Immersed in a project, in the zone, your laptop dings, you glance up and ignore it. It’s your team member with a message about another project. It can wait, and you will see their smiling face later.
How can you see their face and update when you’re ready? By using asynchronous communication. A way for remote workers to communicate when it’s convenient for them.
There’s no need to drop everything you’re doing to jump into a real-time virtual meeting or chat. Your teammate records a short video and sends a link. You pick up the link and watch when it fits into your workday.
Who offers this, some new startup? No, Dropbox’s Capture is now available in beta. You can send screenshots, GIF’s or a plain video to get your point across.
In late September, Slack introduced Clips. Clips allow audio, video, and screen recordings. Co-workers can share Clips on channels or through DMs.
Co-workers can reply with text, audio, video, or emojis. There’s lots of room for creativity. Don’t use Slack or Dropbox?
No worries. Asana, Trello, Cisco, and Zoom added asynchronous communication features to their apps. Does your company have a specific need for asynchronous?
Give MarkUp Hero a try if your team marks up lots of documents. Jell streamlines standups. Flow facilitates organization and planning without real-time meetings.
Will this speed up communication and end the endless virtual meetings? It’s too soon to tell. I’m sure most won’t miss trying to squeeze another confab into their day.
Author: Kris Keppeler, a writer who finds technology fascinating and loves humor. She writes for Crossing Genres on Medium.com and Does This Happen to You? on Channillo. Award-winning podcast producer who enjoys telling stories. Follow her @KrisKKAria on Twitter or on LinkedIn.
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