{"id":6693,"date":"2020-11-17T14:49:25","date_gmt":"2020-11-17T22:49:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/knowyourteam.com\/blog\/?p=6693"},"modified":"2024-10-16T12:16:14","modified_gmt":"2024-10-16T19:16:14","slug":"5-communication-best-practices-for-remote-teams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canopy.is\/blog\/2020\/11\/17\/5-communication-best-practices-for-remote-teams\/","title":{"rendered":"5 communication best practices for remote teams"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Here are the most imperative \u2013 and most overlooked \u2013 communication best practices for remote teams. <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Communication<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

An endless barrage of Zoom meetings. Non-stop Slack pings. This is your new normal, and it feels bleak. You think to yourself: “Communication best practices for remote teams must <\/em>exist…right?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You’re having a hard time imagining the way you’re communicating remotely right now is the way you want<\/em> to continue to communicate at work. You’re drained working remotely, more than you were when you were working in-person \u2013 and your team is too. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As we dig our heels into remote work for the foreseeable future, naturally, we ask ourselves: Is there a better way for working remotely? What are the exact communication best practices for remote teams? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Communicating in a remote work environment doesn’t have to feel as all-consuming and frazzled as it does today. Processes and communication in remote teams can be sustainable and well-thought-out \u2013 not merely hurried and duct-taped together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Based on our survey with 297 remote managers and employees, insights from working with 15,000+ people in over 25 countries with Canopy<\/a>, and the research we\u2019ve done across dozens of remote companies, I share the most essential communication best practices for remote teams below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

#1: Default to asynchronous writing.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

If a remote work cardinal sin exists, it’s relying on real-time communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How do you know if you’re under siege by real-time communication? If your Slack app looks something like this\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
via Google Images<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Or if your calendar looks something like this with Zoom meetings\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
via Google Images<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

\u2026You’re likely an offender \ud83d\ude42 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To free you and your team from the oppression of real-time communication, default to asynchronous communication. The most effective remote teams do so, utilizing asynchronous writing<\/em> in particular as their primary mode of communication. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This means you writing down your message to give your team time to digest your note and respond to you thoughtfully a few hours later  \u2013 instead of firing off a chat to someone via Slack or Microsoft Teams and adding to their infinite queue of chats. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or, rather than holding a Google Hangout to ask questions about a project and eating up a whole hour of your team’s time, you write-up a project online, share it via email, and have folks respond the next day with a full 24-hours to digest the contents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The advantages of writing asynchronously are copious:<\/p>\n\n\n\n