When you only have a hammer, try some different nails

When I started my career in project management it was easier than today. Everyone was in the office. When we needed to communicate with people, we went to see them and spoke to them. Or we called a meeting and had everyone in the same room.

When I started managing larger and larger projects, it was still comparatively easy. As my project teams grew and were located internationally, I just racked up more air miles. I still saw everyone face to face.

Today, there are two additional complexities. Firstly, we’re not all in the same place and the percentage of our work that is done face-to-face has rapidly declined. This has led for a need to learn how to work remotely. We’re getting better at that.

Secondly, there is a growing trend of people ‘pulling’ work, rather than work being ‘pushed’. The philosophies of manufacturing efficiencies being applied to knowledge work. That means you consume my message at a time that is appropriate for you. And that changes everything.

Here are 3 top challenges when communication is asynchronous and tips you can use to improve.

Think ahead

In Synchronous communication, if you don’t understand something, you ask. It is reframed, you understand, you move on. If you have 20 questions, you ask them, they are answered, we made progress.

In asynchronous communication the “re-iterating to understand cycles” or “asking questions to understand cycles” can seriously slow down decision making.

To combat a potential slowing down of decision making, think ahead. As you’re writing, think what questions the uninitiated are going to have. Test-run your communication with someone synchronously and take note of the questions or clarifications they seek.

Planning ahead, testing and refining before publishing, can reduce the length of time taken to make decisions asynchronously. I know this is obvious. I also know that you’re not doing it.

Add commentary to your own writing

If we’re having a conversation and I’m unsure about something, you can tell because of the tone of my voice. That tone is lost, or at best seriously diluted, in written communication. That increases the opportunity for mis-understanding.

I find a great way to introduce these nuances back into written communication, is to add commentary on your own writing. Most document systems allow in-line commentary these days. Add your own commentary. “I’m really unsure if this is the right approach”, in the margin of a document adds a lot of communication value that could be missing if you don’t use comments.

Use structured formats

We have all heard that x% of communication is non verbal. It’s that X that’s missing when we have asynchronous communication. A way to put some of the X back, is to have structured formats for your communications.

If you’re communicating about an issue, have a consistent format across the organisation for how you write about issues. If you’re sending an update, have a consistent format for sending updates.

This serves two purposes. Firstly, it makes your communication easier to consume. I know the standard format and the work the reader needs to do to understand what’s happening, is reduced. Second, your standard format can include some of the non-verbals.

Your standard format can include a “What do I feel about this” section, or a “Why am I concerned” section. You can deliberately create an opportunity for the non-verbals to resurface in your writing. And when you use structured formats, people expect it and know where to look for it.

Bonus points

If you want to go the extra mile, publish a weekly reading and writing digest. I’m a Google Docs fan and I can easily see, on a weekly basis, what documents I have written and what documents I have read.

We also use Notion at my company for knowledge management. Again, I can see what I have written and what I have read.

That allows me to publish a weekly digest. Here’s all the things I’ve been reading this week and here are all the things I’ve written this week. The number of additional value-adding commentaries I receive from publishing digests is well worth the effort. Even better, AI can do it for me these days! Now there’s no excuse not to get those bonus points.

If you think this isn’t worth the effort, consider it from the other point of view. If your CEO published a weekly digest, if your boss published a weekly digest, would you get value from skimming it and knowing what was top of mind for them? Well, there are people that feel the same about you and would handle a weekly digest from you the same way.