentum. And in hybrid and distributed environments, she highlights how “bursty” collaboration patterns and intentional meeting design help teams move faster without burning out.
In this Quick Thinks episode of Think Fast, Talk Smart, Sands and host Matt Abrahams break down the rituals that make teamwork work, from OKR check-ins to collaboration hours to the rotating Chief Vibes Officer. No matter where your team sits, Sands shows how intentional communication unlocks connection, speed, and more satisfying ways of working together.

Episode Reference Links:
Connect:

Chapters:

  • (00:00) - Introduction
  • (02:43) - Measuring Collaboration the Right Way
  • (05:35) - Training Leaders & Goal Rituals
  • (07:49) - Creating Space for Spontaneous Work
  • (11:20) - Making In-Person Time Count
  • (11:44) - Three High-Impact Team Gatherings
  • (14:00) - Supporting Diverse Communication Styles
  • (16:08) - Conclusion

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Creators and Guests

Host
Matt Abrahams
Lecturer Stanford University Graduate School of Business | Think Fast Talk Smart podcast host
Guest
Molly Sands
Head of the Teamwork Lab at Atlassian

What is Think Fast Talk Smart: Communication Techniques?

One of the most essential ingredients to success in business and life is effective communication.
Join Matt Abrahams, best-selling author and Strategic Communication lecturer at Stanford Graduate School of Business, as he interviews experts to provide actionable insights that help you communicate with clarity, confidence, and impact. From handling impromptu questions to crafting compelling messages, Matt explores practical strategies for real-world communication challenges.

Whether you’re navigating a high-stakes presentation, perfecting your email tone, or speaking off the cuff, Think Fast, Talk Smart equips you with the tools, techniques, and best practices to express yourself effectively in any situation. Enhance your communication skills to elevate your career and build stronger professional relationships.

Tune in every Tuesday for new episodes. Subscribe now to unlock your potential as a thoughtful, impactful communicator. Learn more and sign up for our eNewsletter at fastersmarter.io.

Matt Abrahams: The ability to collaborate
well with others, to learn, to do,

to plan, often determines the success
of your relationships, both in your

personal and professional lives.

My name is Matt Abrahams and I
teach strategic communication at

Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Welcome to this Quick Thinks episode
of Think Fast Talk Smart, the podcast.

I had a fantastic, insightful
conversation with Molly Sands, who

heads up the Teamwork Lab at Atlassian.

Molly shared so many valuable
skills and ideas that we couldn't

put them all in one episode.

So here comes some more
practical, tactical tips on how to

collaborate better and institute
important collaborative rituals.

I know a lot of what you do as
a company, but you personally

is focus on collaboration.

And I'd love for you to explain
to me what effective collaboration

is and how do you assess that?

How do you assess collaboration?

What is it?

And then do you have a one or two best
practices to help us all be better

in the collaboration that we do?

Molly Sands: Yeah, I think a ton
about this, and I think it's one

of the biggest challenges, right?

How do you measure this thing that
feels so ephemeral in so many ways?

Matt Abrahams: I think most people
default to just measure the output

of the collaboration, but the quality
of the collaboration and the depth of

the collaboration are also important.

Molly Sands: Yeah.

And measuring the output does not
tell you if people are doing the right

thing, and I think that is a really
big challenge that most companies face.

I'm a fan of having a variety of
metrics that you're looking at when

you're thinking about collaboration
so you do get a more robust picture.

And part of that is are these
groups reaching their goals?

Are they achieving the things
that they set out to do?

And in order to do that, you need
to be consistently evolving goals.

We see in a lot of companies, it's a very
set it and forget it kind of thing, right?

We do this big performative thing
at the start of the fiscal year,

and then at the end you scramble
to say, did it happen or not?

And so we created a lot of goal
rituals for teams to help them

continually assess their progress.

That doesn't mean that if you're
off track for a week, it's an

issue, but you wanna know, right?

You wanna pick up those patterns
over time, and you wanna redirect.

And capturing data about what people are
trying to achieve and if they are able

to achieve it, and how well, is huge
for being able to assess collaboration.

It's also really important to
understand the experience within teams.

And you see that teams experiences
are very predictive of things like

output and success and how often they
achieve what they set out to do and

how quickly they're able to get there.

So I really do think it's valuable
to survey teams to understand, do

people you know feel safe speaking up?

Do they have good psychological safety?

We know that's a strong predictor of
their outcomes, both in how quickly

they can move and how likely they
are to achieve what they want to do.

We also really wanna look at clarity.

Do people understand what
their roles are in teams?

This is really critical
for being successful.

If I know it's my job to move that
forward, or I need to care about

this and think about what's gonna
happen next, it makes it much easier

for us to all move quickly together.

We do look at things like speed as well.

Are team's able to quickly assemble
around a problem and then move forward

and get through tasks and output.

I still think output is relevant, but
it just can't be that complete picture.

Matt Abrahams: So many rich
things that you said there.

I wanna make sure I get an example
from you what a ritual is around

helping people review goals, 'cause
that, that sounds really important.

I'd love to know what that could look
like, but it sounds like as people who

are leading meetings, leading teams,
fostering collaboration, we have to be

paying attention to how we're doing it.

Not just what we're doing.

Do you spend time training leaders,
managers, facilitators on how to do that?

Because you know, I was a
manager for a long time.

I know a lot of people
who manage and lead.

I'm not sure they've ever
received advice and guidance

on how to do that piece of it.

And so I'd love to, to hear what
you do to help train people.

And I would love to get
a goal ritual from you.

Molly Sands: Yes.

So a lot of what my team focuses on is
teaching people better ways of working.

So we work with managers, leaders,
teams, people at every level of the

organization to help them implement
rituals and habits, goals is a good

example that we can talk about, that
make them more likely to achieve success.

We have an amazing resource called the
Atlassian Team Playbook, where we put

a lot of our research and tested best
practices together as guidance for teams.

So that's one of the ways that we
make this available to everyone.

It's free on our website, so if you wanna
learn more about any of these rituals

or practices, you can find it there.

But let's start with the goal example.

So we track all of our goals.

They're available, and we,
whenever possible, make them

viewable by anyone in the company.

And every month teams score their goal.

We use an OKR based system and they will
give it a score and track progress on

any metrics that are relevant at that
point, and write a Tweet sized update.

And anyone in the company can
take a look at that goal and

see what that update looks like.

And every quarter we'll review those
goals and say, does this still make sense?

Given everything that we have learned from
the work we've done here, is this still

the right thing to be working towards?

Has our strategy changed in any way?

We're not reevaluating that every day.

You can never make progress if you think
about the big picture at every second.

Sometimes you really need to execute.

And then we tie those goals to projects.

So any significant effort that is going
into moving the needle on that thing

gets connected to a goal, and teams
reflect on progress for projects in a

similar Tweet sized update every week.

Matt Abrahams: So it's time-based
and it's about being explicit and

making it available for everybody
to see, so people are accountable.

You're putting this out and people
will see it, but also allows others

to check in and see what's going on,
and that ritualized nature, time-based

nature, every month, every quarter,
every week can be really helpful.

Thank you for that.

I think all of us can benefit by
thinking about how we can collaborate

better and what we need to measure
to make sure we're doing it.

So we live in an era of hybrid and
virtual work, spontaneous collaboration

that would happen when you and I
run into each other on the hall

and I say, Hey, I was just thinking
about, and you share your thoughts.

How can teams intentionally design
their communication practices for

this sense of quick, spontaneous
interaction that we miss when we're

not all together in the same place?

Molly Sands: Two things.

One, you have to cancel
some of the meetings.

You cannot be in standing meetings
all the time and still have

those moments to come together.

We know from decades of research that
these bursty collaboration patterns, so

when teams talk a lot for a short time and
have quick back and forths and then are

quiet, doing deeper work for an extended
period of time as well, and alternate

between those modes, those are the
highest performing remote and distributed

teams, and they continue to be.

So making sure that you do have
some time in your schedule for

things as they dynamically change.

When we're over-planned or overscheduled
we just can't hop on a call.

We can't just jump in to talk about
something or solve a problem together.

So I always encourage teams to set
some collaboration hours, especially

if you're really distributed across
time zones, where you try to keep those

free of those standing meetings, but
do plan to interact and be available

as needed throughout the week.

That's huge for helping those
groups move a lot faster.

And then you also need
ways to build connections.

One of my favorite rituals that
we have from Atlassian that we've

studied with hundreds and hundreds
of teams, 'cause every time we do

this everyone signs up, is something
we call the Chief Vibes Officer.

The CVO, if you will, and you'll be
the CVO for your team for a week.

And it is your job to
inject fun into work.

So people come up with silly prompts
and they might put a prompt in Slack

of, Hey, tell me if you could magically
transport yourself to any place in the

world right now, where would you go?

Or what is one thing you were
hilariously terrified of as a child?

It could be any sort of
different type of fun question.

Some are more serious, some are more fun.

But creating some intentional touch
points throughout your week where

people do start to get to know
each other better, just helps build

those bridges and those connections.

And when you are in a really
distributed team, you need some ways

to make sure that continues to happen.

Matt Abrahams: So we have to put time
aside to actually collaborate, which

often means getting rid of those
standing highly structured meetings.

And I love this idea of being
Chief Vibe Officer for your team.

And what I like about it is
it sounds like it rotates.

So everybody has an opportunity
to do that, which means everybody

brings their own personality to it.

But because you know you're gonna do it
at some point, you're much more likely

to contribute when somebody else does it.

So it actually has a
built-in engagement tool.

Molly Sands: Yeah, and we found from the
teams that do that consistently, that

not only do they have more fun at work
and feel better and more connected about

their team, they also are more likely
to ask each other for help and to feel

comfortable coming forward when they have
an issue flagging risks and problems.

These kinds of things that we know
are so key for high performing

teams, but just building those
social bridges really helps.

Matt Abrahams: What an easy
way to get that really big

unlock to people asking help.

I know also that you all believe that
when people do come together physically

in the same place, that it's important to
make that really easy as well, and to make

that part of the way that you operate, is
there are times where people come together

and the space is easy you can plug in.

So this notion of when we do
come together, we don't want

a lot of friction in that.

Molly Sands: Yeah, we have done
a lot to make it easy for teams

to come together in person.

'Cause that is a really
important experience, especially

for newer teams, people that
haven't worked together as long.

My team did some interesting analyses.

We have all the data about what
people do with those gatherings.

We have all of the agendas from them.

And so we looked at those and we
found that there were three types of

gatherings that were really effective.

One was what we call doing the work.

So coming together around a key project
or initiative, especially when it

was kicking off and really getting
started and getting momentum together.

Another was learning about the work,
so getting more context about the

business, about the problems, setting
out more information about collaborators

and who we're gonna work with.

And then the third was planning the work.

And that is really thinking about
what is our strategy for this year?

What does our roadmap look like, getting
aligned about what we wanna achieve.

And those three use cases tended
to help teams move faster.

They felt like it was a great
use of time, and they felt

more connected to each other.

And so having a focus of any time you're
bringing people together that is that

do, learn, or plan is really effective.

And within that, you also wanna
have moments for team building and

those can be social, certainly it's
lovely to go out to dinner, but it's

also good to have those intentional
conversations about ways of working.

And these in-person times can be a
really good time to establish some of

your working norms, how you're gonna
communicate, how you wanna collaborate,

how you're gonna do your updates.

Those are async updates.

What does that look like?

Getting those shared
expectations really helps.

Matt Abrahams: It seems to me that if
you're going to bring people together, you

should have an intent and purpose in mind.

And this notion of doing learning or
planning is a good way to do that.

And it also helps set a clear vision
for what that time together is for.

So it helps focus the people when
you're there and it helps you decide,

should I do it or should I not?

You know, we work in a world where
we are geographically diverse and

separated within a given workforce.

You can have many
generations in terms of age.

In your work, have you found best
practices or advice, or maybe even the

opposite, potholes and things, speed bumps
that get in the way when you're dealing

with diversity in terms of culture,
in terms of time, in terms of age?

How do we navigate this to
maximize the efficiency of

collaboration and connection?

Molly Sands: There's so much value in
having diverse teams and having lots

of perspectives, and the thing that
helps those teams be successful is being

clear about how they work together.

So the more that the rituals and the ways
you communicate are just made explicit

to everyone on the team, the easier it is
to have all of those voices contributing.

And I think there's a lot of
practical ways teams can do this.

The page led meetings are a great example.

Anytime that I'm bringing together
a group of people to talk about

a problem, I want to give them
multiple modalities to contribute.

I may not be the loudest
person in the room.

I sometimes am the loudest person
in the room, but not everyone is.

They may not want the spotlight.

They have useful feedback and ideas, so
give them a way to contribute in writing.

Give them a way to flag something,
do a whiteboard exercise.

Do something that gives people many ways
to get their voice into that conversation,

even if they process or think differently.

Matt Abrahams: I really like that
idea of respecting how different

people show up and how they
feel comfortable contributing.

And I think that's important as
leaders and managers to give them those

different avenues to really help them.

And I think to make it explicit, that
what makes us strong is our diversity,

but that also means that we have different
ways of communicating, different ways

of contributing, and we wanna make
sure everybody feels comfortable.

Very key advice.

Well, there you have it, as promised,
lots of useful tips and tactics

to help you and your teams to be
more collaborative and productive.

I hope each of you takes away valuable
information from Molly and that you

take on the role of Chief Vibes Officer.

Be sure to let me know the
fun things you institute.

Thank you for joining us
for another episode of Think

Fast Talk Smart, the podcast.

To learn more about teams
and teaming, please listen to

episode 242 with Colin Fisher.

This episode was produced by Katherine
Reed, Ryan Campos, and me, Matt Abrahams.

Our music is from Floyd Wonder.

With special thanks to the
Podium Podcast Company.

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