Best Practices
Calm workday using asynchronous communication
Love it or hate it, remote working is here to stay even after the current pandemic times. Things may change a bit once we get back to the previous normal, but remote work will be more embraced and accepted by organizations worldwide in the post-pandemic times. Nonetheless, the tools we use to carry out the remote work, especially the team video-call/chat applications are not yet 100% effective in providing a healthy work experience. It’s a common thing these days people talk about ‘Zoom Fatigue’ and how they are getting even more tired by the end of the workday.
There is one way to significantly improve the remote work experience, simply by using more asynchronous communication. It’s the opposite of regular ‘synchronous’ chat/video calls that demand a lot of attention and real-time response from the team members. Asynchronous communication practice offers employees a chance to respond to messages as and when they’re available. There is no pressure in providing real-time response.
Indeed, we need a real-time response from team members in emergencies. But the important thing is to limit those synchronous work communication only to those exceptional situations and shifting the balance more towards asynchronous communication practices within the team or entire organization as much as possible.
Our regular office mode of communication is synchronous. We are so used to it that we do not even notice the difference. We rush to reply to chats/emails and even expect other people to respond to us as fast as possible. The main reason for digital fatigue is this overload of synchronous communication. A lot of brainpower has got wasted in this way. We can do better!
Here are some simple tips with which I have made some success in creating an asynchronous work culture in a team.
- Arrange the work activities, meeting log, and knowledge repo in a centralized location that provides the necessary work context: We should first look into how the information is arranged for team access. Indeed there are centralized repositories and shared content folders that exist in the organization. But sometimes, the main information missing is the work we do and the necessary business context we need to make sense of the work we do. This information gets stuck in numerous emails/chats and will not end up in the centralized knowledge repository. Most of the time, we make quick calls to our colleagues to fill up this specific knowledge-gap, because we do not know where to look. So, as a team, we need to ensure all this collective knowledge is available in a centralized repository and all team members know where to look for when they need them.
- Use high priority flags for getting a real-time response or else by default it’s asynchronous: We should make the asynchronous communication practice as a norm within the team. That would force the team members to think and plan well in advance instead of last-minute panic calls or texts. In the case where there are any emergencies, we should indeed make the necessary real-time communication to get it resolved and even flag the messages as a high priority for getting immediate attention. But please do track the high-priority messages sent across the week or month. It should be as minimum as possible. If there are a large number of high-priority messages in a week/month, it’s an indication that something is broken within the team that needs special attention.
- Use video calls only if needed: Video calls are tiring to the brain, so avoid them as much as possible and instead use audio calls. It would be a good practice to cross-check if adding video in a call creates any additional value. Video calls are useful in getting some visual cues while having a difficult conversation with a team member or to add some fun elements in virtual team bonding calls. But in most other cases, we can get rid of the video and utilize the brainpower in something else more important.
When there is chaos around the world because of reasons beyond our control, the focus of every organization should be on creating a calm work environment, where employees get enough time and space to do their work uninterruptedly. I believe the mindful use of asynchronous communication can help achieve that goal to some extent.