Knowledge work is ASYNCHRONOUS communication

PRODUCTIVE work, ie where hard stuff actually gets done, or the bulk of progress in knowledge work is predominantly ASYNCHRONOUS.

Of course, it is also necessary to synch up, to maintain focus, to occasionally have meaningful synchronous meetings. The problem with synchronous meetings is that schedules are cleared and left open while people wait for their part of meeting to happen – a lot of time is wasted and effort expended to synch up, to actually get people together at a particular time – so, occasionally, we might really NEED to synch up but we should not overuse is.

In physical work, synch matters a lot – it can be almost impossible for work with a physical component to be completed unless at least the key people are there, engaged and woring on it together. For example, it IS easier for a group to lift a large object together and Henry Ford’s Model T line needed to have bodies on the line to build cars, but in the realm of knowledge work it is NOT easier to have a meeting room full of yesmen leaning in to seek facetime with the boss to lift a big idea … sure, the bossman’s idea gets lifted and the bossman feels like a lot got accomplished, but other ideas stay put and somebody has to work on those things after hours or those things don’t get done until they show up on the bossman’s critical chain project mgmt dashboard. Productive emergence does not happen in a culture dominated by synchronous meetings.

The fact of synchronized meetings is that it’s too likely that the room is packed with a falsely reassuring crowd of spectators or not exactly the right people to get things done … the truly right people are scattered around the globe, not just in different time zones but with different priorities and very different sleep/work/family/play schedules. When the right people are not allowed to have lives, they can be ridiculously productive for a while, but they cheat themselves and tend to burn out.

Synch stills matters – but it should not predominate … synch should be reserved for the times when getting together is a necessity for focus, ie when togetherness is treated as a constant, everyday ordinary necessity, it ceases to be … and people quiet quit, even without intentionally doing so, ie like narcolepsy in sleep-deprived truckers. Predominantly synch workflow is not human – it can work for awhile, but it becomes like Henry Ford’s Model T assembly line … because productive knowledge workers have other choices … even though corporate drone yesmen may not.

Organizations are still organized around face-to-face boss-man-to-the-slaves plantation-style communication. The PROBLEM is that bossman slaveowner types still love being stroked … and they sign the paychecks or do performance reviews in larger orgs … and, of course, corporate drone yesmen still are proud of their lean-in skillsets … so the SYNCRONOUS on-site work schedule persists even when there is no productivity justification for it. The FACT of the matter is that although physical lifting stuff together work is best accomplished in a SYNCHRONOUS fashion … knowledge work is primarily going to be about ASYNCHRONOUS communication … so we should manage accordingly.

Choosing and extending the right OPEN SOURCE tools for efficient asynchronous communication WILL provide a massive productivity boost … it’s all about extensibility because the barriers to productivity will be removed when people stop assembling knowledge the way Henry Ford built Model Ts and start becoming aware of lean thinking, lean knowledge, lean ideas, lean communication and taking out the non-value-added waste that is an impediment to higher productivity in that realm … the magic of open source happens when knowledge workers begin to tailor and extend their own asynchronous assemblyline in the virtual realm.

Use D.O.W.N.T.I.M.E. to see waste and eliminate it

D) Read more, really read the DOCUMENTATION and the DISCUSSION. Understand the basis for past decisions. If a decision needs to be revisited or reversed, fine – but be up to speed on why things have developed as they have.

O) No OVERPOLISHING or OVERPRODUCTION or OVERTHINKING… use LEAN startup approach to develop the minimal viable product and ship something that works so that it can be tested in production.

W) Stop WAITING. Make decisions with timebound, ie next hour or next day, input from all stakeholders, not only without commuting but without the overhead of scheduling a meeting to get everyone in place to make a decision.

N) NEVER accept NOT LISTENING. Commit to being a better example of a better listener inside an organization that listens. Above all commit to being more present for the more important stuff … if something demands a phone call or a personal visit, that is what it takes – but mostly it’s going to require constant improvement of better listening skills.

T) TRANSPORT less. Instead of commuting commit to making asynch communication substantive.

I) Use ISSUE-BASED development. Don’t shuffle INFORMATION needlessly. Use tags and topic-based threading. Demand better commit discipline for conventional commits. Master instant delivery chat with asynchronous notifications. Learn to rely upon commitgraph dashboards. Use emoji reaction to indicate mood.

M) Avoid MEETINGS or other motion for the sake of appearing to move. Using one-piece agenda to discuss complex topics and Focusing on the work, not dialing into a Zoom or teleconf.

E) Stop feeding strong EGOS – there’s no room for prima donnas. We must realizing that we all have egos … bullying should never be tolerated, but also stop trying to over-coddle victims who migth interpret a careless remark as bullying … we can be successful together if we try a bit harder to love, understand and respect others as if we were in their shoes.