Asynchronous collaboration—How to deliver excellence in the non-stop world of work without losing your mind

On a conversation with friends over dinner last night, as it generally happens to everyone (I guess), we touched upon "work". And because my work is directly related to, guess what? - hybrid work, the discussion that followed went in the direction of collaboration.

In explaining how I am working and how technology helps me achieve my goals, I thought it might be helpful to structure these thoughts and share more widely. Today is going to be about a current buzzword in the business world: asynchronous collaboration. But what in the world do all those letters mean?

Many of us at Microsoft already practice asynchronous collaboration with team members in disparate locations around the globe—often on different continents and hemispheres. Yet, we’re collaborating on the same projects with the same deliverables and deadlines. 

Borrowed from the Microsoft Teams Meeting Guide, here are our top tips for achieving better asynchronistic collaboration—while giving you and your co-workers the freedom to decide when and where to work.

Work, converse, and meet in channels

Working in Teams channels keeps conversations, meetings, and files in easy reach so workgroups can stay up to date, access all files, and easily collaborate and contribute—regardless of everyone’s time zone. Team members can jump in at a convenient time based on their unique schedule.

• Follow our best practices for managing channels and participating in channel conversations.
• Learn how to use shared channels in Teams.

Channel conversations are the best. Instead of sending emails or starting private chats with a few people at a time, kick off conversations in a channel where others can benefit from what’s said when it’s convenient for them. This is a key part of openly sharing information in a hybrid workplace. Everyone can quickly get up to speed by viewing conversations and documentation changes within the channel. Even those who don’t actively participate know where things stand at any time. 

Sharing our expertise is a keyway we can contribute the success of others—plus, it’s instrumental in creating a healthy team. Research shows that in high-achieving teams, 55% say they have easy access to the information they need to do their best work, versus 15% in low-achieving teams.

Use channel meetings. Your meeting participants can be up to 12 hours ahead or behind you, making it impossible to find a good time for everyone to meet. When you create meetings within a channel, then start recording and transcription meeting at the beginning of the meeting, anyone who can’t attend can easily catch up when they log back into work. Remember, both chat and the recording of channel meetings are centralized on the channel automatically keeping everyone in sync—a significant benefit for using channel meetings! And not to forget that transcription works in 34 languages!

Other ways to support those who can’t attend include sharing an agenda with your meeting invite and posting pre-read content in cha: every meeting has its own associated chat (which automatically includes all meeting attendees), and you can chat before the meeting even starts. In addition to the agenda, share pre-read files or kick off discussion points in advance. Sharing presentation materials and pre-read documents in the chat before the meeting includes those who can’t attend due to schedule conflicts or time zone differences. This is helpful for those who use a screen reader, as well, because it allows them to review the content in advance. #accessibilitymatters #technologyforall

Then after the meeting, share outcomes and actions. Make sure attendees (and those who couldn’t attend) all have access to meeting conversations and outcomes afterward. Immediately post to the meeting chat any documents or other presented content—if it hasn’t been shared in advance.

Capture and share action items. This can be done with a simple Checklist in the meeting chat, or in the task-tracking tool where your attendees already work, such as the Tasks by Planner and To Do app in Teams or Azure DevOps integrations in a Teams Channel (Collaborate, Communicate and Celebrate)

Have you tried the Meet now feature on a channel? Think of it as a virtual hallway conversation. It’s a good way to quickly sync with team members and allows others to join in if they’re interested.

Keep in mind that the goal of your meeting influences how you should meet. Learn best practices for various meeting types.

A surprising example of a great time to encourage asynchronous collaboration is brainstorming, because you actually don’t need the group to be together to come up with the best ideas. The groupthink theory shows that during idea generation, individuals think differently about a problem when they work alone. But when you bring the group together to ideate, they tend to think alike, converging on a common solution.

Clearly articulate goals, responsibilities, and expected outcomes. Different teams may use different systems for tracking work—the important thing is that you do have a system everyone can readily access. The Tasks by Planner and To Do is a Teams app that shows all your plans in a centralized view. You can set due dates, assign people to tasks, and track your progress—and it’s all instantly available for global collaborators on any device.

Regardless of the tool you and your team use, articulating clear goals and outcomes will allow everyone working asynchronously to focus on desired results versus when, where, or how the work is done.

Be timely in documenting changes. Remember, when processes or decisions change, agree to update documentation quickly, and avoid the mental load of remembering to do it later. Don’t wait to share exhaustive, perfect guidance. The quick notes you take for yourself—a couple sentences and a related hyperlink or contact name—are likely enough for local, remote, and asynchronous collaborators, too.

You can be a game changer in leading the way your team collaborates, regardless of your role!

Our innovative tools and best practices are only as effective as you and your co-workers use them, and your team’s buy-in is critical in creating a healthy, asynchronous working experience.

Managers can lead by example and communicate that it’s okay to protect work-life balance by not responding to things in real time, declining meeting requests, turning off notifications, and being offline outside of core hours.

The work will not suffer—and in fact, it can thrive!

Don't be shy, drop me a note, tell me how you make you work, work (yes that's right), what else you would like me to write about, and I will to my best to structure it for you.