Amir Salihefendic of Doist notes that study after study have shown that remote workers are more productive and asks why that is. One thing that everyone cites is the time saved on commuting and to a lessor extent the lack of distractions that come from working in an office. The other benefits, however, do not come from location independence. Rather Salihefendic says, those benefits come from asynchronous communication.
By that he means communication that does not require an immediate response. A telephone call, for example, is an example of a synchronous communication. Someone asks you a question on the phone, you hear the question as it’s asked, and respond immediately. An example of a (possibly) asynchronous communication is email. Someone sends you an email asking a question and you might not read it or answer for several hours or even days.
The advantage of asynchronous communication is two-fold. First, it doesn’t interrupt your current work. You can deal with it after you’ve completed the task you’re working on. That provides an environment that allows you to get in the flow and concentrate on the job at hand.
The second advantage is that rather than giving an instantaneous answer, you have time to consider your answer and write a more coherent response. The result is that both the answerer and asker benefit even if the response is a bit delayed.
Salihefendic notes that you don’t have to be a remote worker to enjoy these benefits. Any company can choose to implement an asynchronous communication culture. His own company, Doist, has done that even though they have mostly remote employees. Sometimes, he says, you need synchronous communication. Employees need to see each other face-to-face to build relationships and not feel isolated. Doist has regular company-wide meetings and arrange for one-on-one meeting between employees and their supervisors on a regular basis.
Sometimes, of course, an emergency comes up and a phone call or other direction communication is necessary but Doist considers these an exception to be used sparingly. It’s an excellent post with a novel take on remote work and what makes it work. Definitely worth reading.