What is Synchronous Communication?
Synchronous communication happens in real time — when two or more people exchange information in the same moment as each other. This could be in-person or virtual, scheduled or impromptu. Some examples:
- In-person meetings
- Phone calls
- Video calls
- Instant messaging
- Asking a teammate across your desk a quick question
- Water cooler conversations around the office.
Synchronous communication is inherently human – it’s how we interact from birth. In most workplaces, these real-time communications have been the default. There are still plenty of occasions when sync makes the most sense. But there are also major downsides.
What is Asynchronous Communication?
Asynchronous communication is any type of communication that includes a lag between when someone sends a message, and when the other person receives and interprets it. Examples include:
- Project management tools
- Company wikis and workspaces
- Text messaging
- Direct messaging
- Video messaging
You can read more about the difference between these here…
Why is Asynchronous Communication Important?
In remote or distributed companies, async is usually a better default (if you work with people in a far-away timezone, it’s the only option). That said, we need to use choose the right form of communication for the job.
Synchronous communication should be the exception, not the rule – the guys at Doist
Benefits of Asynchronous Working
Asynchronous working means that we intentionally design how we work so that we need as little synchronous communication as possible to do our work effectively.
When done right, working asynchronously can be much more efficient than synchronous working. Some of the benefits include:
- Fewer disturbances for everyone.
- More time in a productive state of flow - particularly important for writers, developers, designers or anyone else who needs long periods of focused time to do their work.
- More thoughtful and deliberate decision-making.
- The ability to work with people across timezones with little overlap.
- Freedom to schedule our personal lives around our work.
- A greater sense of calm: more proactive than reactive.
Shifting Towards Async
Most people are unused to working asynchronously, and many distributed companies are still working out how to do it well. A lot of companies are progressing through the levels below...
Key Principles
There are some core principles to remember when it comes to asynchronous working.
1️⃣ Document everything
When working synchronously – either in an office or remote – it's very easy to ask other people for information. In a globally distributed team this isn't always possible. So we need to ensure that other people have access to the information they need if you're not around.
The solution to this is documentation.
It's really important that we clearly document our work, processes, decisions etc in a way that makes them accessible to other people without the need to speak to us.
2️⃣ Share, share, share
Similar to the principle above, we need to over-share. This means keeping our work as visible as possible.
3️⃣ Outputs over inputs
This means being results driven. In co-located companies it's easy to get sucked into a mindset where "busy work" matters more than output. In a remote company, your output matters much more than the number of hours you've worked or the number of meetings you attended.
4️⃣ Think about systems
Systems and processes have a bad reputation because most of us have worked with processes that make it harder to do our jobs. These are not the kind of systems we need in remote companies.
For asynchronous work to happen effectively, we need clear systems and processes so that we can do our work without needing to speak to other people all the time. It's everyone's job to help create systems and processes that support this.
Having said that, good tools and processes will only go so far. Remember that tools are only as good as the business processes they help with. And processes are only as good as the people that are using them.
5️⃣ Assume good intent
When communicating asynchronously, it's very easy to misunderstand other people. Have you ever received a text message from someone and totally misunderstood what they meant?
Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by ignorance
- It is very easy to misinterpret tone of voice via written communication.
- Particularly in a multi-cultural team where English is not the first language of members.
- Always assume positive intent in the words and actions of others.
- It is unlikely they are reacting negatively to you.
6️⃣ Everyone is a moderator
All of the principles above represent a big shift from the way most of us are used to working, so it's everybody's job to hold everyone else to account when it comes to these principles.
