In our last article, we shared how you can transition to async work. Coincidentally, ever since we published the article, we’ve seen social media posts expressing frustrations about this way of working [screenshots below].
There are a handful of reasons for this, but the main one is that there is a lot of misunderstandings about what async work is. So, in this article, we’ll address these misconceptions and then provide a blueprint for anyone who’s trying to make this switch but is facing some difficulties.
Common Misconceptions About Async Work
- Async teams don’t collaborate well: A common misconception about async work is that it makes team building and collaboration difficult. It’s easy to see why people might feel this way—when your team isn’t working side by side or chatting in real-time, it can feel like something’s missing. But here’s the thing: team culture isn’t about when you communicate but how you communicate.
So, why do people feel this way:
- Lack of Structure: Async work doesn’t automatically create connection; it requires you to build systems that promote communication and alignment thoughtfully. Without these, teams can feel fragmented.
- Old Habits Die Hard: Most people are used to synchronous work where spontaneous conversations [AKA meetings] and real-time feedback are the norm. Without instant feedback, async work can initially feel unfamiliar and even isolating.
- Ineffective Tools or Practices: If communication tools or workflows are disorganized, async work can lead to delays or confusion, giving the impression that teams aren’t collaborating effectively.
- The Need for Human Connection: People naturally crave connection. Without intentional team-building efforts, async work can seem less engaging, especially when you don’t intentionally prioritize team bonding.
Now that we’ve gotten this out of the way let's explain how async teams can build camaraderie like their synchronous counterparts.
To be honest, asynchronous work requires a new approach to team building. This doesn't mean that it makes collaboration difficult. The first is you have to be deliberate about team building. Things like async check-ins, team highlights, or even virtual shoutouts can go a long way in building camaraderie that makes teams feel cohesive.
Next is establishing clear goals and roles within the team. This makes it easier for team members to collaborate. When everyone understands their responsibilities and how they contribute to the team's objectives, it creates a shared sense of purpose.
If an async team feels disconnected, the problem usually isn’t async work itself—it’s a lack of systems that make connection and alignment intentional. By rethinking how your team communicates and builds culture, async work can make teams feel more connected, not less.
- Asynchronous communication is less effective than real-time communication: Another common misconception is that asynchronous communication—where responses don’t happen immediately—leads to misunderstandings, delays, or missed context. It’s easy to assume that slower communication equals worse communication, but that’s not true. In fact, when done the right way, async communication can be far more effective than real-time conversations. Some of the reasons why this persists are that:
- Old Expectations of Speed: Many of us are conditioned to expect instant responses as a sign of productivity or attentiveness. When communication slows down, it can feel like progress has stalled.
- FOMO (Fear of Missing Out): Without immediate back-and-forth, people worry that important details will get missed or conversations will lose momentum.
- Lack of Clarity in Messaging: If async communication isn’t managed intentionally, messages can feel incomplete, leading to confusion and frustration.
In the age of instant messaging, video calls, and social media, we've become used to near-constant connectivity and rapid replies. The ability to quickly bounce ideas off colleagues or get instant responses has become the default mode of communication, especially at work.
However, this can blind us to the benefits of async communication. When we step back and consider the dynamics of remote, distributed teamwork, we start to appreciate how thoughtful, delayed responses can enhance communication and collaboration.
Here are a few ways that asynchronous communication can be highly effective:
- Time for Reflection: Without the pressure of an immediate reply, team members can take the time to carefully consider messages, formulate more nuanced responses, and provide well-reasoned input. This can lead to deeper, more substantive exchanges.
- Inclusive Participation: Asynchronous communication gives everyone an equal opportunity to contribute, including those who may be less comfortable speaking up in real-time discussions. This can foster a more inclusive environment where all voices are heard.
- Knowledge Retention: The written record of asynchronous conversations makes it easier for team members to reference past discussions, track decisions, and build on previous work. This institutional knowledge can drive greater efficiency and continuity.
Now that we’ve addressed these misconceptions, let's move to the challenges of async work and how to solve them.
Challenges of Async Work
- Loneliness and isolation: Without face-to-face interactions, it’s easy to feel disconnected from your team. This lack of connection can leave people feeling lonely, which can hurt team morale.
- Lack of knowledge sharing: When everyone is focused on their own tasks, there’s less opportunity to share ideas or learn from each other. This can make collaboration feel forced and limit the team’s potential.
- Communication latency: Time zone differences can slow things down. Important questions or decisions might take hours—or even days—to get addressed, making it hard to keep momentum.
- Perpetual "talking past each other": Sometimes, it feels like team members are talking past each other. Messages get misunderstood, or people don’t quite get on the same page. In async work, without the right tools and practices, these small misunderstandings quickly add up.
The truth is, any kind of change is hard. But if you know what to expect and have the knowledge and tools to fix it, you’d have a higher chance of success. So here are some of the difficulties you’d face when moving to async work and how you can solve them.
- Loneliness and Isolation: To address this challenge, you need to be proactive about building a sense of community. Some of the ways to do this are:
- Scheduling intermittent video calls - it could be a monthly video call, not just for work discussions, but also for casual interactions. This could be anything from team coffee breaks to virtual happy hours.
- Encouraging non-work-related communication channels, like a team chat for personal updates, celebrations, or just casual banter.
- Organizing virtual team-building activities, such as online games, trivia nights, or collaborative creative projects.
- Ensuring each team member, especially those who just joined the team have a designated "buddy" or mentor they can regularly check in with for both work and personal support.
- Creating opportunities for team members to meet in person when feasible, even for occasional company retreats or regional meetups.
The key is to deliberately build these interpersonal connections and a sense of belonging. If you do this right, your async team will have some level of camaraderie and support.
- Lack of Knowledge Sharing: Again, you have to be intentional about using tools like Notion, Confluence, or Google Drive to create a well-organized, searchable repository for all project updates, decisions, and best practices. Also, encourage team members to document lessons learned or processes after completing tasks.
Other things you can do are:
- Create Knowledge Sharing Rituals: Introduce regular async updates like “Weekly Wins” or “What I Learned This Week” posts where team members can share tips, challenges and so on. Then conduct async retrospectives after projects to capture lessons and insights.
- Build a culture that encourages curiosity: Encourage team members to ask questions openly in shared spaces—no matter how small or specific. In fact, build a dedicated channel for this and openly reward knowledge-sharing behavior (e.g., shoutouts or recognition).
- Communication Latency: As a distributed team, one of the ways we’ve solved this in Rally is by having everyone set their availability. We use Google Calendar to do it. This helps manage expectations around response times.
Other ways you can solve this problem is:
- Use tools that minimize real-time dependency. For example, collaborative documents (Google Docs, Miro, Notion) or detailed task boards (Trello, Jira) allow you to make progress while waiting for responses. You can also set up a Rally session and set a timer. Team members can come in, contribute and respond to each others questions.
- Schedule occasional synchronous check-ins at overlapping hours (e.g., once a week). Make these meetings purposeful, concise, and outcome-driven. For example, even though we are async, we meet on Mondays and Fridays to catch up on and know what everyone is working on. For your team, you can limit it to once a week.
Keep reading. We will answer a pertinent question: does async work cancel meetings?
- Encourage team members to communicate clearly and early. By sharing blockers, progress updates, and decisions upfront, many time-sensitive issues can be preempted. This could be a dedicated standup channel.
Does Async Work Cancel Meetings?
The tension between the flexibility and autonomy of async and the need for real-time collaboration and communication is a nuance. So it’s not surprising that many remote teams struggle with it. As the LinkedIn post below show, there's a valid question of whether an "all-async, no-meetings" approach is truly the most effective way to get work done.
Let's discuss this some more:
Finding the right balance between async and sync work is something many remote teams struggle with.
The appeal of an all-async, meeting-free work culture is totally understandable. I mean, who doesn't want to have the flexibility to get their work done on their own schedule, without constantly having to coordinate with everyone else?
However, an "async-only" approach also has its limitations. Relying solely on things like chat, email, and pre-recorded videos can lead to a lot of back-and-forth and delays in decision-making. Without those opportunities for real-time conversations, it can be so much harder to align on priorities and solve complex problems efficiently.
The most effective remote and distributed teams find a nice balance between synchronous and asynchronous modes of working. They leverage the strengths of each approach strategically.
For example, they use async tools like Rally, shared documents, and chat threads for focused, independent work and information sharing. But then they'll also schedule regular sync touchpoints - brief team meetings, smaller targeted discussions, and even virtual brainstorming sessions. That way, they get the autonomy and flexibility of async work and maintain that crucial real-time collaboration.
By strategically including sync and async elements, teams can enjoy the benefits of flexibility and autonomy while maintaining the necessary real-time collaboration and communication.
In conclusion, async work doesn’t replace all meetings. Instead, it reshapes why and when you meet:
- Intentional Meetings for High-Value Discussions: Async work handles routine updates and detailed conversations that don’t require real-time collaboration. Meetings, however, remain valuable for brainstorming, tackling complex challenges, or resolving miscommunications when async channels fall short.
- Faster Decision-Making in Critical Moments: Sometimes, decisions can get stuck in async threads. In such cases, a quick call or real-time sync can unblock the team and drive progress. The goal is to recognize when real-time communication accelerates outcomes and use it sparingly.
- Building Team Connection: Asynchronous communication can feel transactional if teams never meet face-to-face (virtually or otherwise). Regular, well-planned real-time check-ins—like team retrospectives or social calls—can reinforce relationships, trust, and team culture.
How to Make It Work
To strike the right balance between async and real-time meetings:
- Define the Purpose of Each Meeting: If a discussion requires ideation or team connection, it’s worth a meeting. If it’s informational, can be written out, or a quick alignment around a simple issue, keep it async.
- Set Clear Expectations: Use tools like Rally to organize async updates (like status reports). You can also use it to build meeting agendas for synchronous discussion.
- Timebox Your Meetings: Keep real-time meetings focused and concise. Treat them as opportunities to tackle what async can’t solve.
Async work is a way of working that brings incredible flexibility and focus but also comes with its own challenges. By tackling these challenges thoughtfully, you can avoid common pitfalls while building a culture that thrives on clarity, connection, and momentum.
The key is balance: blending asynchronous practices with intentional real-time touchpoints. Every team is unique, so it’s essential to experiment, adapt, and gather feedback along the way. Done right, async work doesn’t just boost productivity—it helps teams collaborate more effectively and sustainably.