Teamistry

In the season finale, we go beyond rumor and speculation to answer: what really grounded Concorde for good? Aided by insights from an aviation journalist, we explore Concorde's legacy, its impact on the world, and the new projects it inspired that might return supersonic passenger aircraft to the skies.

Concorde is an instant hit with celebrities. Mick Jagger, Sting, and Princess Diana are all frequent flyers – for the fast travel and the high-class atmosphere. Concorde itself becomes a pop star, with its own (horrible) feature film. But on the ground, politics and protests force it to alter its course.

While engineers in U.K. and France struggle to a prototype of Concorde up in the air, they respond by creating their version of an open office concept to build a fluid and collaborative work environment. Also in this episode - America enters the supersonic race, rumours of Russian espionage become rife, and Soviet Russia’s attempt at flying supersonic ends in a tragedy.

Imagine flying between New York and London in half the time it takes today. Celebrities sit nearby, champagne and caviar are served. Fantasy? Not long ago, this was a reality – made possible by Concorde. An airplane faster than a bullet, faster than the speed of sound. An airplane that seemed impossible to make. In Season 4 of Teamistry, new host Nastaran Tavakoli-Far and lead producer Pedro Mendes travel to the U.K. and France to speak with the designers and engineers who dreamed the same dream, worked and failed together, and built the fastest passenger plane ever.

By 2001, abysmal employee morale and unsafe working conditions had soured the reputation of the Campbell Soup Company. The century-old colossus, whose iconic cans appear in 90% of American households, had the lowest employee engagement of any Fortune 500 company. Enter a new CEO who forms a truly engaged leadership team and turns the toxic workplace around – in just three years.

Can you fix a toy that isn't broken? That's what a team at Mattel Inc. set out to do with Hot Wheels™. But the digital update they introduced to future-proof the best-selling toy on the planet bombed. The risky decision, however, benefitted the venerable company – just not the way they expected.

During the 1994 Winter Olympics, an employee of IBM, that held exclusive rights to the telecast, went looking for the results on the brand-new World Wide Web. But he didn't find them on IBM's website – they didn't have one. He found them on a rival company's website. This is the story of the forward-thinking team that convinced decision-makers to wake up to the Internet, which influenced a tectonic shift in everything about IBM as an organization.

Before corporate social responsibility was a popular concept, Patagonia declared its commitment to better outcomes for their workers, and the planet. They soon discovered that commitment would include major pitfalls, but it seems the more Patagonia doubles down on its values, the better it performs. In this episode, we hear from Craig Wilson, former lead strategist for consumer marketing at Patagonia; Bethany Patten, Senior Associate Director for MIT Sloan Sustainability Initiative, and Maya Spaull, Vice President of apparel and home goods at Fair Trade USA. We also speak with Andrew Kenney, a journalist who got insider access to see how Patagonia is redefining its business processes. Teamistry is an original podcast from Atlassian. For more on the series, go to https://www.atlassian.com/blog/podcast.

In the desert plains of Northern Kenya, hundreds of people from around the world and different walks of life have gathered. The photographs they take with their GPS-enabled cameras might be humanity's best shot at saving an entire species. This is the story of Wildbook, an artificial intelligence (AI) software program that creates a live database to track animal populations. In this episode of Teamistry, host Gabriela Cowperthwaite discovers how a shared mission, and a shared technology platform supporting the work of diverse teams, is saving animals – and the biodiversity of the planet. We hear from Tanya Berger-Wolf, co-founder of Wildbook and Jason Holmberg, co-founder of WildMe, the organization that created and runs Wildbook. We also hear from Rosemary Warungu, zebra project manager at the Mpala Research Centre in Kenya, and Daniel Rubenstein, a behavioural ecologist at Princeton University, as they explain how Wildbook's global community is helping change local attitudes towards the Grevy's zebra — one photo at a time. Teamistry is an original podcast from Atlassian. For more on the series, go to https://www.atlassian.com/blog/podcast.

Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, Iceland had become the worst-hit country in Scandinavia. But it reversed its fate, without a full lockdown. And to date, Iceland has seen very few deaths. How? Largely because of the harmonious collaboration of "The Trinity" – Iceland’s chief epidemiologist, Director of Health, and superintendent of police – who implemented the "pandemic plan" – a framework for working together, and saving lives. In episode two of Teamistry's second season, host Gabriela Cowperthwaite brings us a story of optimism to cut through the gloom. We hear directly from The Trinity: Alma Moller, Iceland's Director of Health, Þórólfur Guðnason, its Chief Epidemiologist, and Víðir Reynisson, Chief Superintendent of the Office of the National Commissioner of the Police. We also learn how Kári Stefánsson, the CEO of deCODE genetics, and his team of scientists assisted government health officials by examining the virus and increasing Iceland's testing capacity. And Alexander Elliott, an Icelandic journalist, describes how the country's pandemic fight unfolded and how its teamwork saved lives. Teamistry is an original podcast from Atlassian. For more on the series, go to https://www.atlassian.com/blog/podcast.

In season one of Teamistry, we put the spotlight on teams behind the scenes, the people responsible for some of the greatest achievements of our times. Like the team of astronomers who gave us the first-ever photograph of a black hole, and the team that averted a nuclear meltdown at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. In season two, host Gabriela Cowperthwaite takes us beyond the heroics of a single team and expands the focus to the power of multiple teams working together. How groups of teams – with different sets of skills, experiences, and even personalities – can embrace uncertainty, innovate, and tackle massive challenges. In this new season, we examine the story of Japanese watchmaker Seiko and how the company used internal competition to ultimately leapfrog the mighty Swiss. We follow the frantic moments where teams of teams, including international cave divers, doctors, engineers, government officials, and more, used communication to save a teenage soccer team from deep within a cave in Thailand. And you'll hear directly from the "Trinity" – Iceland’s chief epidemiologist, the Director of Health, and the superintendent of police – who worked in harmony to contain the spread of COVID-19 when it threatened to become an outbreak. Episode one of season two launches on September 21st. Teamistry is an original podcast from Atlassian. To listen to stories from Season 1 and for bonus material, visit www.atlassian.com/podcast.

The great American experiment was about to fail. On the eve of the Constitutional Convention of 1787 – where the U.S. Constitution began – the French minister to America wrote home to his superiors in Paris, "What part of the United States would you like to take when it falls apart?" Disunity between states, a faltering economy, active rebellions, the threat of European interference – all were contributing factors. The Articles of Confederation — the original post-independence document – weren't working. The fledgling country needed an overhaul of its core principles. In this episode of Teamistry, host Gabriela Cowperthwaite revisits that summer of 1787 when a monumental collaboration ultimately delivered the U.S. Constitution. Within the muggy chambers of Independence Hall in Philadelphia, some of the country's brightest lawmakers and thought-leading eccentrics came together to hash out a new government system unlike any other in the world. Carol Berkin, presidential professor of American history at The City University of New York and Constitutional author Jeff Broadwater describe the action: state delegates debating and bickering about topics that would chart the course of the country's future. Learn the real story of an unlikely team of delegates forced to give up their personal egos and the interests of their individual states to build a collective – The United States of America – through compromise. Teamistry is an original podcast from Atlassian. For more on the series, go to www.atlassian.com/podcast.

Sir Ernest Shackleton wanted to be the first man to walk across the Antarctic continent. In 1914, with a crew of 28 men, he set sail on the Endurance to complete the first “Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition." But harsh winds and frigid temperatures threatened the voyage from the start, and in short order the ship was marooned thousands of miles away from civilization. Shackleton suddenly realized a different task was at hand – keeping his crew alive. A team of restless seamen who quickly run out of food, patience, and hope. In this episode of Teamistry, host Gabriela Cowperthwaite travels back in time to discover the surprisingly modern leadership skills of Shackleton, like emotional intelligence and empathy. Hear from the diary of one of the crew to get a sense of the uncertainty and fear the seamen grappled with, and listen as Nancy Koehn, a historian and professor at the Harvard Business School, walks you through the pivotal moments when Shackleton's superior decision-making helped him salvage the expedition and hold the hearts of his men. Also, Tim Jarvis, an explorer who recreated some of Shackleton's journey, discusses how Shackleton's strategies can help us face climate change, and Thomas H. Zurbuchen talks about how he applies Shackleton's leadership lessons at NASA's Science Mission Directorate. Teamistry is an original podcast from Atlassian. For more on the series, go to www.atlassian.com/podcast.