In our first piece, we outlined the challenges of applying traditional ways of working to asynchronous working, and why synchronous work is less productive, while impacting employee engagement as people are spending much less time together.
The benefits of asynchronous work
One solution to improving effectiveness as a hybrid organisation, is to embrace asynchronous working. This brings a number of benefits, including higher productivity, better quality documentation and work products, more effective planning, longer stretches of focused work, reduced impact of timezone differences, and improved work/life balance for many people. How are these benefits realised?
Higher productivity occurs as team members working in different locations and time zones are more readily able to progress with clearly understood and defined activities, without having to wait for others to be available to discuss, check information or have meetings to generate actions. Through shared information, common documentation and ‘asynchronous virtual discussions’, the work can happen more quickly and efficiently. In fact, embracing different time zones means the work and reviewing process can occur while some people are sleeping, resulting in genuine ‘follow the sun’ productivity.
Better planning and quality of work
Better planning can be realised through different practices that enable more people to concurrently contribute to plans, identify issues, quickly go through multiple rounds of revision without the typical elapsed time between meetings and in-person reviews. This style of collaboration leads to higher quality documentation and work products. Higher quality documentation naturally forms when you ‘do the work where the work is’, as opposed to discussing the work, emailing about the work to a specific set of people, and then attempting to explain the work to another set of stakeholders at a later stage.
As working asynchronously allows people to work at different times with less demand for ‘live’ discussions and meetings, this is particularly beneficial for people who are in different time zones. For example, Australia and the East Coast of the USA are quite different time zones so often require meetings to be scheduled in the early morning or evening. Reducing the requirement for meetings is particularly beneficial in these situations, and as meetings become fewer, more deliberate and shorter in length, it is easier to share the pain of time zone differences more equitably.
Happier, more engaged employees
An obvious benefit for employees of asynchronous working is that it allows employees greater flexibility to effectively work remotely; to have great autonomy about the times of day in which they work and to reduce time in meetings and ‘Zoom fatigue’, therefore achieving more effective work and healthier lifestyles. Flexibility and autonomy have become highly desirable benefits for employees, and happy, engaged employees are generally more productive. Additionally, people value having the time to do deep, meaningful work, and this is facilitated by having autonomy over schedules and fewer meetings
Even prior to the pandemic, numerous large organisations had demonstrated that asynchronous work could be effective. The benefits of asynchronous working can be substantial, however changing how we work requires deliberate effort, thoughtfulness, and patience. These changes include work practices but equally important changes to mindsets and how people relate to one another.
In our third and final piece, we will outline a few key practices and ways of working that enable organisations to effectively work asynchronously.
Please share your thoughts in the comments or get in touch if you’d like to further discuss how to work asynchronously with us.
You May Also Like
These Related Stories