What to do as “Remote Work” leads to “Asynchronous Work” As more companies, particularly smaller companies, learn to work with a remote workforce, talent pools are expanding across time zones. And in many cases, across many time zones around the world. Ultimately, I expect this to result in a large increase in the amount of asynchronous work. Asynchronous work is notably different than simple remote work. There is, by definition, very limited real time communication. My team at AVUITY, largely works asynchronously and here is what works for us: 1. Embrace the right tools. Without being able to walk over and talk to someone or even pick up the phone and call, it is vital to have the right tools in our toolkit. Our team loves Loom as a way to talk through problems and give lots of context without hours of meetings. 2. Learn how to document your work. When your team is all independently working on great projects like ours, there needs to be a way to easily capture and memorialize what has happened and how others can learn from your work. We use Notion as a key platform for aggregation. 3. Set standards for communication. In an asynchronous world, it can be easy to feel like you always need to be online (because there is always a teammate online somewhere in the world who may want your help). We must set expectations early of what it means to be responsive and online. 4. Schedule Team Time. Just because your team isn’t online at the same time every day, it is still vital to build relationships through at least weekly touch points and ideally regular in-person events. Asynchronous work does not mean lonely work. Much of the inspiration behind the way we work is from Levels Health and the fantastic writings and podcasting of Sam Corcos. I highly recommend using them as a case study of what is possible.
Nice! Will put in my next newsletter :) newsletter.thenotionbar.com
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6moSounds like you have a solid strategy in place for asynchronous work, great advice! 🛠️