Let’s take a look at an example of continuous improvement practices at the company Atlassian.
Atlassian, a software company that offers products to product managers and development teams, has successfully created and sustained a culture of innovation and continuous improvement. Atlassian achieves this in a few different ways.
Firstly, to drive innovation, employees are given 20% of their allocated work time to spend on personal projects. [1] This is modelled on Google’s innovation strategy, where personal projects often can be transformed into creative new features or products for the organisation. This strategy requires Atlassian to allow their employees the time to work on these personal projects, which is an expensive risk for the company since 20% of employees’ time is given away to experimentation. However, to ensure that this time is used productively, employees focus their personal projects on the team, how it operates, and what they do.
Secondly, Atlassian cultivated a culture of continuous improvement to support innovation. Specifically, Atlassian split their employees into small teams and encouraged them to own their career path by embracing and identifying challenges and strengths. What they found was that successful teams handled challenges differently to other teams, so to help those who struggled, Atlassian implemented a workshopping resource called the Team Playbook. They gathered the practices that successful teams used and created short, purposeful workshops and exercises that enabled teams to learn and adopt these practices. [2]
For example, Atlassion’s Health Monitor [3] helps teams to assess their strengths and weaknesses. Once some weaknesses have been identified, teams and employees can use other plays to strengthen these areas.
Instructions: How do you implement continuous improvement practices?
Taking dedicated work time to innovate and find continuous improvement opportunities can be an expensive cost for an organisation. Considering what you have just learned, complete the following:
- Explain in a brief paragraph:
- How might you go about implementing effective continuous improvement practices?
- What might you do differently to Atlassian?
For example Tesla. The growth stage will determine if they will decline so soon or not.
Every business has a lot to put in place to make sure they not only arrive at the growth stage but to scale through it to Maturity but not slip into declination.
I opine that the growth stage is the most important. Excellence can be achieved at the development stage by allowing the experts to do their work. Introducing a product shouldn’t be hard when a trained personnel who understands the technicality of the the product. The Growth stage is the most important because it involves everyone. All hands must be on deck continuously to arrive at maturity stage and that’s not easy. Growth is majorly important.
I opine that the growth stage is the most important. Introducing a. Or
A practical activity or example I would take into practice which may either not be expensive is to organize a one-day, two or three-day workshop for the whole team (staff and non-staff) full of learning with plays participation of each. I actually don’t know what percentage would that be! Why this kind of example, I remember way back in years once I was working at a local hospital, the Manager or Director used to organize seminars or workshops whereby, we got time off-work to learn from each other. There was time for plays, each would be given a role to find who can do what! This helped staff and non-staff to know each other, the strengths and weaknesses! After, the workshop, the Manager would use this opportunity to identify a member who could be promoted to a position A or B or department.
To implement continuous improvement, I would allocate around 10% of time for innovation, ensuring a balance between cost control and productivity. Projects would align with organizational goals and be supported by structured feedback mechanisms, such as team assessments and mentorship. I would incentivize innovation by rewarding successful contributions, boosting motivation and impact. Regular feedback and iterative learning would be core to the approach, with structured review cycles like retrospectives to identify inefficiencies and prioritize improvements. I would encourage cross-functional collaboration, empowering teams to experiment, track results, and share insights. Unlike Atlassian’s use of a universal “Team Playbook,” I would focus on tailoring improvement frameworks to fit the organization’s unique needs for greater flexibility and alignment.