Advertise on podcast: Teamistry

When the pandemic halted film and TV productions in early 2020, Westbrook Media, the fledgling production company of actor Will Smith, didn't fold. They changed the game. Seeing an opportunity for a new kind of project, and using new ways of working, they pivoted to produce a hit variety show for Snapchat ... in Will Smith's garage.

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.

Across the globe, many communities remain offline. In the U.S., digital redlining has kept certain communities isolated even more. At a time when equal access to the internet should be considered a basic human right, a team of "digital stewards" in Detroit is working to connect families, one home and one neighborhood at a time.

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.

The Indian Premier League (IPL) promised to transform cricket in India until a series of scandals rocked the league – and threatened the integrity of the sport itself. But a leadership team unites to save the IPL and winds up navigating it through an even bigger crisis: the pandemic.

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.

In the new season of Teamistry, we witness stories of extraordinary teamwork that have inspired change and upended legacies—within organizations and across industries.

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 West African country of Burkina Faso in the 1980s, an 18-year-old boy is killed in the road. Why? A case of meningitis. The meningitis epidemic in Sub-Saharan Africa spurred a global race to find a vaccine, led by the founding of the Meningitis Vaccine Project (MVP). This network of doctors, vaccine developers, public health officials, and UN workers converged to develop an inexpensive vaccine – without Big Pharma. Instead, they built teams as an ecosystem of thriving partnerships. In this episode of Teamistry, we hear from the original MVP team and how they persevered despite enormous challenges. Dr. Samba Sow, Director General of the Centre for Vaccine Development in Mali, Dr. Suresh Jhadav, Executive Director of the Serum Institute of India and Dr. Marc LaForce, then Director of the Meningitis Vaccine Project. We also hear from Dr. Ngozi Erondu, an infectious disease specialist who explains MVP's legacy in building "South-South" collaborations, and Dr. Mark Alderson, project leader at PATH, describes how the team brought the vaccine from labs in one part of the globe to clinics in another. 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.

In the summer of 2018, 12 Thai teenagers and their 25-year-old soccer coach got stuck deep inside the labyrinthine – and flooding – Tham Luang caves of Thailand’s Chiang Rai province. In this episode of Teamistry, host Gabriela Cowperthwaite takes us inside the caves and alongside the people assembled from across Thailand and the world to work together on a dire rescue mission. Hour after hour, as the caves continued to flood and oxygen tanks ran low, we learn about the leadership and teamwork that enabled disparate groups to remain synchronized, overcome cultural barriers, and make difficult, life-or-death decisions. We hear from Narongsak Osottanakorn, the former Governor of Chiang Rai province, who marshaled the various teams and became a national hero. Lt. Col. Charles Hodges of the U.S. Air Force talks about his role in getting teams to communicate effectively, and Dr. Richard Harris, an anesthesiologist from Australia, describes his climactic moments while inside the caves with the boys. We also hear from Wharton Professor Michael Useem who offers insight into the leadership techniques that propelled the successful mission. And Richard Lloyd Parry, Asia Editor of The Times of London, revisits his daily on-the-ground reporting to tell us how this mission unfolded. 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.