Back in the day, we only talked face-to-face. So by default, we stuffed our days with meetings, meetings, and -you guessed it- more meetings to get things done.
Today on the other hand, employees check Slack for missed messages while binge watching a random Netflix show. And each morning they email 3 colleagues before even hitting the shower…
We’re living in a real-time communication age. People send messages to whoever they want, about whatever they want, whenever they want. And it’s spinning out of control. Fast.
According to the HBR, people spend a whopping 80% of their day communicating about their job instead of actually working. Eigh-ty percent!!
It’s a damn shame because it makes people half-ass their job as there is less mental capacity for so-called ‘deep work’ (see image). It also results in soaring stress levels and a drop in mental health as employees feel like they’re not getting any meaningful work done.
Obviously this can’t be the only way forward.
So we tried to fix this at BossData.
Now, how exactly do we at BossData handle things so our employees get to focus more on deep work? It’s by making asynchronous or ‘async’ communication the default.
Async what?
Synchronous and asynchronous: two ways of dealing with communication.
What’s the diff?
Synchronous communication is simple, old-school, real-time communication. For example, meetings & phone calls.
Asynchronous communication is when two (or more) people communicate without being “present” at the same time. For example, Slack, Whatsapp, video recordings (Loom for the win), etc.
Both have their place on the workfloor, but we organised our company in a way that asynchronous communication is our weapon of choice.
Why? Because asynchronous communication lets colleagues be the master of their own schedule. It allows them to focus on their tasks at hand and answer messages only when they have time for it. This way, they can finally start working on ‘deep work’, instead of merely talking about work.
As an employer, all this sure sounds like a dream.
So you’re probably wondering: ‘How do you empower this way of work?’