Managing Remote Teams: Asynchronous Communication

I\’ve been working mobile and remote since I started my business for almost two decades now. I am a founder & consultant at a software company, so the nature of my work is on the field but since I am also running operations, I had no choice but manage my team remotely. I did a lot of trial and errors, I tried several time management techniques and productivity/collaboration apps, and it took me years to find the formula.  

In the age of the unfortunate COVID-19 pandemic, remote teams, work from home, telecommuting, or whatever you may want to call, working remotely is now a norm. A lot of us got shocked or still even in a state of shock. Business owners are struggling to adjust their work-from-home policies and they worry about their employees\’ productivity at home.

I came up with two major methods in managing remote teams for leaders or working productively if you are a team member. This is not something I invented myself but rather I have adapted from years of trial-and-error.

The first method which is the topic that I would like to discuss now is the Asynchronous Work(Communication) Technique.  Asynchronous communication is when when you can communicate with your team without the requirement that they be “present” at the same moment in time. I am sure we do it now but we are not mindful about it. We all feel things are in chaos if things are not planned out properly.

Let\’s talk about synchronous communication for a while. It is where parties are sending and responding messages in real-time. This can be a conference meeting or a phone call. This requires undivided attention and mostly non-productive if we are talking about deep productive work.

But if your typical day required deep work to accomplish several things and at the same time you need to respond to messages and team inquiries, then asynchronous communication management is a must. Preparing a proposal, programming/coding, researching or preparing a presentation are examples of deep work. 

Disadvantages of synchronous workplace

It creates distractions and unnecessary stress. Imagine working on these things and several notifications pop up from your phone, then your work will just be half-baked or if not accomplished at all. Multitasking leads to over-stimulation of your brain function. If you\’re constantly interrupted in a workplace, then you risk losing focus and forgetting things needed to accomplish important work.

It discourages result-driven culture.  Some people tend to feel productive if they are constantly responding to emails, chats and phone calls. But those are shallow work and not output-based employee performance.

Benefits of asynchronous workplace

Happier team.  In an asynchronous workplace, the team has total control of their time thus stress is significantly lower. One challenge in adapting remote work is the change of mindset from time-based work to output-based work. If we eliminate strict work hours and combine it with team commitments to deliver tasks, then this will lead to team satisfaction.

Better communication quality.  Asynchronous communication promotes quality responses because it gives the responder time to think. This leads to a thoughtful and quality response.

Increased Productivity.  More accomplished deep work compared to shallow work without a doubt will result in exponential output.

So how can a team communicate asynchronously and be productive?

Adapt the scrum/agile methodology.

In agile methodology, there\’s what they call sprint meetings and stand-up meetings. Sprint meetings are normally a remote conference at least once a week to discuss project accomplishments within a 1-3 week period and define the next sprint/tasks for another 1-3 week period. During sprints, the team does a daily stand up meeting. It is where project accomplishments, roadblocks, next steps are discussed in a given period of the day. It should only be about 15-30 min. depending on the size of the team. This is where synchronous communication should happen.

Use the time-blocking technique.

Time blocking is the practice of blocking out every moment of your day ideally the night before or early morning and dedicating specific time “blocks” for certain tasks and responsibilities. Deep work should be the default. The key here is to define a time block for checking and responding to messages. In my case, I block my 7:00 am to 7:30 am to respond to emails, 10:00 am to 10:30 am for daily stand up meetings, Tuesdays 10:00 am to 12:00 pm for team sprints and block 10min. on a defined period to check chats, follow-ups and/or return phone calls.

Here\’s a photo of my typical calendar.

I recommend the following ebooks to learn more productivity techniques:

Scrum: The Art of Doing Twice The Work in Half The Time By Jeff Sutherland

Getting Things Done by David Allen to learn more productivity techniques.

As a team leader, it is important that we communicate this style to team members and encourage them to practice it as well so the entire team will promote a result-driven culture. The next key method in managing a remote team successfully is to stimulate accountability, establish commitments and review their performance. I will write about this topic in the next blogs so please stay tuned.

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