Today's work dynamics are becoming increasingly complex with the rise of remote work, flexible working hours, and international hiring. 

While many corporations emphasize the importance of communication and even hold workshops about the importance of information exchange among employees, many do not account for the fact that live meetings and personal communication are often simply not convenient anymore.

This is why it's more important than ever to create an environment where people can communicate asynchronously and smoothly pass information from one employee to another without unnecessary delays or information loss.

The goal is for all employees to have all the necessary info from their coworkers as soon as the information is available so that when one employee finishes something of importance for another, they can easily find it and access it at their convenience and reduce time discrepancy to a minimum.

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What is Asynchronous Communication?

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Simply put, asynchronous communication refers to any communication that does not happen in real time with individuals simultaneously engaged in conversation.

Consider this as an example:

A web designer drafts a website mockup and shares it on a collaborative design tool like Figma. Team members can access the design at their convenience to leave comments and make suggestions for changes over the next few days. The designer then incorporates feedback asynchronously to create a new version for further review until the design is approved.

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An asynchronous method of communication allows for an effective exchange of information between individuals whose working hours do not overlap due to flexible working arrangements or different time zones. It also creates a big enough time window for others to give their input and avoids having anyone excluded from the conversation because of timing constraints.

This is a proven framework for many organizations, and employees are often comfortable functioning in such a structured yet adaptable workflow where team members can all contribute during their peak hours.

This method of communication leads to carefully considered input and easier progress of tasks as they are handed from one individual to another in order to maintain continuity and momentum in the project’s development.

What is Synchronous Communication?

Despite the emphasis on asynchronous communication these days, there are a lot of reasons why synchronous communication is irreplaceable as well. Synchronous communication occurs when all participants are present and engaging in real-time, whether in person or through digital means.

This immediate form of communication proves especially valuable in situations that require:

• Quick decision-making and immediate feedback
• Complex problem-solving that benefits from direct interaction
• Building team relationships and company culture
• Addressing sensitive or nuanced topics that could be misinterpreted in writing
• Brainstorming sessions where ideas need to build upon each other rapidly

Common types of synchronous communication in the workplace include:

• In-person meetings and discussions
• Video conferences
• Phone calls
• Real-time chat messaging
• Live presentations and workshops

For example, when a development team encounters a critical bug that affects multiple system components, a quick video call allows them to discuss the issue, explore potential solutions, and make immediate decisions about the fix. Similarly, onboarding new team members often benefits from synchronous sessions where they can ask questions and receive immediate clarification about their roles and responsibilities.

However, it's important to use synchronous communication strategically, as it requires coordinating schedules and can interrupt deep work. The key is to find the right balance between synchronous and asynchronous communication methods based on the specific needs of your team and the nature of the work being done.

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Organizing Multiple Channels of Asynchronous Communication

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Once we realize the scope of asynchronous communications, it becomes clear that most workplace communication happens asynchronously across multiple tools, apps, and platforms and involves multiple individuals.

It is not unusual for employees to begin their day with a series of steps that start with checking emails to see urgent messages, then go on to the organization's project management tools (Asana, Jira, Trello) to see the updates on the ongoing tasks. Next, they enter the attached Google Sheets to see the details of the project and leave comments. All the while, there are a series of messages on Slack with new questions and requirements waiting to be addressed.

This interconnectedness makes employee workflows significantly more complex when it comes to effective asynchronous communication and sorting out information from different channels, especially given the fact that with the number of people involved, the number of communication channels grows exponentially.

A team of 4 people communicates through 6 channels on average, but this number can grow to 45 expected communication channels for a team of 10 people.

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As you can see, sorting out information for a single project can become quite a challenge if it's scattered across multiple communication channels, and this calls for a solution in categorizing asynchronous communication in a way that integrates all of the different channels into a manageable whole.

One of the proven methods in the process of making the communication channels organized and manageable is enterprise search software. This holds especially true with the breakthroughs in NLP (Natural Language Processing) and technologies like vector search.

Enterprise search software (ES) that employs these technologies is able to search and retrieve information based on the context and relevance to the searcher's query and provide a unified overview of the project that happens across multiple communication channels.

This is achieved through the use of connectors that enable ES to perform thorough out-of-the-box integration with the tools that are used within the enterprise. These connectors essentially act like a bridge for data and allow enterprise search software to collect it from various channels into one unified and easily searchable repository of organizational knowledge.

This integration allows enterprise search to conduct searches across multiple channels so that when employees search for “Project X,” everything that is relevant to it will pop up as long as the tool, app, or database containing the information is integrated with the system.

The best thing is that employees do not need to worry about missed fragments of information due to keyword mismatches. Enterprise search software that uses NLP allows search engines to understand the context and intent behind the search and surface all the information based on its relevance rather than on keywords.

Organizing Synchronous Communication

Although asynchronous communications definitely present more of an organizational challenge to set up, synchronous communications can be a real hurdle as well. Getting multiple team members to coordinate their schedules, especially across different time zones and working patterns, often requires careful planning and smart use of organizational tools.

The challenge becomes particularly evident in larger organizations where teams need to balance the necessity of real-time communication with the risk of meeting fatigue and reduced productivity. For instance, a single project might require coordination between development teams in Asia, product managers in Europe, and stakeholders in North America – finding a time that works for everyone without requiring someone to join at 3 AM becomes a complex puzzle.

Modern organizations are increasingly turning to analytics dashboards and meeting management tools to help organize and optimize their synchronous communications. These tools can provide valuable insights into:

• Meeting frequency and duration patterns
• Participant engagement levels
• Time spent in meetings by different teams and departments
• Overlap in meeting schedules
• Meeting effectiveness metrics

By analyzing these patterns, organizations can make data-driven decisions about their meeting culture. For example, tracking time spent in meetings helps identify whether certain teams are becoming overloaded with synchronous communications at the expense of focused work time. Similarly, meeting dynamics analysis can reveal whether participants are actively engaging or if the meeting format needs adjustment.

These insights enable organizations to:

• Optimize meeting schedules for maximum participation
• Identify opportunities to convert recurring meetings to asynchronous updates
• Balance synchronous communication needs across different time zones
• Ensure meeting time is used effectively
• Create guidelines for when synchronous communication is truly necessary

The key to successful synchronous communication management lies in finding the right balance between necessary real-time interactions and protecting team members' time for focused work. Modern analytics tools make this balance more achievable by providing concrete data about communication patterns and their impact on productivity.

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Unified View of Organizational Communications

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With Akooda enterprise search, organizations can easily achieve a unified database containing all the information that flows through different communication channels. 

With out-of-the-box or so-called one-click integration, Akooda offers ready connectors for all the most popular business tools. These connectors are designed to be easily configurable to meet different business needs and can even be customized to integrate any of the special or unique apps and tools if requested.

With such a resource at hand, Akooda offers the ability to examine critical interactions, conversations, and tasks that happen inside, outside, and between the SaaS platforms that you use every day and get a full picture of the efforts (and gaps) across the organization.

Akooda presents all the information pertaining to your organization's synchronous and asynchronous communications in convenient dashboards that show  the strength, frequency, and nature of interactions between team members, providing insights into how meetings are conducted and their effectiveness.

This is further improved by Akooda integration with generative AI, which allows for a conversational search experience and uses generative AI to creatively utilize the organization's data.

The result is an environment that offers full support of asynchronous communication and provides employees with all the tools needed to establish the optimal workflow and access to information.