How to Master Async Collaboration

Why Async Collaboration Matters

Many knowledge workers spend a sizable share of their working hours in meetings, and a fair number of those meetings leave attendees feeling they did not need to be there. On global teams spread across time zones, it is not unusual for the window in which everyone can be online at once to come down to a few hours a day. A way of working that leans on synchronous communication becomes a cause of lost productivity and burnout.

Async collaboration means working without assuming an immediate reply from the other person: each person works during the hours when they can concentrate best, and shares the information that is needed through documents and messages. Companies that succeed as fully remote operations, such as GitLab and Automattic, apply this thoroughly.

Building a Documentation Culture

Adopt the Principle: "If It Is Not Written Down, It Does Not Exist"

Documentation is the foundation of async collaboration. Whatever is decided in a meeting goes into the notes without exception, and the background to a project and the reasons behind decisions get written down. Verbal handover does not work in an async environment, because the information never reaches anyone who was not in the room.

An approach like Amazon's 6-page memo, where everyone reads the document silently at the start of a meeting, helps the shift toward an async culture. Share the document in advance and take questions in the comments, and there are many cases where the meeting itself can be dropped.

Standardize Quality with Templates

Having templates ready for project proposals, weekly reports and decision records (ADRs) keeps document quality steady. With a template, the barrier of not knowing what to write comes down, and the whole team writes documents more often. Working with documents at the center is also the groundwork for making remote work comfortable, and books on remote work and documentation culture give you the whole picture.

Setting Clear Response Expectations

Separate Channels by Urgency

Asking for an instant reply to every message loses the advantage of working async. Separate your channels by urgency. For example, set rules such as a reply within 24 hours for Slack channels, within 4 hours for messages with a mention, and immediate attention for a phone call or an SMS.

Make Status Visible

Sharing a status such as "focus day today, so replies will be slow" or "online after 2 PM" takes the anxiety out of it for the other person. Using the focus time feature in Google Calendar or a custom status in Slack makes the whole team's availability visible at a glance.

Judging Where Async Does Not Fit

It is not the case that everything should be async. Working through emotional conflict, complex brainstorming and urgent incident response are all more effective with synchronous communication. Having criteria for choosing between async and sync is what maximizes a team's productivity.

As a rule of thumb, when an issue is not resolved within three exchanges of messages, switching to a 15-minute video call is often quicker. Do not forget, though, that whatever is decided on the call has to be written down.

Key Takeaways

• A fair share of meetings are felt to be unnecessary by the people attending them
• Building a documentation culture is the foundation of async collaboration
• Separate channels by urgency to set clear response expectations
• Switch to a sync call when an issue takes more than three exchanges of messages

Making Async-First Culture Stick

Async collaboration does not take root through individual effort alone. It is essential that team leaders lead the way in showing the behavior: writing the document before the meeting, and not expecting instant replies. The first month may feel inconvenient, but as you keep at it unnecessary meetings drop away, and the time each member gets to work with concentration and without interruption climbs steadily.

Respect Differences in Time Zones and Life Rhythms

A great advantage of async collaboration is that people who work at different times and in different places can still cooperate. Members in regions with a time difference, people who cannot move during the day because of childcare or caregiving, people whose hours of concentration are simply not the same as everyone else's. A way of working that does not demand an instant reply respects circumstances as varied as these. What matters is not reading the other person's failure to react right away as a lack of motivation. Letting each person do their best work in their own rhythm: standing on that premise is what supports an async culture with trust.