What Is Asynchronous Communication & How Do You Use It?

Let’s say your product manager shared weekly project updates in a shared doc in Google Drive. Team members can catch up and add comments or questions when it suits them. Also, whenever there’s a hot topic going on – such as a change of strategy or a big new project – you can do the same by collecting questions before your meeting. Share a link to Slido Q&A with your colleagues so they can post their questions at any time and then address them at a meeting during a Q&A session. 💡 Tip
If a portion of your team comes to the office, while others work remotely, update your remote colleagues after an impromptu discussion takes place on-site.

Nikki elaborated that Vidcast is often used to replace certain meetings, but also one-off project updates and communications that may have to be done multiple times, like a sales demo for example. Over-reliance on synchronous tools can often lead to longer work hours, less productive workdays, and eventually, burnout—all symptoms of the rise of “always-on” work culture. Instead, they can go about their tasks, submit reports, and spend only a fixed amount of time checking and replying to messages. In short, they can improve work productivity by blocking things that get in the way of their work.

Video recording tool

That doesn’t give us the space we need to complete the tasks we’re working on and send a valuable, accurate response. Now that we know what async communication is, let’s take a look at some of the key benefits. So next time you’re definition of asynchronous communication thinking about planning a meeting, ask yourself if you really need it and whether a voice message to the team would suffice. Swap tiresome video meetings and proximity bias for workations and even adopt the four-day work week.

Asynchronous communication is essential for successful remote team management. With the right tools and strategies in place, you can optimize asynchronous communication to help your team stay productive. As a result, remote workers can work together as a team, even if they live in completely different time zones and countries. In fact, it’s possible to build an entire global, diverse workforce under asynchronous communication.

Build trust between teams

One of the most significant concerns of the post-COVID work environment is that team members can feel more isolated without in-person interaction — this can even lead to burnout in the long run. For example, you might make a prerecorded video outlining the details of the next project they’ll be working on, which they can watch at the start of their workday. It refers to the process of sending a message to someone or something (like a chatbot) without being in a live conversation with them. Sure, the recipient could respond straight away, but you’re not engaged in an active dialogue where you can both communicate at the same time. Synchronous vs. asynchronous methods each have potential benefits and drawbacks, but the method you choose depends on an application’s purpose.

If your team works in different time zones, this is particularly important. We’re going to explore what asynchronous communication means and how it differs from synchronous communication. Additionally, we’ll provide examples to ensure you truly understand how to implement more forms of asynchronous communication in your workspace.

Why asynchronous working & communication is the key to remote work

Even though they couldn’t be more simple and low stakes, and are definitely not time sensitive in any way, they still require the verve and unpredictability of the present. Team building activities, for example, are generally fairly simple, don’t involve important decisions, and aren’t time sensitive. But if you aren’t doing them together … it kind of defeats the purpose.