The single biggest remote working super power
Ok, I’m going to say it. I know some of you don’t want me to, but I have to. It’s the dreaded ‘D’ word. Oh boy, didn’t you know this was coming? Let me spell it out for you. D-o-c-u-m-e-n-t-a-t-i-o-n. All right, that's done now. Let’s move on.
I can understand if the thought of documentation makes you uncomfortable. We discussed in the very first article of this series; many of us recoil at the thought of documentation. Let’s get this absolutely straight, though.
There’s no asynchronous work without written communication
Notice that I say “written communication” and not “documentation”. There’s a subtle difference between those two, isn’t there?
| Written communication | Documentation | |
|---|---|---|
| What is it? | A practice. | An output or a product. |
| Definition | The practice of communicating in long or short form with text as the primary medium; with visuals and other media to help enrich the message if and where necessary. | An umbrella term that encompasses all written documents and materials related to the project. Documents differ by use case and are a by-product of written communication. |
Many agile teams have trouble creating documentation. One of the root causes - infrequent written communication. And while easier documentation is one benefit of communicating in text, it’s hardly the only one. In today’s post, let me share with you why written communication needs to be your number one superpower when you decide to work asynchronously.
Meetings as the last resort, not the first option
62
meetings per employee, per month
½
meetings they consider a waste of time
31
hours spent in unproductive meetings each month
56
interruptions per day per employee
2
hours spent recovering from distractions per day
Every hero needs a villain. If our hero is asynchronous work, then by definition, pointless synchrony is the villain. Let me stress on the “pointless”. I accept the need for occasional synchronous collaboration; especially for low latency, high bandwidth conversations, and decision making. If emotions are on a high, you will need to see each other and diffuse tensions. It just cannot be your primary way of collaborating. Otherwise, as you notice from the data you see above, you just have a productivity nightmare on hand. Couple this with the difficulty of working across time-zones, and you not only frustrate your team, but you also exclude some people from being part of your group.
So if you aren’t always meeting and aren’t constantly interrupting each other, how do you communicate? Well, the quickest and lowest tech approach is to just write. Clearly, precisely and if necessary, in long form.
The benefits of writing
Not all of us are writers. I get that. Business communication, however, differs greatly from creative writing. You don’t have to be an Amish or a Tolkien to communicate with your teammates. Before we get into how you can hone your writing skills, let’s discuss some benefits of writing.
Inclusive by default
Non-native English speakers often struggle to keep up with a fast-paced conversation. Introverts often hold back during a charged discussion. Not everyone can comfortably attend a synchronous conversation, especially when you throw time zones into the mix.
Writing allows non-native English speakers to construct their thoughts and use the help of tools, such as spell checkers and grammar plugins. They can use a translator to convert text into a language they understand.
Introverts get the space to express themselves without the pressure that a group setting creates for them.
People with disabilities can use speech recognition or screen readers to create or consume writing.
People can write at whatever time they are working. And others can respond at a time convenient to them.
Thoughtful and deliberate
In meetings, there’s not enough time to slow down and examine topics of discussion in detail or to do a thorough analysis. Offering ourselves the space to analyse problems, structure our thinking, and write things down makes communication more thoughtful and deliberate.
The side-effect of this is that it also makes synchronous communication more productive. If people have given thought to a topic beforehand and everyone has consumed each other’s thoughts before a meeting; the meeting itself can focus on using that information to make a decision.
Indexable and searchable
Text is the easiest kind of content to index. Whether it’s search on your email, your task boards, your instant messaging platform, your wiki, or your repositories, text search is a common feature. It’s also easier to query text inline - for example when you’re looking for a specific word within a specific piece of content.
It’s easy to structure, change, and interact with
Most tools allow you to create a structure using headers, formatting and by allowing you to bring in multimedia and images where necessary. In a synchronous conversation, you’d do something similar with a presentation, and your spoken words would substitute for the text. When writing, you can develop your thoughts iteratively and modify them as you receive feedback at a very low cost.
In addition, it’s easier for people to interact with what you’ve written than it is for them to interrupt you when you’re speaking synchronously. They can comment inline - a feature most wikis and word processors afford - and give you feedback about a specific point you’ve written about. You can have intricate, threaded discussions - a feature of most wikis, task boards and forums. It’s an infinitely more interactive approach, if you look at it this way.
A longer shelf life
Conversations are ephemeral. Written communication has a long shelf life. It’s reference-able in the future and can help create an audit trail on your teams. Frequent, well thought written communication can eventually lead to easier documentation. Whether it is to onboard people to your team or to explain your product to your customers, a practice of writing has a high payoff.
It slows things down
Yeah, you read that right. Writing slows things down, and that’s a good thing. Gonçalo Silva, in the InfoQ podcast, explains why slowing things down is a feature, not a bug.
Gonçalo Silva, CTO, Doist
“It’s always long form, always thought out, and this is 99% of the conversations we have about everything. I understand why we can be sceptical about this. For example, decision making is delayed, because most things will take at least 24 hours to move ahead. The truth is… this leads to better discussion… thoughtful ways of approaching a problem which in the end leads to better decisions.
So we can take the hit on decision speed, because we gain on decision quality.”
When we place too much emphasis on a meeting driven culture, we’re implicitly optimising for speed. The casualty of speed; as every technologist will know, is quality. When you slow decisions down to let everyone “write things up”, you optimise for thoughtfulness. Yes, decisions may be slower. You’ll just have a better chance of making excellent decisions.
Why not do video or audio?
Some pushback I’ve heard about writing comes from the fact that people don’t consider themselves writers and because social media has killed people’s attention spans for reading. Let’s first address that elephant in the room.
If you want to be a technology firm in the 2020s and you’re building a culture that doesn’t read or write, then heaven help you!
I won’t try to explain that statement. I just had to say it. Let’s get back to the objections. People argue that recording audio or video is easier and we should use that instead of writing. First things first, whether you write or record, you need to structure the communication. So recording a well thought out audio or video isn’t a freebie. Consider a few other disadvantages of videos and audios.
Inline searchability of videos and audio clips is pretty low, even on the most sophisticated platforms.
Our ability to consume content is slower on videos and audio clips. Our listening speeds are ≅140wpm as compared to or reading speeds, which for most people are >200wpm.
The ability to comment inline is almost zero with video, vs with text, unless you have a specialised platform for the purpose.
And with non-native English speakers, comprehension breaks down considerably with video. In the first place, you may struggle to understand another person's accent. Even if you have captioning tools, the AI struggles to understand every unique speaker's accent.
It’s difficult to edit audio clips and videos after the fact and if you expect frequent iterations to the content, the cost of communication adds up quick.
So what’s audio or video good for? Here are a few ideas.
If you’re creating uni-directional content, such as a demo or a screencast, or a video recording to explain product features, video is a great format.
Content with a short shelf life; such as your CEO’s message - can be an acceptable candidate for video, unless you’re expecting people to interact on specific parts of the communication.
Podcasts, which are all about listening to people in conversation, without the need to interact with the content, are another great candidate for audio.
Whatever medium you choose, please don’t lose empathy for the consumers of this content. Meeting recordings, for example, belie a low level of empathy for co-workers. What could otherwise be a single page summary of meeting outcomes now becomes a long video for people to watch even at 2x speed. Multiply that across every member of the team, and you lose several hours of productive time, because someone didn’t bother to summarise in writing.
I hope this convinces you to make written communication your highest priority as you move to being an asynchronous team. In summary, here are the benefits of written communication.
It’s inclusive by default.
It’s thoughtful and deliberate.
It’s indexable and searchable.
It’s easy to structure, change and interact with.
It has a longer shelf life.
And it slows things down.
Some of you may need to hone this skill. It’s a lot easier than you may imagine, and you’ll get better with time. As a next step, check out the following resources.
Tips for better writing by GitLab
Technical writing resources by Google