Much like sticking to your choice of comfort food, teams often default to meetings whenever they need answers or have to update people. But too many meetings–or too many unproductive ones–can make people feel like they have zero control over their day and work. Below are some ways in which you, as a product manager, can strike a balance between synchronous and asynchronous communication.

However, synchronous work requires you to assemble your team at the same time and place. Synchronous communication, on the other hand, is all about real time communication. It is a type of communication that happens on the phone, in person, or on a video call. In this article, we’ll cover what asynchronous communication is, its common examples, and its benefits.

How are synchronous communication and always-on culture related?

For example, there are times when you might be communicating over Slack with your fellow remote workers and you feel like you’re not making any progress. They may have misunderstood what you were trying to say, which may cause conflict. Asynchronous communication is not going to solve all your workplace communication woes. Asynchronous communication (especially the stuff online) is documented by default. For example, if I send an email, the record exists and can be referenced years from now.

Discuss everything important in there – whether it’s quick morning sync outcomes, sharing a work in progress document for review, or a “what shall we do for our team retreat? Evaluate people based on their output and results, not how responsive they are or the number of hours they work. This will reduce back-and-forths and help people get to the core of things faster. We’ve found that waiting for a reply isn’t a massive problem as there’s always something else to work on. Advanced planning is a must when last-minute ASAP requests aren’t an option. People learn to plan their workloads and collaborations more carefully to give enough time for coworkers to see and respond to their requests.

Business Communication Skills You Need to Succeed

Many people use their personal smartphones or other devices to log into asynchronous communication channels, which might mean implementing new security procedures to keep company data safe. The beauty of asynchronous communication is that team members can work independently, both in time and geography. This freedom comes with the trade-off of direct interpersonal interactions. There is no small talk after an in-person meeting wraps up or grabbing lunch at the local sandwich shop.

A major advantage to synchronous communication is that it gives you more data points to observe and process the message. Now that the basics are done, let’s dig into how https://remotemode.net/ can improve work. Email and tools like Slack are really useful, but when they’re your primary communication tools, productivity can take a hit. Getting constantly interrupted or keeping track of all the traffic, much less responding, can be overwhelming. And because nuance can be lost, it can take longer to resolve issues. With the rise of agile methodologies and sprint-based projects, the weekly standup has become a poster child for the unnecessary meeting.

When to use synchronous communication

It takes a profound shift in tools, processes, habits, and culture. Here are some concrete steps you can take, both individually and as a team leader, to get started. While employee retention is a bit of a vanity metric, we think the async culture is one of the core reasons most people hired definition of asynchronous communication at Doist over the past 10 years have stayed with us. Our employee retention is 90%+ — much higher than the overall tech industry. For example, even a company like Google — with its legendary campuses full of perks from free meals to free haircuts — has a median tenure of just 1.1 years.