Communication Patterns

Chapter 14. Remote Principles

Knowing when to use different types of communication is essential to achieve your goals efficiently and with the best chance of success. To increase the effectiveness of remote communication in fully remote and hybrid environments, you can apply some overarching principles and the patterns within them.

This chapter explores how and when to use the various types of synchronous and asynchronous communication to synchronize your expectations and workflows and put all workers on an equal footing, wherever you are working.

Meetings to Sync

Meetings are often seen as a time-sink, taking time away from your actual work. The act of synchronously coming together can be extremely productive for some types of work, but when the wrong people are attending or the focus is on activities that could be done much better asynchronously, it’s time to make changes to meetings.

Tip

If you struggle to optimize the number of people invited to a meeting, think about how much an hour of their time is worth and how much you want to spend on the meeting.

Synchronous Versus Asynchronous

Remote synchronous communication takes more energy than in-person. You have probably felt this yourself, but it is also backed up by research from Stanford University (see “Why Do You Get Zoom Fatigue?”).

When you are in the same room with colleagues, you can more easily hear their tones of voice and see their body language and facial expressions. You subconsciously read all these cues without ...