But why is this distinction so crucial? Before COVID, the ability to work remotely was a privilege, not a necessity, reserved for freelancers and an employee or two, at most. The overwhelming majority of work used to be done in offices, where teammates gathered every day to brainstorm ideas for their collaborative projects, and in-person real-time communication happened naturally. However, over the last two years, such face-to-face collaboration has gone almost extinct.
Many businesses were unprepared for this drastic change, clinging to traditional ways despite the significant shift in the workflow. Managers kept instant messaging their subordinates or video calling people regardless of different time zones; staying in constant touch with their employees was simply a habit and a routine they couldn’t (and perhaps weren’t willing to) break away from.
Well, have we got news for them: that won’t do anymore. Work has become asynchronous, and the best thing businesses can do is adapt to the new reality. To make things easier, we’ve gathered a list of upsides to delayed communication and prepared some advice on ways to balance it out with simultaneous collaboration.