How much time do you and your team waste on a-synch communication every single day?
What is asynch communication?” It is the communication you initiate when the receiver is not there to receive it. In other words, texts, emails, Slack messages, DMs on social media, and all the other methods we were promised would be more efficient than phone calls and meetings.
I’m sure you know the drill. You receive an email from a colleague or customer asking a question that’s not quite clear. So you send a response asking for clarification. Two hours, perhaps two days, later, the person responds. But their response opens up another issue. So you ask a couple more questions. And so it goes over the course of several hours, or even several days.
Meanwhile, this interaction keeps popping up in your attention when something reminds you of it. Depending on the circumstances, this might happen a half-dozen times a day. Multiply this example by how many times this happens in a day or week, and you find yourself wasting endless energy on these kinds of issues that can’t be resolved. Is it any wonder, many of us feel like we’re on a communications treadmill an awful lot of the time?
My on-going, informal survey of the groups to whom I speak indicate 90-plus percent of people are annoyed by these disruptions and incomplete conversations a good portion of the time. If you oversee a team or function, this impacts you two ways. First, it drains energy you could using on other tasks. Second, it drains the energy of everyone you supervise. Even in a small organization, this could amount to thousands of hours of squandered time per month. Is it any wonder that the majority of the US workforce complains of overwhelm and fatigue regularly?
Of course, I’m not telling you anything you probably don’t already know. So, you’re wondering, “WHAT DO I DO ABOUT IT?”
As I ask those in my audience for their solutions, their suggestions seem to revolve around three themes. Here they are:
First, address the cultural expectation that people need to respond immediately. I have spoken with countless people who believe that immediate responses to emails, especially from the boss are expected. As a result, they are endlessly interrupted and unable to maintain concentration for a prolonged period. When I’ve asked them whether they have asked the boss about this expectation, they’ve said no. They’ve just kind of assumed that it is simply unsaid.
But there is more to it than this. I’ve also spoken to individuals whose boss has said, “Stay focused on your work. Just get back to me in a timely way.” But then the boss follows up and asks, “Why didn’t you get back to me on this?” after a short while. This is the same as the boss saying, “Take your time on this project, but have it back to me in the next half hour.” Take away? Bosses who say one thing but do another reinforce the cultural expectation that instant responses on no matter how trivial the topic, trump everything else. So, where are you on this continuum?
Second, demand clarity from the get-go. Consider the number of times you’ve received an email, text or other communication and thought, “What?” In today’s rush, we sometimes dash off a message without putting ourselves in the position of the receiver. As a result, we initiate one of those back-and-forth communication exchanges that waste time and energy. Work with those around you to get them to pre-think the situation before composing the message. If appropriate, encourage them to provide options for resolution. You know – “Which do you think would work best? This, this, or this?” If everyone tries to anticipate the receiver’s questions or concerns in the initial message, all those back-and-forth messages would be reduced substantially. Work with those who don’t get this by showing them some examples of how you do it.
Third, pick up the phone! I realize that to many seasoned contributors, this is just common sense. Not so much to those entering the workforce in the past several years. While I could explain the reasons for this call reluctance, I’m not going to waste your time. Suffice to say it is largely the result of a lack of experience communicating synchronously, in other words, face-to-face and on the phone. Because of this, it simply doesn’t occur to those roughly thirty and younger to initiate this form of communication. I’ve even had managers complain that they call someone of this generation and receive a text or email in response.
So, what to do? Model the behavior. Provide a cheat sheet with examples of when different kinds of communication should be used. One major accounting firm included this approach during their onboarding to great effect. While you may dismiss this as too elementary, your options are to employ something like this or continue to complain when you and others waste time in endless asynchronous communication loops.
I will stipulate that all of this takes time and how well you model these behaviors is essential to getting others to modify theirs. But if you allow this struggle to continue, it will sap your time and energy and that of those around you.
How do you handle this challenge in your workplace? Let me know in the comments below and be sure to subscribe to this channel for additional insights just like these.