Email - Synchronous or Asynchronous Communication? - DBR 033

Do Busy Right - The Task and Attention Management Podcast

Let’s talk about email, and communication metaphors. You’re not going to be shocked when I tell you that we don't handle email well. It's not that we don't know how to use the app that produces email; that's pretty straightforward. And I'm not arguing that we don't know how to deal with emails as items of information, although I believe that's often true. We know this is important because Cal Newport wrote a whole book “A World Without Email” – his point is different but we clearly struggle with these communication channels. My concern is whether or not we deliver our information, our message, well on our communication channels. I think we don’t do a good job here. Email is representative of many channels. I think our metaphors contribute to our challenge. So changing the metaphor will probably help. I’ll address some reasons for that which apply to many modern communication channels. And I’ll have some thoughts on what we can do about it. If we understand the properties of the tool better, we become better users of the tool. If you can see this, send me an email – [e-mail] Why email? It’s new, so we’ve got to learn how to do it well – define the social contract

• Cal talks about email as a back channel means of assigning work
• Email is not something that anybody was asking for
• Doesn’t mean it wasn’t welcome, just that we have to learn the use cases and create the social contract(s)
• Example of a social contract with the government around snail mail
• “Mail’ is correspondence
• Email is a mash up of two things – a letter and instantaneous delivery
• Two metaphors based on historical communications – letters and face-to-face – we have longstanding social contracts around these

Think about this in terms of synchronous and asynchronous communication

• Define synchronous and asynchronous
• Synchronous vs. asynchronous communication

Examples of synchronous

• Conversation is synchronous
• So is a phone conversation and a zoom meeting, but both are less so
• Of course, there’s a spectrum

Examples of asynchronous

• Correspondence (a letter) is not
• This podcast is asynchronous communication
• A key feature of (previous) synchronous communication is I know whether or not I have your attention
• Another feature of synchronous – I can check for understanding in real time
• So, correspondence tended to be more thought out or complete vs. a conversation where I can ad lib

Challenges of not understanding the ‘mode’

• The two metaphors collide in email (particularly), because of our experience and social contracts
• Confused metaphors and uncertainty about use cases and social contract
• We fall into thinking that since email is ‘instant’ it is also synchronous
• Note, email is not mutually instantaneous – like conversation is
• People will pretend to be in synchronous comms, but not be

Understanding synchronous vs. asynchronous

• The impact of high-speed communications (it’s actually pretty new)
• Instantaneous delivery does not guarantee synchronicity. Speed is a necessary, but not sufficient, condition of synchronicity.
• Texting has a similar issue; it is instantaneous, but asynchronous
• Voice mail as another example
• We need to choose a model / a metaphor for how to use these channels – understand the social contract

Specific illustration of the challenge - voicemail

• Voicemail as another example
• With voicemail, we’re thrown into an asynchronous communication -now, I’m in voicemail and I’ve got to think about what and how to communicate
• Do I replan and move to an asynchronous channel?
• More detail in Episode One – your phone is mobile, should your call be?

Another specific illustration of the challenge – people pretend to be synchronous

• I believe this is one of the fundamental issues of remote, synchronous communications
• It happens mostly on phone and zoom, but also happens in face-toface
• However, in face-to-face, we can more easily recognize it and we can ‘call it out’

Takeaways

• ‘better’ email – more complete and thorough transmission of information
• Think it through – you initiated the communication, so it’s your responsibility to start it well
• Choose the right communication mechanism
• We fall into habit around our default communication channel
• Effective communication means recognizing the pros and cons of the channel we choose – our own convenience is only one of those things
• Choose the channel / media carefully and think about it’s ‘rules’
• Most of our channels are actually asynchronous, IN USE. So, if it's not clearly synchronous, think asynchronous
• On an asynchronous channel, be more careful, more planned OR clearly move to a synchronous channel

Poor communication is a waste of everyone's attention and, thus, time. Don't get trapped in habit or misunderstand the properties of each communication channel when you choose it. If you intend synchronous communication, use the correct channel(s) that allow you to keep an eye on people falling into asynchronous styles.