Strategies for Asynchronous Communication
In 2020 most of us had to quickly and suddenly adapt to working remotely and the new async ways of communication. In this note, I want to share some ideas and practices that I believe can help teams to communicate more efficiently while async.
1. Write for clarity and make it easy to scan
The work designers and engineers perform at caompanies requires us to consume an insane amount of new information every day, like posts, notes, chats, meetings, videos, gifs, and other media formats.
Information that lacks clarity, is not direct to the point or just takes extra time to scan will negatively impact our working memory, potentially leading to information overload, which ultimately may compromise our decision-making.
Strategies:
- Break big paragraphs into smaller ones — That makes it easier to quickly scan different sessions and encourages people to read.
- Less is more — Get to the point fast and add links to any additional resources when needed. Consider replacing an introduction with your main argument.
- Write for your tomorrow self — If you read this tomorrow, will you still understand? What about a month from now? Consider reducing or eliminating the use of abbreviations for extra clarity and for reducing the additional cognitive effort of navigating to another "tab" to find its meaning.
- Make it actionable — Consider being specific to ensure XFN partners are getting back to you in a timely way. i.e.: Use “Leave feedback by Monday 5pm” instead of, “Looking forward to some feedback.”
2. Be inclusive
It is worth reflecting that most of our written communication can and will reach thousands of people inside of the your favorite tool (Google Docs, Slack, Workplace). We should strive to be inclusive of people who are consuming your content now and will consume your content in the future.
Strategies:
- Avoid using abbreviations — If you must use them, consider adding captions or a link to find more about its meaning.
- Write for n00bs — Newbies may need to read your posts or refer to your past work to ramp up within your team or org quickly. Would they be able to understand what's happening based on what you wrote?
- Write for your XFN Partners — If you're an engineer, will your design partner understand it? If you are a data scientist, will your content design partner understand it?
- Consider different timezones — Most teams have co-workers in different timezones. Consider that when posting something that requires action in a short timeline.
3. Assume good intentions
Let's be honest. Without face-to-face communication, it is not really possible to understand what your co-worker was feeling or thinking when he sent you a message.
When a message doesn’t land well with you, try not to assume the worst of it. Pause, breath, reread it, and If you’re still unsure, consider addressing it directly with the sender. People have different communication styles, and most people are trying their best to communicate clearly and in a positive manner.
4. Double-check before sending
Correcting a mispelling or deleting and reposting a message will often be more distracting to your team. Consider reading and reflecting on your sentence for a few seconds before hitting send.
Prompts to reflect:
- Can I change some terms to make that paragraph clearer to more people?
- Does this post require action? Am I sounding actionable with my words? Am I being specific on when is the action required?
- Can I reduce this sentence in half and still be clear?
- Are the first lines getting straight to the point?
- Is it possible to understand everything without accessing further resources? Can I add some context to make it possible?