5 Strategies to Promote Asynchronous Collaboration for Remote Teams

The industrial revolution taught us to punch a clock. The digital revolution is teaching us to ignore it. But some organizations are learning this lesson faster than others. Asynchronous work isn't just a trend. It's a shift in how we view productivity, collaboration, and the nature of work itself. If you've been following our Remotivated blog series, you're already ahead of the game. We’ve already looked at the numerous benefits of asynchronous communication and provided tactics that anyone can use to get better at async collaboration. Today we’ll be diving into strategies that leaders can employ to keep themselves and their team ahead of the curve. But first, a quick recap on what async communication is for those that are just joining us:

Asynchronous Work 101: The "I'm Too Busy to Read the Other Blog Posts" Version

Asynchronous work is the art of sending messages when it's convenient for you and allowing others to respond when it's convenient for them. In the remote work world, it's the difference between a constant barrage of "quick sync" meetings and actually getting work done while wearing your comfy pants.

The Async Mindset

Async isn't about tools. It's about trust.

Trust that your team can deliver without constant supervision. Trust that ideas can marinate and improve over time. Trust that work can happen anytime, anywhere.

But trust requires clarity. Clear expectations. Clear communication. Clear purpose.

Now that we're all caught up, let's dive into some strategies that'll make your remote asynchronous team more async-savvy than a time-traveling multitasker.

5 Strategies for Remote Teams to Improve Asynchronous Collaboration

1. Embrace the Data (Even If It Scares You)

First things first: you need to know where you stand in your asynchronous collaboration journey. We have a quick assessment that shows you roughly where you stand among remote-first companies. That will give you some personalized ideas on where to start improving, but you'll also want to gain a more holistic view of your entire organization. Keep in mind that you may have some individuals or teams doing a much better job than others at asynchronous work. For example, at many companies, engineering teams are quite a ways ahead of other teams in terms of their asynchronous communication. Necessity may have forced some teams to adopt these habits faster. Conversely, you may find that some teams are so busy they haven't had enough bandwidth to make proactive improvements to their asynchronous communication style.

Action steps:

• Survey your team about their current communication mix, what they'd like to be doing more or less of, and how much time they spend in meetings versus asynchronous work.
• Ask yourself these questions as well and encourage the rest of your leadership team to do the same. It's important to model the right behaviors, and asynchronous communication is actually a weak spot for many leaders.
• Analyze how much time is spent in synchronous meetings vs. asynchronous communication. How much is it costing you and how much could be saved if you could shift some things around? Start with just the basics and build from there.
• Compare your findings with industry benchmarks for remote asynchronous work.

Shameless Plug: Remotivated can do all of the above for you! But if you're not a remote or hybrid company or if you just don't want to work with us for some other reason, feel free to email us at hello@remotivated.com and we'd still be happy to send you some resources to DIY this process!

2. Tool Up for Asynchronous Collaboration

You don't need any fancy tools for asynchronous communication. With enough thought, you could use absolutely anything. But having the latest and greatest asynchronous collaboration tools, and in particular any that your team particularly enjoys, is a great way to build some quick momentum and save time on training.

Action steps:

• Audit your current asynchronous collaboration tools. Anything that isn't being used enough (or used correctly) should either be replaced or revamped.
• Identify gaps and overlaps in your asynchronous communication tools. Could gaps be filled with an existing tool that isn't being fully leveraged? Are people using multiple tools for something (like multiple PM tools or places for documentation) and is that causing confusion?
• Standardize and streamline your asynchronous tech stack.

Pay special attention to note-taking tools for asynchronous work. Statistically, more than 50% of your employees are bringing their own note-taking tool. Unless you provide a quality alternative, that's a lot of potentially awesome documentation that's going to be sitting outside of your systems.

3. Work Communication Training into Onboarding & Everyday Culture

Teaching people how to communicate might sound silly, but the vast majority of companies have poor communication practices, and that means most new hires are going to have some learning to do. Even people coming from other awesome remote-first companies will probably need to adjust to some subtle differences in expectations, etiquette, and protocols for asynchronous work.

In addition to your onboarding process, make incremental progress part of your culture. Requiring overlapping calendar time to get something done is a limitation by definition. Never stop chipping away and looking for more ways to uncouple your team's calendars from their output through effective asynchronous collaboration.

Action steps:

• Make sure your onboarding covers expectations around asynchronous communication. This is a "more is more" kind of situation. Ambiguity makes people uncomfortable, so just define as much as you can and explain what your intentions are so that people can interpret that whenever they encounter a question that isn't covered.
• Encourage the use of Communication Charters for asynchronous work. You could have a company-wide one, but it also might make sense to go team by team as well in some cases.
• Encourage the adoption of User Guides. These serve as a useful way to get to know new hires and express their preferred methods of asynchronous communication. More important than their use as documentation, though, is just getting people thinking about effective asynchronous collaboration.
• Create a weekly or monthly report on how much time is being spent in meetings versus asynchronous work. If you're feeling brave, quantify the dollar cost. It might sting for a moment, but it will also feel really awesome when you see it trending down with these strategies!
• Find async friendly ways to build culture. We have a guide on fun ways to use Slack channels to build culture but there are many other options out there too.

4. The Great Asynchronous Problem-Solving Divide

Separate problem identification from problem-solving. This is a really hard one to implement; most leaders are people of action, and that's awesome. But the more important something is, the more useful it can be to give people a little while to think it over, gather diverse perspectives, and come to a thoughtful conclusion through asynchronous collaboration. Immediately sprinting in a random direction is rarely going to outperform taking the time to figure out where you are and where you are going first!

Action steps:

• Encourage team members to identify and document problems clearly using asynchronous communication tools.
• Set a "thinking period" before jumping into solutions, perfect for asynchronous work. For big projects, maybe this will be a couple of days, but this could even just be a few minutes during a meeting. Maybe everyone goes to refill their coffee for 5 minutes and comes back fresh!
• Use asynchronous collaboration tools to gather input from all team members. During a synchronous meeting, you often only hear from the most outspoken people on the team. Offering multiple ways to give input (which are all valued equally) allows every voice to be heard.

5. The Asynchronous Pre-Meeting Revolution

If you must have meetings, make them count by leveraging asynchronous communication.

Action steps:

• Send detailed agendas before every meeting using asynchronous communication tools. This might sound like a pain, but if everyone is using the same note-taking or project management tools, it should be trivial. The expectation when joining a live meeting should be that everyone is up to speed on what is being discussed and has read any related documents.
• Use Loom or other asynchronous collaboration tools to provide context and background information. That's right, videos are documentation - if they are recorded. If writing down your thoughts sounds annoying, surely you can make a 30-second Loom about what you want to cover and link any relevant resources for attendees.
• Encourage pre-meeting asynchronous discussions to make the actual meeting more efficient. If a meeting involves multiple teams, any sidebar conversations should be happening beforehand through asynchronous communication.

The Asynchronous Work Landscape We're Working Towards

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By implementing these strategies, you're revolutionizing how your remote asynchronous team works. Here's a glimpse of the async paradise you're building:

1. A team that's more productive than ever thanks to effective asynchronous collaboration. Less crowded calendars means more time spent in a flow state on actual work.
2. Dramatically increased engagement, morale and retention. Asynchronous collaboration allows every voice to be heard and every person to work when and where they are most productive. The impact to your employee value proposition can be huge.
3. A culture of transparency fostered by asynchronous communication tools. Our research shows that transparency can have a huge impact on morale, and it translates directly into business results.
4. Improved CSAT. No, seriously. Practicing good asynchronous communication internally is going to improve how your sales, support, and success teams interact with customers as well. How we are communicated with is one of the biggest drivers of CSAT and NPS.
5. Synchronous meetings that are actually fun and valuable rather than having a boring "show and tell" vibe.

The Road Ahead in Remote Asynchronous Work

Transforming your remote team into an asynchronous powerhouse won't happen overnight. But with each unnecessary meeting avoided, each thoughtful async message sent, and each asynchronous collaboration tool leveraged, you're one step closer to remote work nirvana.

Ready to take your remote leadership skills to the next level in the world of asynchronous work? Join the conversation with other async pros by subscribing to our newsletter.

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