A complete guide to asynchronous meetings & remote comms |

Prior to the shift to remote work I was employed as part of an online team in an online bank. We were always trying out different kinds of mixed remote meetings and they normally went pretty easily.

But, it's never an simple to increase efficiency or ensure effective communication in remote meetings, or to even determine what kind of remote meetings to host in the first place.

This article (based on some research and my own experiences) will assist you in understanding the various kinds of meetings that can be conducted remotely, and how to run them effectively with some tips and tricks, choosing the right tools for the job, as well as the common rules for virtual meeting conduct.

Types of remote meetings

Perhaps you haven't given it much thought before however, there's actually different kinds of remote meeting types (and chances are you're already somewhat acquainted with these). As technology advances in this field it has become possible communicate with remote workers and team members by with the help of one or more of these principal methods, or even using a mix of both!

Teleconferencing

Of all the types of remote meetings we'll talk about, teleconferencing is probably the most tried-and-tested old-school method. Being audio-only phone calls The technology used for it is more advanced and simple than other methods on this list.

It is basically that the meeting host will be 'on the phone's line at an exact time for the meeting after which the other members of the team will dial into' by dialing a telephone number. This kind of gathering is ideal for a small group of participants. Not being able to see one another could cause confusion if multiple people talk simultaneously.

Video conferencing

Since the start of a certain pandemic in 2020, video conferencing has become a common staple in many of our daily lives due to apps like Zoom meetings and Microsoft Teams.

Video meetings (conferences) have a similar structure to teleconferencing. It's that the host hosts a real-time meeting where participants 'dial in' using an online link or telephone number. What makes them different however, is that you're able to be able to see one another and utilize software to make the video calls more efficient and more engaging.

Web conferencing

Lastly, the third most popular type of virtual meeting is web-based conferencing. It's simple to confuse this type of meeting with videoconferencing, but there is a difference -- web conferences are often utilized for virtual meetings (like all-hands gatherings), online training, or for project collaboration, where meetings have a more practical element to it.

Naturally, this works well for larger-scale events or corporate-wide gatherings. It may be setup in a similar method to video conferences, or it can need pre-registration or ticketed attendance.

In order to add another dimension to the various types of meetings, there is also the option to'sync meeting', or async.

What is an asynchronous meeting?

Meetings in Asynch are a form of interaction that isn't 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 They always worked difficult to ensure that the employees who were remote felt at ease and included in decision making, status updates, check-ins, as well as team building activities. To do that, we needed to use simultaneous and asynchronous meetings. However, each of them has its pros and cons.

 The benefits of synchronous meetings:

• The most closely matches in-person gatherings.
• Instant feedback on actions things or discussion points.
• The ability to communicate in real time can help you share ideas more quickly.

 The downside:

• Most often, there can be people who are naturally quiet or introverted who struggle to be a part of the group.
• But when everyone has a lot to talk about, the gathering will quickly be a chaos of individuals speaking over each other.
• There's a risk of technological delay or network issues at times when you require it most.

 Asynchronous Meetings: Benefits:

• There's no obligation to communicate immediately, nearly everybody has the chance to have your voice to be heard.
• Not having to line up the right times to meet with globally distributed or night group members on shifts (something my old workplace benefitted greatly from).

 The downside:

• Based on Buffer's state of Remote Work report 20 percent of those who participated stated that loneliness was their most significant struggle (which I also can attest to), sync meetings are the chance for you to "see" other people, so moving to asynchronous communication can contribute to loneliness.
• If a quick response is not required, occasionally team members might forget to reply or even follow-up altogether.
• Another general struggle of remote working according the Statista, which also applies for async-based meetings (since they may be going in and out throughout working hours) is that it's not possible unplug.

On balance, from taking a look at both the advantages and disadvantages, there's no doubt that it's about choosing the right method for your event instead of choosing either of the extreme. But, I'll concentrate a bit more specifically on the meetings that are async beginning now (since they're not as well recognized).

How to run a productive asynchronous meeting

You're aware of the kinds of remote meetings are, as well as the various options for how to run them, but how do conduct an actual Asynchronous Meeting? It's an issue if you're only familiar with real-time meetings.

Because I don't have personal experience with managing meetings (only participating in meetings), I asked a few experts, including an ex-Project Manager who became a freelance writer, Laura Bosco, their thoughts on what makes for efficient and productive asynchronous meetings, here's her response:

 "--the nature and context of the async communications was a major factor in my experience as they are today when I work with clients.

Context: Certain types of announcements, feedback or even questions can be more sensitive or susceptible to being misinterpreted. In these cases, video is better than text because someone else can hear your voice and also be able to see your face. This reduces the chance of miscommunication and relationship injury.

Format: Big fan of BLUF (bottom-line-up-front) in most written comms. For one, it's more efficient. If your request is concise and succinct, you're more likely to get what you're looking for. For another, it's an opportunity to demonstrate compassion towards the person receiving. It shows respect for their time and daily influx of messages.

 In addition, there is text formatting. Headers, bullets, bold or italics to indicate important requests...these don't belittle the recipient. They aid them in digesting your messages ."

Laura isn't the only person who believes that providing context is an effective method to make use of async communications. Michael Steele, CEO of Flywheel Digital (a remote-first technological marketing company) who is an avid user of Notion, Google Docs, and Slack as their technology stack, also mentioned:

 "A big key to success in asynchronous communication, with staff and customers is the ability to give context. Everyone involved must be aware of the objectives as well as the latest events and changes worth noting, and easy access to foundational documents such as strategies such as marketing personas, strategies, and report on performance.

 In asynchronous communication, miscommunications are common and time is spent repairing mistakes or making changes that could have easily been prevented with the correct information at hand from the very beginning."

In terms of the practical side of conducting meetings the founder of ScrapingBee (a 100 100% remote-based company) Kevin Sahin says that aside from having quick real-time meeting with memos prepared in Notion as well, they use Slack:

"Slack is used asynchronously, the status of Slack is used to find out if our coworker is available for a call or not. If we post messages within Slack it's not expected to receive to receive a response immediately. That's what the purpose of it. Our general approach is to choose the most effective tools for the job."

For an effective meeting asynchronously one must ensure that you're using the tools correctly, providing context, as well as the issues you're addressing will be done it's easy and easy to handle.

9 tips for planning and executing the perfect meeting remotely

If your meeting via remote is either synchronous or non-synchronous, there are still a couple of general tips that can help them run more smoothly. These tips are derived from existing research, but others come from experience. They will be discussed in a prior, during, and after format for those favoring live-time meetings, however the underlying 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 are invited. If you overcrowd an online meeting, whether that's a video conference or a Slack channel, information can be lost quickly and less participants will be able to fully participate.
   
2. Make a crystal-clear schedule. You can set agendas either for real-time or async meetings in the program of your choice as I did when working in a banking sector, we created Notion templates using fill-in areas that reflected the problems we were facing as well as actions points.
   
3. Create meeting guidelines. Laura also mentioned one interesting method she prefers to employ that is to write and share "how to work together" document ( like this one) for helping establish norms and expectations for meetings, as well as for other communications.

 In the course of the meeting:

1. Begin and end on time. This point is especially true for real-time remote meetings, there's not much worse than turning up at a meeting early or extending the time. The time of the attendees is valuable. This is also the case for meeting async -- if you don't respond promptly in a reasonable manner, the information might either get lost or other dates could get missed.
   
2. Make it brief. Similar to the above point, there's not much use in an hour-long real-time meeting in the event that you could achieve the goals you want using async communication or smaller meetings. In terms of the async method, try to avoid writing massive pages of text, or making long interspersed pauses on recorded videos.
   
3. Be sure that everyone can be heard or recognized. As I mentioned earlier, not everyone has the personality type to be able to voice their opinions in real-time conversations, async comms provides those with the ability to do so. As a manager or meeting host, it's still important to monitor participants' participation.

 Following the meeting:

1. Gather feedback from participants. If you're experimenting using different kinds of events, it's crucial to get feedback from the attendees so that you can figure what's effective in terms of the style of communication and channel. Different software may work better than others for different people.
   
2. Create a method for communication to follow-up. Generally speaking, it's good to establish a channel of communication or virtual area where people can offer specific points regarding the meeting or updates about action points, without messing up the actual meetings.
   

So you might be wondering in this moment, "those tips are all well and good, but what about programs?", this next section has got you covered.

Software for remote meeting

One of the major considerations for conducting remote meetings of any kind is making sure you're using the correct technology in the first place. Naturally, for synchronous meetings the most well-known videoconferencing solutions such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams/Skype, and Google Meet do the trick fairly well, but it's slightly different with synchronous meetings.

A few of the most well-known Asynchronous Meeting Software (which can also be mostly project management tools) Some, which have already been mentioned, include:

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

Choosing the right tool for your virtual meeting

The majority of collaboration tools that I've discussed above are texts-based, or are used for communication. However, others can be a mix of text, image, or video. Also, as Laura mentioned previously, context and design are key.

 For simple project updates

If you're just 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. For example, I (and my previous workplace) make use of Notion 'boards' to have a quick overview of the status of projects and also for comments.

The same "board" style of organization in each of the applications that were mentioned earlier.

 For continuous updates

If your group or project must be simple to reach but not have daily meetings in person, most of the tools listed are good, Basecamp in particular is fantastic, but Slack tops the list on this one.

My old job had each team would have their own Slack channel in which they could have basically asynchronous stand-ups, while there were also companies-wide channels to share general information. Naturally, I do not have access to that particular Slack workspace anymore, but I do have several Slack workspaces that I use to the same extent:

 For more intricate or sensitive information

Just as Laura said, certain kinds of data require greater human interaction. You don't want to have details that are misinterpreted or gets lost in all the posts and projects. To avoid this, it is best to utilize video. And is there to help you.

Additionally it is possible to keep track of who's viewed your video and collaborate in the comments.

It's sometimes difficult to figure out exactly the best software or technique to choose since every team works differently, so you should start by experimenting and never being afraid to switch gears if one doesn't work for you.

The remote playbook: etiquette for virtual meetings

The last topic we're going go over in this book is the etiquette of meetings. Some of the concepts are likely to be familiar from the topics we've covered previously however it's important to know exactly what common meetings conducted remotely look like.

We've been on a lot of Zoom calls and have learned the following general rules (and still accidentally break them):

• Be sure to not be in a mute state when speaking.
• Make sure you are in a calm area where other people can focus on you (not your washer that is running).
• Try out the features that you wish to implement before deciding so that you don't waste time trying to figure it out at the time of session.

However, the situation is somewhat different when you consider Asynchronous meetings. The etiquette can vary depending on the channel or method of communication.

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

• Be sure to include relevant information in the proper channel/thread/page (or if you're referencing anything of importance, post a link to said thread/page).
• Do not treat it as emails. By that I mean acknowledge the message or task instead of leaving it to the inbox (in Slack, you can sign a message by using an emoji! ).
• Take note that other people also have private lives. If you're using asynchronous communications is easy to forget that people might not be working at the same time when you. Check if someone is available before potentially making a push message to them.

 Asynchronous video calls

• Be sure that the microphone and camera are of good enough for others to comprehend what you're speaking about.
• Have a clear takeaway you want to impart to other people -- nobody wants to sit through an entire video without learning any new information.

These are just some general etiquette suggestions. Your business might have its own guidelines for communication with each other and what tools to utilize. In which case, you can bear these to mind when learning the ropes or establishing them.

You can get off to a positive start by having remote meeting

As with many relationships Effective communication is 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 conversations, involve the team in a greater number, and foster a culture of transparency (since the asynchronous comms are automatically documentable). If you're considering adopting a more asynchronous approach you should consider trying different tools to find out the best solution for you.