The ultimate guide to asynchronous

Before the transition towards remote working I was employed as part of an online team in the bank's digital branch. They were always trying out different kinds of remote meetings that mixed and they normally went pretty well.

However, it's not always straightforward to boost the efficiency of your meetings or to ensure that you have a good communications in remote meetings or even decide what type of remote meetings to host initially.

This guide (based on some research and personal knowledge) will assist you in understanding the different types of meetings that can be conducted remotely, and how to effectively conduct them by using some tricks and tips, choosing the right devices for the job plus common virtual meeting etiquette.

The types of remote meetings

You might not have given it much thought before it, but there's various types of remote meeting types (and most likely, you're a little acquainted with them). As technology advances in this field, we've been able to connect with remote employees and other team members through one of the main methods or even a combination of them!

Teleconferencing

In all of the kinds of remote meetings we'll talk about in this article, teleconferencing possibly the oldest and most tested method. Since it's a phone call that is audio only and teleconferencing technology is more advanced and simple than the others in this list.

It is basically that the hosts will be "on the line' during an exact time for the meeting after which others in the group will be able to 'dial into' by dialing a telephone number. This kind of gathering is ideal for small groups of people -- not being able to communicate with each other might get confusing if multiple people talk simultaneously.

Video conferencing

From the time of the outbreak of a specific pandemic around 2020 video conferencing has been a common staple in many of our daily lives due to programs like Zoom meetings as well as Microsoft Teams.

Video meetings (conferences) have a similar structure to teleconferencing. It's that a host organizes a real-time meeting where participants  connect by dialing an online link or telephone number. The key difference however, is the ability to be able to see one another and utilize software that makes the video calls more efficient and more engaging.

Web conferencing

Thirdly, the most common virtual meeting type is web-based conference. It's simple to combine this with videoconferencing, but there's a distinct differenceWeb conferences are typically utilized for virtual meetings (like all-hands gatherings) as well as online training or even project collaboration when there is an element of practicality to it.

This option is great for larger-scale projects or large-scale business meetings. They may be setup in a similar method to video conferences, or it can be arranged with ticketed attendance and pre-registration.

To add another layer to the various types of meetings Additionally, you have the possibility of scheduling'sync meetings' and 'async.

What is an Asynchronous Meeting?

Meetings in Asynch are a form of communications that don't occur in real-time, and doesn't usually require an immediate response.

Synchronous communication vs asynchronous communication

When I worked at the bank that I mentioned earlier the team worked extremely hard to make sure the remote employees felt welcome and part of decision-making as well as update of status, check-ins and team-building events. For this purpose, we needed to use Asynchronous and Synchronous gatherings, however each of them has their pros and cons.

 Benefits of synchronous meetings:

• The most closely matches in-person gatherings.
• Instant feedback on actions things or discussion points.
• Real-time communication can help you exchange ideas more easily.

 What's not great about HTML0:

• Most of the time you will meet individuals that are quiet, or introverted who struggle to engage.
• On the other hand, if everybody has something to share, the discussion can quickly become a hot chaotic swarm of people talking about each other.
• The risk is that you will experience technological delays or network faults when you need it the most.

 The benefits of asynchronous meeting:

• If there's no pressure to speak immediately, almost everyone gets a chance for the voice of their choice to be heard.
• Being able to schedule appropriate times for meetings that were distributed globally or with night employees of shift teams (something my former workplace profited greatly from).

 The downside:

• Based on Buffer's 2020 state of Remote Work report the survey found that 20% of participants claimed that loneliness was their main issue (which I can also attest), sync meetings are your chance to 'see' other people, so moving into asynchronous communications can add to the feeling of loneliness.
• If a quick reaction isn't required, employees may not respond or follow up altogether.
• A common issue with remote working according the Statista, which also applies for async-based meetings (since they may be going moving back and forth during the workday) is the inability unplug.

In the end, looking at the pros and cons, it's definitely a case of selecting the best method for your event and not settling for either of the extreme. But, I'll be focusing more on async-based meetings beginning now (since they're not as well recognized).

How do you run a successful asynchronous meeting

You're aware of the sorts of remote meetings there are, as well as the various options for how to run them, but how do conduct an actual asynchronous meeting? This can be a bit of a head-scratcher if you're only used to having real-time meetings.

Since I don't have any personally-experienced experience in conducting meetings (only taking part in these) I reached out to a handful of experts, including a former Project Manager turned freelance writer, Laura Bosco, about what they believed made effective and product asynchronous meetings, here's what she said:

 "--the the context and structure of the async message have been major factors for me -- and still are for me when working with my clients.

Context: Certain types of feedback, announcements or inquiries are more sensitivity or easily misinterpreted. For those, video is better than text because people can listen to your tone and look at your face. It reduces misperceptions and relationships injury.

Format: Big fan of BLUF (bottom-line-up-front) in most written comms. In addition, it's more effective. If you can make your question clear and concise, you're more likely to receive the response you need. In addition, it's an opportunity to show empathy towards the person receiving. This shows respect for their time and daily influx of messages.

 Additionally, formatting text. Headers, bullets, bold or italics when you are making important requests...these don't belittle the recipient. They assist them to digest your communication ."

Laura isn't alone to suggest providing context is the most effective way to make use of async communications. Michael Steele, CEO of Flywheel Digital (a remote-first technological marketing company) who is a big fan of using Notion, Google Docs, and Slack for their tech stack. He also said:

 "A major factor in achieving success in the world of synchronous communication with employees and clients is the ability to give context. Everyone involved must be aware of the objectives, recent events or changes of note, and have easy access to foundational documents like strategies, marketing personas, and performance reports.

 Without context in asynchronous communication, miscommunications are common and time is wasted fixing errors and making corrections which could easily be prevented with the correct information at hand from the beginning."

Regarding the practical side of running the meetings, creator of ScrapingBee (a 100 percent remote business) Kevin Sahin says that in addition to having short, real-time meetings that are facilitated with memos written in Notion as well, they use Slack:

"Slack is used asynchronously, the status of Slack is used to determine if a colleague is available for a call or not. When we send messages in Slack and we do not expect to receive a response immediately. That's the whole point. The general principle is to choose the most effective software for the task."

In essence, to run an effective meeting asynchronously, you need to ensure that you're using the tools that are properly designed, and provide context as well as the issues you're addressing are done so as to be simple and easy to handle.

9 tips to organize and conduct the perfect remote conference

If your meeting via remote is either synchronous or non-synchronous however, there are a couple of general tips that can ensure that they run smoothly. A few of these suggestions come from current research however others stem out of experience. The tips will be presented in a prior the meeting, after, and during style for those who prefer real-time, but the content of these tips can be applied to meetings that are async.

 Prior to the gathering:

1. Be sure that only those who are essential can be invited. If you overcrowd the virtual gathering regardless of whether it's a video conference or a Slack channel, information can be lost quickly and less individuals will be able fully participate.
   
2. Create a clear agenda. You can set agendas either for real-time or async meetings in any software you prefer as I did when working in a bank, we developed Notion templates using fill-in areas that reflected the problems we were facing as well as action points.
   
3. Create meeting guidelines. Laura also mentioned her favorite strategy to employ in which she creates and share "how to collaborate alongside me" documentation ( like this one), to help define norms and expectations in meetings and other communication.

 At the time of the session:

1. Start and finish in time. This point is especially relevant for remote meetings. There's nothing much worse than turning up for a meeting later or overrunning. Time is of utmost importance to people. The same is true of async meetings -- if you do not respond in a reasonably timely time, information may either get lost or other deadlines could be missed.
   
2. Make it brief. Similar to the previous point, there's not any point to having an hour-long real-time meeting in the event that you could complete all the tasks that you wish to with async messaging or smaller meetings. When it comes to the async method, try to avoid writing massive texts or lengthy interspersed pauses on recorded videos.
   
3. It is important to ensure that every person can be heard or recognized. As I mentioned previously, not everyone is the temperament to speak up during real-time chats, but async communication provides those with the ability to express themselves. However, as an administrator or host of meetings It's important to be vigilant about member participation.

 After the session:

1. Get feedback from attendees. If you're experimenting using different kinds of events, it's crucial to collect feedback from participants so you can find the things that aren't functioning with regards to the type of communication and method. Different software may work better than others for different people.
   
2. Provide a means of follow-up communication. Generally speaking, it's a good idea to have some kind of communications channel or place where attendees can share an ad-hoc note about the meeting or updates about action points, without messing up the actual meetings.
   

You might be thinking in this moment, "those tips are all nice and right, but what about applications?", this next section will help you.

Software for remote meeting

Naturally, one of the most important considerations when having remote meetings of any type is to ensure that you have the right tech to begin with. For synchronous meetings, naturally the most well-known videoconferencing solutions like Zoom, Microsoft Teams/Skype, and Google Meet do the trick pretty well. However, the process is a bit different for async meetings.

The most popular Asynchronous Meeting Software (which can also be mostly project management tools) as well as some that have already been mentioned, include:

•   Slack
•   Trello
•   Google Docs
•   Asana
•   Notion
•   Basecamp
• If you're in a group of developers, Gitlab or Github are great options.

Selecting the best tool to host your virtual meetings

Most of the collaboration tools that I've discussed above are written in text or used to communicate, while others can be a mix of text, image, or video. So, just as Laura said in the past, context and formatting are crucial.

 For simple project updates

If you're looking for a way to get your team members up to speed on what your project situation is like, apps such as Trello, Asana, and Notion are great for this. As an example I (and my previous work colleagues) make use of Notion  boards to provide overviews of current statuses for projects as well as a way to dive in to see comments:

The same  board-like organization with every app that were mentioned earlier.

 For continuous updates

If your team or project must be simple to get in touch with but doesn't require daily meetings in person, most of the tools listed are good, Basecamp in particular is fantastic, but Slack is the best in this particular aspect.

At my old workplace, each team would have its own Slack channel to be able to communicate asynchronously and there were companies-wide channels to share general info. Of course, I don't have access to the specific Slack workspace, however I do have several Slack workspaces I use to the same extent:

 For more complex or sensitive information

Just as Laura stated, certain types of data require personal touch. It isn't a good idea to provide information that either gets misunderstood or lost among all the articles and tasks. To avoid this, it is best to use video, and will be able to count on us.

As a bonus, you're also able to track who has viewed your videos and participate in the comments.

It's not always easy to figure out exactly what software or process to employ since each team is different, therefore it's worth experimenting early on and never being afraid to switch gears if one does not work out as you would like it to.

The remote playbook: etiquette for virtual meetings

The last topic we're going discuss in this article is meeting etiquette. Certain aspects will be familiar considering the topics we've covered previously however it's important to know exactly what common remote meeting etiquette looks similar to.

We've been on a lot of Zoom calls and have learned the following general rules (and sometimes, we've erred in breaking them):

• Make sure you're not on mute when you're speaking.
• Find a quiet spot so other participants can concentrate on you (not your washer running in the background).
• Check out the features you would like to use before you start so that you don't waste time trying to figure it out in the course of your meeting.

But, things are a little different when considering asynchronous meetings, and the rules of engagement can be different based on the channel or method of communicating.

for text-based channels (e.g. Notion, Slack etc.)

• Be sure to include relevant information in the proper channel/thread/page (or when you're making reference to something relevant, provide a hyperlink to the thread or page).
• Do not treat it as emails. That's how I define acknowledging the message or task instead of leaving it to the inbox (in Slack, it is possible to make a mark on a message using an emoticon! ).
• Take note that other people also have personal lives. If you're using asynchronous communications, it's easy to forget there are people operating at the same time with you. Make sure that someone is online in advance of making a push message to them.

 Asynchronous video calls

• Check that your microphone and camera are of good enough to allow people to understand what you're talking about.
• Have a clear takeaway you would like to pass on to other people -- nobody is looking to watch a video and not learn any new information.

These are just some general etiquette suggestions. You may be in a position to have your specific rules of communication to each other, and which tools to utilize. This is why keep these rules as you learn how to use them or creating the rules.

Get off to a good start with remote meeting

Similar to many relationships, effective communication is the essential ingredient to a productive day-to-day operation However, it doesn't always have to be in actual time.

Asynchronous remote meetings can aid in more productive discussions, bring in the team in a greater number as well as create a culture that is open and transparent (since the asynchronous comms are automatically documentable). If you're contemplating using a more asynchronous method, consider experimenting with different options to discover the best solution for you.