A colleague walking into your office with a question or convening an in-person meeting is probably the oldest and most traditional form of sync communication. However, sending Microsoft Teams or Slack messages or audio and video calls all fall into the same category. Asynchronous communication also allows for flexibility in work schedules. With synchronous communication, everyone must be available at the same time to participate, and scheduling a live meeting can sometimes be a hassle. An internal knowledge management (KM) system minimizes the need for employees to ask questions.
Once they put everything on Slite, they created a unique workspace where their whole team could collaborate and share content. Now they have everything from brainstorming documents asynchronous communication to meeting minutes to process documentation hosted with us. Asynchronous communication is a method that works best when you dedicate one (or just a couple) platforms to it.
Beware of creating an always “on” culture
We’ll break down the difference and explain what synchronous and asynchronous learning often look like in practical terms. Synchronous meetings or discussions can sometimes veer off course, especially if there’s a lack of clear objectives or agendas. Without a structured plan, these real-time interactions can become unproductive, consuming valuable time without yielding meaningful outcomes.
- Did you receive a message that you’re waiting on key information to answer?
- New hires can access their onboarding checklist on Notion and work on completing each step with completion dates as checkpoints.
- The average Slack user only goes 5 minutes without checking communication channels.
Building and maintaining strong working relationships can be more challenging without the immediacy and personal touch of synchronous communication. In addition, the informal interactions that help to build trust and rapport among team members are less frequent, which can impact team cohesion and morale. It seems our async communications get deprioritized, lost in endless threads and channels, and it seems… simpler to just “hop on a quick call” to get things straightened out. Asynchronous communication is often somewhat rigid in form, and because of the lack of real-time communication, it’s often less appropriate for situations like these. As long as a conversation where the other party is expected to answer immediately occurs, be it in-person or between remote workers, online or SMS, it’s considered synchronous.
Identify the right instances to use synchronous communication
Explicit knowledge is any knowledge that can be easily codified, meaning that it’s easy to capture, store in a database, and then share with others. Some examples of explicit knowledge include information found in databases, memos, standard operating procedures, videos, etc. But with different working styles and a predominantly remote or hybrid working environment, it can be challenging to figure out the best way to communicate with https://remotemode.net/ your team. In fact, according to Buffer’s 2021 State of Remote Work report, difficulties with collaboration and communication were cited as the second biggest struggle when working remotely. For a long time, employers and managers have been obsessed with a sync-first communication culture. In many corporate cultures, the default solution for dealing with any kind of nuisance is calling a meeting (it’s why meetings get a bad rep).
Threads are great for conversations where multiple team members can share ideas and make decisions. The purpose of threads is to make it easy to have text-based conversations. Email discussions are fragmented and lock information inside an inbox where it can only be accessed by the sender and recipient. Check your document sharing settings and make sure your coworkers have access to the appropriate files. This might seem minor, but if someone needs to request access, it can result in unnecessary delays of several hours or even an entire day.
