It seems so.

The only video call I took in the last 30 days was on WhatsApp with my mother.

And guess what? Not only nothing bad happened, but our top leaders gained more control of their time, which means more space for strategic thinking and profound work.

And me? Even though I was sightseeing a lot, I reviewed our HR wiki, was a leader for the CEOs, automation, and shared services teams, prepared the concept for my personal brand, and did a final touch on 2023 strategies and budgets… among many others.

If you immediately want to comment, pointing out how my situation is different from yours, please don’t bother.

I’m not saying it’s optimal for everyone or possible for you tomorrow.

Just stay open-minded and read these three steps toward more asynchronous work in your company.

1. CREATE A MODERN COMPANY WIKI:

Every time something terrible or great happens, I invite some people from the company to update our wiki in Notion. We value being concise, and cooperate on a shared document in comments - everyone in their personal rhythm. Updating our know-how regularly makes us 1% better every time. And we notify about all the significant changes in the wiki in a weekly newsletter, so people don't need to absorb a zillion notifications.

2. STOP USING @ LIKE A DIGITAL DINOSAUR:

I’m sick of reading about companies that still organize their work around emails. They are using this limited tool to everything, ending up with cluttered inbox. No wonder they need a lot of meetings to move things forward! To me, it’s simple - if I want a short response, I use Slack; if I want to have something done, and oversee the progress, I assign a task in ClickUp; if I want to discuss high-level matters, I do it around a shared page in our Notion wiki. And all of those tools are intertwined with simple automation. E-mail is just for contacting the external world, and I end every week with “inbox zero.”

3. GIVE PEOPLE SPACE IN THEIR CALENDARS (TRUST):

When you stop bombarding people with meeting invites, they actually find time to think. They mature as managers, as they can take more control of their own time. And when this happens, sometimes I even feel unnecessary, which is partially sad, and partially awesome. In 2023, I want to go further in this direction, leveraging our strong culture, quality strategies, and deep level of automation. I don’t want people that need to be babysat or micromanaged.

It's always sad to see great companies accepting more and more mediocrity and chaos, turning into this ineffective kolkhozes.

I think that putting 1% more of asynchronous work every week is a fundamental HR principle for 2023 to keep us on top of our game.

And the other directions we take? I will be sharing those soon!

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