Async Communication

[ivan]

Basic Questions

1. What is synchronous communication?
2. What is asynchronous communication?
3. Why is async communication important?
4. Give some examples of where async communication can replace sync communication?
5. Why is async communication more inclusive?
6. Why should you move as many of your conversations from Slack to Gitlab?
7. Why should you pretend that everyone is sleeping when communicating?
8. Async communication may feel slow if you just have one task - why is it not a reason to go back to synchronous communication?
9. Give some ideas on how you can structure your work so that waiting time of async work is not affecting your performance?
10. Why should we be aiming for progress and not perfection?
11. Why is documentation important in async workflows?
12. How can we avoid time zone bias?
13. Give three ways you can decrease reliance on Slack and Synchronous communication?

Questions about Meetings

1. When should you book a meeting? Provide the rule of thumb
2. How do you invite people to a meeting?
3. What should each meeting have attached in the invite?
4. What to do if you want to reschedule a meeting?
5. What IS NOT allowed in meetings?
6. How can you judge if a meeting is really needed? What 4 questions should you be asking yourself?
7. When is a sync meetings better than async workflow?

[aldrin]

Basic Questions

1. What is synchronous communication?

both transmitter and receiver must be there at the same time personal meetings, live

2. What is asynchronous communication?

transmitter and receiver might not be at the same time to communicate; prerecord videos,

3. Why is async communication important?

reduce distractions, allow everyone to have independent agenda and reply or ask questions at their own tiem, reduce number of meetings live or in person.

4. Give some examples of where async communication can replace sync communication?

pre-record videos, use the right forums to communicate; gitlab for releases, bug, features, and slack for gathering opinions, adivce, etc. the idea is to use async comm to be efficient

5. Why is async communication more inclusive?

in a remote setting, allow everyone to work in their own schedule, timezone so we can do work but also allow us to work in our current life situations, (mother with child(s), fix a broken pipe, or house remodeling in progress, etc)

6. Why should you move as many of your conversations from Slack to Gitlab?
   slack is almost sync communication or realtime generate notifications and create distractions, if someone make a decision and was said or written in slack it would be hard for others that weren’t there live to listen/read the decision.
   as soon as you are on your task, provide results, documentation using gitlab which is more async comm tool and other people can see the story/epic about the task in hand.
7. Why should you pretend that everyone is sleeping when communicating?

removes the temptation to make shortcuts; like set meetings to gather inputs

8. Async communication may feel slow if you just have one task - why is it not a reason to go back to synchronous communication?

through iteration, a project is break in smaller tasks, you don’t have to coordinate with a lot of people, reduce meetings and ship faster. (it may feel slow, unnoticed and hard at the beginning, but moving the wheel and compounding results it generates a great effect in magnitude.

9. Give some ideas on how you can structure your work so that waiting time of async work is not affecting your performance?

turn off all sync notifications, focus on iteration and foster progress over perfection.
grab a task and make as much progress as you can and if you feel block, attempt to ship what you have, document any records on gitlab

10. Why should we be aiming for progress and not perfection?

it moves a project forward as best as I can with available resources at time and if the point of block is reached I would try to publish as long as it can be reversible

11. Why is documentation important in async workflows?

so other people can see the progress in a different time.

12. How can we avoid time zone bias?

pretend to work while everyone is sleeping; so you would do as much as you can without the need for inputs in that given moment.

13. Give three ways you can decrease reliance on Slack and Synchronous communication?

clear all messages, daily/weekly
remind people that async is better
use accurate and unambiguous names when referring to others

Questions about Meetings

1. When should you book a meeting? Provide the rule of thumb

when you have go back and forth in one topic or question 3 times.

2. How do you invite people to a meeting?

. check availability, have a pitch presentation, make meetings short

3. What should each meeting have attached in the invite?
   an agenda; open file format could be in google docs.
4. What to do if you want to reschedule a meeting?

just move the calendar appointment instead of reaching out via other channels. Note the change at the top of the description.

5. What IS NOT allowed in meetings?

gather consensus ; that can be async. or trying to make a decision after consesus

6. How can you judge if a meeting is really needed? What 4 questions should you be asking yourself?

1. what is the outcome to achieve with this schedule meeting?
2. can the desire outcome break in small iterations? i
3. am i trying to gather consensus? if yes, this is async.
4. am i trying to make a decision after consensus is gathered and there is a proposal to react to?

7. When is a sync meetings better than async workflow?

hiring interview process, client facing roles, evaluating efficiency.

[RussellChoudhury]

Asynchronous Communication

Basic Questions

1. What is synchronous communication?

Is a form of communication in which two or more parties must exert effort to be in the same place (physically/virtually) at the same time e.g. in-person meeting, calls, zoom, DMs

2. What is asynchronous communication?

• Is the art of communicating and moving projects forwards without the need for parties to be available at the time communication is sent. e.g. threads, recorded videos, git issues

3. Why is async communication important?

• In the long term it has decremental effects on the entire teams efficiency and well being
• allow you to work ‘in the zone’ without being disturbed by notifications or discussions outside your current work scope
• you can check your gitlab to-do list once you are done with your task
• being disturbed when ‘in the zone’ impacts your performance negatively
• by respecting other team mates time and focus, we can increase our long term productivity by a lot
• Reduction of information siloes - if someone wasn’t there for the synchronous communication, then they have no idea what is going on and how a decision was made, leading to working with a task with incorrect assumptions, incomplete information and having to send unnecessary messages to catch up. However if this was all discussed on Gitlab threads everyone has access to the same information

4. Give some examples of where async communication can replace sync communication?

• instead of slack DMs you can use gitlab threads
• or assign tasks with gitlab issues
• instead of virtual meetings for a demo you can pre-record a video and share it

5. Why is async communication more inclusive?

• It provides more flexibility
• respect other peoples time
• e.g Someone having to child care can combine their work with parental responsibility.
• e.g. Enables team members to work across the globe

6. Why should you move as many of your conversations from Slack to Gitlab?

• Slack rewards active synchronous communication, in order to be part of a communication you must have your notifications enabled and be quick to respond which negatively impacts your focus and performance.
• all discussions on bugs, features, projects, brainstorms should be in Gitlab

7. Why should you pretend that everyone is sleeping when communicating?

• It removes the temptation to take shortcuts or call meetings to gather input
• It makes sure you provide full information and document everything
• Do as much as you can with what you have, document everything, transfer ownership of project to next person and start working on something else

8. Async communication may feel slow if you just have one task - why is it not a reason to go back to synchronous communication?

• the benefits of asynchronous are too great, as it increases inclusivity and as a team increases efficiency
• instead of going back to synchronous communication, what you should do is try to reduce your idle time by picking up other projects, and make iterative progress

9. Give some ideas on how you can structure your work so that waiting time of async work is not affecting your performance?

• if you have five ongoing projects its much easier to make iterative progress on one, tag a team member and then move onto another project while you wait

10. Why should we be aiming for progress and not perfection?

• Asynchronous workflows is more easily adopted when we have a culture of progress over perfection.
• Can move a project forward as best as possible with the resources available, then when you are blocked, attempt to ship what you have now (as long as its easily reverted)
• This shows colleagues the direction you’re heading and relieve pressure to immediately reply

11. Why is documentation important in async workflows?

• It is the prerequisite of asynchronous communication
• It is the core of async communication
• Documentation is a way of delivering a message or series of messages in a way that doesn’t require the recipient to be available at the same time

12. How can we avoid time zone bias?

• record meetings so the others can watch at a later time
• rotate company all-hands meetings to accommodate a diverse array of time zones
• host several instances of live learning sessions to accommodate people of different time zones

13. Give three ways you can decrease reliance on Slack and Synchronous communication?

• Only use for informal communication
• Clear all messages daily/weekly
• Remind people that async is more effective - we must continuously remind each other
• Use accurate names when referring to other - by using the @ feature

Questions about Meetings

1. When should you book a meeting? Provide the rule of thumb

• Every meeting should review a concrete proposal, and only called when it will lead to a efficient outcome
• Rule of thumb: When you go back and forth on a question or topic 3 times, then it might be a good idea to call a meeting

2. How do you invite people to a meeting?

• Send a google calendar invite using google Moralis account
• every meeting should have a pitch presentation or google doc with agenda and any prep materials
• If inviting those outside team, create a calendar invite with the team member only first, wait for them to accept, then add outside people
• when inviting multiple people, invite using a calendar that is your own or specific to the people joining
• to move meetings, move the calendar appointment, and note the change in the description
• enable ‘Guests can modify event’ by default
• enable ‘speedy meetings’
• schedule meetings at :00 or :30
• when cancel meetings select ‘delete & update guests’
• Use ‘Google Appointment Scheduler’ to schedule with someone outside of team

3. What should each meeting have attached in the invite?

• google doc agenda attached to the calendar invite with all the questions and topics up for discussion

4. What to do if you want to reschedule a meeting?

• to move meetings, move the calendar appointment instead of reaching out via other channels, and note the change in the description

5. What IS NOT allowed in meetings?

• presentation, as can be done asynchronously
• pre-recorded presentation, as can be sent asynchronously

6. How can you judge if a meeting is really needed? What 4 questions should you be asking yourself?

• what is the outcome I am trying to achieve that has led to my desire to call a meeting
• can the outcome be broken to smaller tasks?
• am I trying to gather consensus? (can be done asynchronously)
• Am I trying to make a decision after consensus is gathered and there is a proposal? (acceptable if cannot be agreed asynchronously. Outcomes must be documented in handbook)

7. When is a sync meetings better than async workflow?

• Evaluating efficiency - when going back and forth three times, look to jump on a call and document outcome
• Client facing roles - may have requirements
• Interviewing candidates

[alireza_nabati]

Basic Questions

1. What is synchronous communication?

synchronous communication is just our traditional way of meeting or collaborating with each other for example daily standup meetings in scrum methodology is a synchronous communication

2. What is asynchronous communication?

this is the opposite of synchronous. it is a kind of communication that aims to avoid wasting time. because in asynchronous communication we use some tools like GitLab, documenting, creating a presentation, and videos. it let attendance the freedom to access them no matter their time zone.

3. Why is async communication important?

because it documents a lot and tries to save our time.

4. Give some examples of where async communication can replace sync communication?

Imagine you are in a situation in which you want to gather some input and opinions from your teammates. if you prepare some videos, some predefined questions, and what you are searching for the outcome everyone can review them in their comfort time and if still need a meeting it can be done in a very short meeting.

5. Why is async communication more inclusive?

because it fits better in remote companies with various timezones. but it can also help other companies to save time even if all their staff are in a single building.

6. Why should you move as many of your conversations from Slack to Gitlab?

because slack is kind of a sync communication and it can create problems in long run and also it prevents others to track the issue. slack has less transparency.

7. Why should you pretend that everyone is sleeping when communicating?

because it helps us to internalize async communication.

8. Async communication may feel slow if you just have one task - why is it not a reason to go back to synchronous communication?

because we can work on multiple things and tasks by context switching.

9. Give some ideas on how you can structure your work so that waiting time of async work is not affecting your performance?

if we are relying on something and it is paused due to the async communication, at least we can help our teammates in their work. doing some code reviews with others and so on.

10. Why should we be aiming for progress and not perfection?

because we can move forward to success by doing the little things. perfectionism is just a barrier to not starting the task. all the tasks are hard at the beginning but they become easier if we try to proceed.

11. Why is documentation important in async workflows?

with documentation, we can be sure that our teammates or any other person which should join to our team in the future can track the issues or understand where we are now.

12. How can we avoid time zone bias?

documentation and async communication
13. Give three ways you can decrease reliance on Slack and Synchronous communication?
preparing presentation. making videos and documenting

Questions about Meetings"

1. When should you book a meeting? Provide the rule of thumb

“A good rule of thumb is that when you’ve gone back and forth on a question or topic 3 times, then it might be a good idea to call a meeting.”

2. How do you invite people to a meeting?

making a presentation or video, defending some questions, and defining which topic and outcome we are talking about.

3. What should each meeting have attached in the invite?

“Every meeting should have a google doc agenda attached to the calendar invite with all the questions and topics up for discussion”

4. What to do if you want to reschedule a meeting?

“If you want to move a meeting just move the calendar appointment instead of reaching out via other channels. Note the change at the top of the description”

5. What IS NOT allowed in meetings?

reaching consensus
6. How can you judge if a meeting is really needed? What 4 questions should you be asking yourself?
" 1. What is the outcome I am trying to achieve that has led to my desire to schedule a meeting?
2. Can the desired outcome be broken down into smaller tasks?
3. Am I trying to gather consensus? ( If so, this can be done asynchronously .)
4. Am I trying to make a decision after consensus is gathered and there is a proposal to react to? (If so, a meeting may be acceptable if it cannot be agreed upon asynchronously, but remember that outcomes must still be documented in the handbook. If your outcome(s) will be documented in the end, it calls into question the efficiency of a synchronous meeting.)"

7. When is sync meetings better than async workflow?

Evaluating efficiency
Client-facing roles
Interviewing external candidates

[Synthesi]

1. Where all parties involved are present in real time.

2. When resources can be accessed/viewed at any time by any party at their own digression.

3. It greatly improves efficiency and allows for much more convenience.

4. Instead of calling for a meeting to show a presentation record a video and post it where everyone can access it. Rather than calling a team mate send them a detailed and well thought out set of questions that they can easily respond to and provide useful feedback in the most minimal form possible, to prevent back and forth.

5. It allows people in multiple different time zones to access content they otherwise would have missed.

6. So that your colleagues aren’t bombarded with Slack messages and because Gitlab offers a more productive solution.

7. It will force you to communicate in a way that doesn’t require an instant response.

8. You still have the potential to bring team mates efficiency down and effect multiple parties with sync communication. Async communication may not reduce latency immediately but over the long haul it proves to be more effective.

9. Think ahead, be mindful of certain time periods throughout the day. Send out async communication at valid and valuable times.

10. Perfection takes too much time, iteration is key, keep driving forward and try not to let things hold you up as much as possible.

11. Documentation allows for async collaboration in an effective manner.

12. By hosting events multiple times throughout the day or by cycling through time zones periodically to make sure no bias is being created. Also use async as much as possible because time zone is irrelevant for the most part when involving async communication.

13. Use Gitlab, Strive to use async communication as much as possible, remind others that async is more effective and clear all Slack daily/weekly.

1. “A good rule of thumb is that when you’ve gone back and forth on a question or topic 3 times, then it might be a good idea to call a meeting.”

2. “Send a calendar invite with Google Calendar using your Google Moralis account to their Google Moralis account.”

3. “Every scheduled meeting should either have a Pitch Presentation (for example for functional updates that don’t require participation) or a Google Doc (for most meetings) linked. If it is a Google Doc it should have an agenda, including any preparation materials (can be a presentation).”

4. “If you want to move a meeting just move the calendar appointment instead of reaching out via other channels.”

5. "What’s not okay is doing the presentation during the session because you are taking valuable synchronous time away from the attendees, which could be asynchronous. "

6. "What is the outcome I am trying to achieve that has led to my desire to schedule a meeting?

   Can the desired outcome be broken down into smaller tasks?

   Am I trying to gather consensus? (If so, this can be done asynchronously.)

   Am I trying to make a decision after consensus is gathered and there is a proposal to react to? (If so, a meeting may be acceptable if it cannot be agreed upon asynchronously, but remember that outcomes must still be documented in the handbook. If your outcome(s) will be documented in the end, it calls into question the efficiency of a synchronous meeting.)"

7. When going back and forth 3-4 times it is best to have a meeting instead and document.

[Cendy]

Async Communication on Moralis Web3

1. Synchronous communication is a type of communication that takes place in real-time means the sender and receiver exchange the information at the same time or space.

2. Asynchronous (async) communication is the art of communicating and moving projects forward without the need for additional stakeholders to be available at the same time your communique is sent.

3. Async communication is important because mastering asynchronous workflows is vital to avoiding dysfunction and enjoying outsized efficiencies, and async reduces the “informational siloes” which is key.

4. Gitlab [async] replaces Slack [sync]. You can instead check your Gitlab to-do list once you are done with a task. If the discussion and decision instead were made in a thread on Gitlab, everyone has the same information and the decision-making progress is open for anyone to follow. All conversations and discussions about bugs, features, projects and brainstorms are in Gitlab instead of Slack.

5. Async communication is inclusive as it provides flexibility to combine their work with their responsibilities at home. It enables team members to be on equal footing as other team members globally.

6. Conversations should be moved from Slack to Gitlab to avoid bad consequences where multiple people might work on the same task, but with different underlying information and assumptions. It also leads to more unnecessary messages where the outside people have to message the group to get the information. Gitlab enables us to compartmentalize our discussions into Projects, Epics, and Issues, and discussions are therefore easy to follow, don’t get lost over time, and are open to anyone who is interested in seeing the latest status or progress of a specific project. This sounds good but requires a lot of active effort to work. All team members have to actively remind each other to create epics and issues and to move the discussion to Gitlab when appropriate.

7. Pretending that everyone is sleeping when communicating is the easiest way to enter into an asynchronous mindset. This removes the temptation to take shortcuts, or to call a meeting to simply gather input.

Asynchronous work is a simple concept: Do as much as you can with what you have, document everything, transfer ownership of the project to the next person, then start working on something else. — Preston W. on the Remote blog

8. Async communication may feel slow if you just have one task and not a reason to go back to synchronous communication. Schedule your work such that you can pick up other items while waiting for async work can reduce this downtime.

9. Focus on iteration, and schedule your work. If you’re working on five ongoing projects, make iterative progress on one, tag a person or team within a Moralis epic, issue, or merge request for desired input or action, and switch to another ongoing project while you wait. If you cycle through your assigned projects, making iterative improvements on each before handing off, you’re able to create minimum viable change for many more projects, while being less concerned over the immediate response to any one of the projects in particular.

10. Aim for progress and not perfection. At Moralis, everything is in the draft and subject to change. Asynchronous workflows are more easily adopted when you foster a culture of progress over perfection. Move a project forward as best you can be given the resources available, and if you reach a point where you’re blocked, attempt to ship what you have now, as long as it’s easily reverted. This allows colleagues to clearly see the direction you’re heading and relieves pressure on them to reply immediately as some progress is better than none.

11. Documentation is an important prerequisite in the async workflow. At its core, asynchronous communication is documentation. It is delivering a message or series of messages in a way that does not require the recipient(s) to be available — or even awake — at the same time. If your organization has no standardized method of documentation, establish that first. Otherwise, team members will be left to determine their own methods for communicating asynchronously, creating a cacophony of textual noise which is poorly organized and difficult to query against.

12. Remove/ avoid time zone bias - The rest of the company should take the asynchronous workflows seriously. Consider recording meetings so that others can watch them at a later time. When hosting live learning sessions, for instance, host several instances so people around the globe are able to attend one that suits their schedule.

13. Three ways to decrease reliance on Slack and Synchronous communication require deliberate effort and reinforcement.

• Clear all messages daily/weekly. Slack refers to this as Mark all messages as read, which is easily toggled by simultaneously pressing Shift + Esc.
• Remind people that async is more effective working more asynchronously
• Use accurate and unambiguous names when referring to others using the @ symbol to clarify to whom you are referring.

About Meetings

1. Only call a meeting when it will lead to a more efficient outcome than would be possible asynchronously. A good rule of thumb is that when you’ve gone back and forth on a question or topic 3 times, then it might be a good idea to call a meeting.

2. If you want to ask Moralis team members if they are available for an event please send a calendar invite with Google Calendar using your Google Moralis account to their Google Moralis account. You can see the availability of your colleagues by entering their name/email into the “Meet with…” input in the left-hand sidebar. That will bring up their schedule and allow you to find a time. These calendar invites will automatically show up on all parties’ calendars even when the email is not opened. It is an easier way to ensure everyone has visibility of the meeting and members’ status. Please respond quickly to invites so people can make necessary plans.

3. Every meeting should have a google doc agenda attached to the calendar invite with all the questions and topics up for discussion.

4. To reschedule a meeting, find a time using a Google Appointment Schedule that will allow external parties to find a time slot in your calendar for a meeting.

5. Don’t do the presentation during the session because you are taking valuable synchronous time away from the attendees, which could be asynchronous.

6. Question every meeting At Moralis Web3. We have a bias towards asynchronous communication. As a meeting participant, whether you are scheduling or an invitee, question every “work-related” meeting.

• What is the outcome I am trying to achieve that has led to my desire to schedule a meeting?
• Can the desired outcome be broken down into smaller tasks?
• Am I trying to gather consensus? (If so, this can be done asynchronously.)
• Am I trying to make a decision after consensus is gathered and there is a proposal to react to? (If so, a meeting may be acceptable if it cannot be agreed upon asynchronously, but remember that outcomes must still be documented in the handbook. If your outcome(s) will be documented in the end, it calls into question the efficiency of a synchronous meeting.)

7. Limitations and challenges of asynchronous communication. Asynchronous communication has its limits. Although projects are moved forward asynchronously at Moralis, with decisions documented along the way in issues and/or merge requests, there are times when portions of the project are best handled synchronously.

[Adrienn_Rimbauer]

1. What is synchronous communication?

When the parties are in the same place and time at the same time.

2. What is asynchronous communication?

Asynchronous (async) communication is the art of communicating and moving projects forward without the need for additional stakeholders to be available at the same time your communique is sent.

3. Why is async communication important?

It is vital to avoid dysfunction and enjoying outsized efficiencies.

4. Give some examples of where async communication can replace sync communication?

You can prepare some videos and the team members can view it in their own time.

5. Why is async communication more inclusive?

It fits better in remote companies with various timezones.

6. Why should you move as many of your conversations from Slack to Gitlab?

It’s easy to miss a conversation in Slack, either because you are not working or because you are in the zone and focus on what you’re working on so you can easily miss a chat. And then the information will be missed. On Gitlab, everyone can read about the issue in their own time.

7. Why should you pretend that everyone is sleeping when communicating?

This removes the temptation to take shortcuts, or to call a meeting to simply gather input.

8. Async communication may feel slow if you just have one task - why is it not a reason to go back to synchronous communication?

We can work on multiple things and tasks by context switching.

9. Give some ideas on how you can structure your work so that waiting time of async work is not affecting your performance?

If you’re working on five ongoing projects, for example, it’s much easier to make iterative progress on one, tag a person or team within a Moralis epic, issue, or merge request for desired input or action, and switch to another ongoing project while you wait.

10. Why should we be aiming for progress and not perfection?

This allows colleagues to clearly see the direction you’re heading, and relieves pressure on them to reply immediately as some progress is better than none.

11. Why is documentation important in async workflows?

It is delivering a message or series of messages in a way that does not require the recipient(s) to be available — or even awake — at the same time.

12. How can we avoid time zone bias?

For company all-hands meetings, look to rotate these to accommodate a more diverse array of time zones. Also consider recording them so that others can watch at a later time. When hosting live learning sessions, for instance, host several instances so people around the globe are able to attend one that suits their schedule.

13. Give three ways you can decrease reliance on Slack and Synchronous communication?

Clear all messages daily/weekly

Remind people that async is more effective

Use accurate and unambiguous names when referring to others

Questions about Meetings

1. When should you book a meeting? Provide the rule of thumb

A good rule of thumb is that when you’ve gone back and forth on a question or topic 3 times, then it might be a good idea to call a meeting.

2. How do you invite people to a meeting?

By sending a calendar invite with Google Calendar using your Google Moralis account to their Google Moralis account.

3. What should each meeting have attached in the invite?

Every scheduled meeting should either have a Pitch Presentation (for example for functional updates that don’t require participation) or a Google Doc (for most meetings) linked. If it is a Google Doc it should have an agenda, including any preparation materials (can be a presentation).

4. What to do if you want to reschedule a meeting?

If you want to move a meeting just move the calendar appointment instead of reaching out via other channels. Note the change at the top of the description.

5. What IS NOT allowed in meetings?

What’s not okay is doing the presentation during the session because you are taking valuable synchronous time away from the attendees, which could be asynchronous.

6. How can you judge if a meeting is really needed? What 4 questions should you be asking yourself.

What is the outcome I am trying to achieve that has led to my desire to schedule a meeting?

Can the desired outcome be broken down into smaller tasks?

Am I trying to gather consensus? (If so, this can be done asynchronously.)

Am I trying to make a decision after consensus is gathered and there is a proposal to react to?lf?

7. When is a sync meetings better than async workflow?

Evaluating efficiency

Client-facing roles

Interviewing external candidates

[Jared_Murphy]

Basic Questions

1. What is synchronous communication?
   When parties need to be present at the same time to drive projects forward.

2. What is asynchronous communication?
   When parties can be present at different times to drive projects forward.

3. Why is async communication important?
   Allows everyone to work “in the zone” without being disturbed by notifications or discussions outside of their current work scope.

4. Give some examples of where async communication can replace sync communication?
   Using Gitlab issues to discuss and document issues, rather than Slack discussions.

5. Why is async communication more inclusive?
   Allows people across far timezones to collaborate.

6. Why should you move as many of your conversations from Slack to Gitlab?
   Gitlab facilitates async communication, where Slack encourages people to work more synchronously

7. Why should you pretend that everyone is sleeping when communicating?
   Encourages people to do what they can without distracting others. Reduces waiting time.

8. Async communication may feel slow if you just have one task - why is it not a reason to go back to synchronous communication?
   Pulls others away from their focus.

9. Give some ideas on how you can structure your work so that waiting time of async work is not affecting your performance?
   Keep checks on Slack messages quite minimal throughout the day so as not to get derailed.

10. Why should we be aiming for progress and not perfection?
    Keeping the ball rolling as opposed to trying to get things perfect before shipping relieves pressure on colleagues to respond immediately as some progress is better than none.

11. Why is documentation important in async workflows?
    It is better to refer to documentation rather than having to interrupt somebody, and it’s better to document rather than having to repeat yourself or (worse) be the only person with knowledge of a particular part of the system.

12. How can we avoid time zone bias?
    Recording all-hands meetings, and rotating times of these to better suit multiple timezones.

13. Give three ways you can decrease reliance on Slack and Synchronous communication?

• Clear all messages daily/weekly
• Remind people that async is more effective
• Use accurate and unambiguous names when referring to others

Questions about Meetings

1. When should you book a meeting? Provide the rule of thumb
   A meeting should be a review of a concrete proposal, and only called when it would lead to a more efficient outcome than would be possible asynchronously.
   When you’ve gone back and forth on a question or topic 3 times, it may be a good idea to call a meeting.

2. How do you invite people to a meeting?
   Send a calendar invite with Google Calendar using your Moralis account.

3. What should each meeting have attached in the invite?
   A pitch presentation or a google doc with agenda and preparation materials

4. What to do if you want to reschedule a meeting?
   Just move the calendar appointment instead of reaching out via other channels. Note the change at the top of the description.

5. What IS NOT allowed in meetings?
   Doing a presentation during the session which could’ve been delivered asynchronously.

6. How can you judge if a meeting is really needed? What 4 questions should you be asking yourself?

• What is the outcome I’m trying to achieve that’s led to my desire for a meeting?
• Can the desired outcome be broken into smaller tasks?
• Am I trying to gather consensus? (which could be done async)
• Am I trying to make a decision after consensus is gathered and there is a proposal to react to? (if the outcome can be documented in the end, it calls into question the efficiency of the meeting)

7. When is a sync meetings better than async workflow?
   Every meeting should be a review of a concrete proposal, and only called when it will lead to a more efficient outcome than would be possible asynchronously.

[george-cristian]

1. Synchronous communication is when the people involved in the conversation are all the same time participating and giving input in the conversation.

2. Asynchronous communication is when the people involved in the conversation are not physically/virtually participating at the same time in the conversation.

3. Async communication is important because it increases the overall efficiency of the team. It is also important because it allows collaboration across different time zones, it increases focus of the team and it also promotes documentation such that all the information is stored and can be accessed “offline” without the need to be in a meeting to get that information.

4. One example is that instead of having a KT (knowledge transfer) meeting, instead record a video such that people can watch it whenever they have time, and then maybe schedule only a meeting for questions. Another example is that instead of sending your colleague a direct message with a set of questions, better send them a mail or a gitlab ticket and let them reply whenever they have time.

5. Async communication is more inclusive because it allows people to work while they can also attend personal responsibilities and not be tied to a synchronous way of working (for ex: parenting).

6. Moving conversations from Slack to Gitlab has several benefits, one of them being that you reduce sync conversation and you let people focus. Another benefit is that if you use gitlab, the conversation is recorded and visible to anyone and it is not lost in the Slack history. Gitlab also offers the possibility to organize a question into issue, or epic, such that it is easy to collaborate on a question with more people without losing information or making assumptions.

7. Pretending that everyone is sleeping while you are communicating helps you get into a mindset of async communication and removes temptations to call somebody or to send a DM.

8. This is not a reason because you lose the benefits of async, which is better focus, better efficiency and better overall happiness. An employee should schedule his work such that he can work around this.

9. Schedule work such that you can make context switching in case you are blocked. For example, in case you know a review is coming for a task, schedule the task, finish it and send it for review, then pick up another task, such that you make steady progress on all of the tasks you are assigned.

10. Iteration is key here. Perfection is not achieved at once, but rather through multiple small iterations from which you get valuable feedback from users. Progress is more important in the context of async communication because by doing small increments you will not get fatally blocked and you can do small increments on another project and so on, while you are waiting on feedback. By doing perfection first, you lose time and money and maybe you even don’t build the perfect solution but an imagined perfect solution.

11. Documentation is important because it can be accessed at any given time, by people all around the world. Having thorough documentation enables async communication because people can then look up whatever they need, instead of going and asking people and disturbing them.

12. The time zone bias can be avoided by taking into account the different time zones You can avoid this by doing a learning session multiple times to accommodate multiple time zones. Also async is the key here because with async communication there is no concept of time zones.

13. Three ways to decrease reliance on Slack and sync:
     1. Clear all messages daily/weekly by marking them as read
     2. Remind people that async is more effective
     3. Use accurate and unambiguous names when referring to others - use the @ symbol such that it is clear to who you are referring to

Questions about meetings

1. A meeting should be called in situations in which it is more efficient than doing it async. For example if you go back and forth on a topic more than 3 times, then schedule a meeting.

2. The meeting invite should be sent via Google Calendar using the Google Moralis account. First check the availability of the person.

3. The meeting should have attached a presentation or a doc which also contains agenda and any preparation materials if needed.

4. In order to reschedule a meeting just move the meeting in the calendar. Also state the change at the description.

5. During a meeting it is not allowed to do a presentation because that can be done async.

6. In order to judge if a meeting is needed, you can ask yourself 4 questions:
    1. What is the outcome I am trying to achieve that led me to schedule a meeting?
    2. Can the outcome be split into smaller tasks?
    3. Am I trying to gather consensus and if so can it be done async?
    4. Am I trying to make a decision after consensus is gathered and there is a proposal to react to? (If so, a meeting may be acceptable if it cannot be agreed upon async, but remember that outcomes must still be documented. If your outcome will be documented in the end, it calls into question the efficiency of a sync meeting)

7. A sync meeting is better in case efficiency is hampered with async communication, meaning you go back and forth multiple times without arriving at a conclusion. Another aspect is client-facing roles in which sometimes is better to do sync, although async can also be managed by the team. Lastly, when interviewing external candidates it involves sync communication.

[jossif]

Basic Questions

1. It is when all included parts need to be at the same place on the same time, live or virtually.
2. People don’t need to be there. Meetings are getting recorded and people are documenting things in order for others to be able to catch up later.
3. Because it helps people get in the zone when working with a task and not getting disturbed by notifications or meetings the actually don’t need to attend.
4. Pre recorded meetings, discuss specific topics on specific forums.
5. Because you don’t need people to be available at the same time your communique is sent. People in different timezones get updates even though they didn’t attend a live meeting. And decisions get made in a way that even if you are sleeping at the moment a discussion is happening, there is time to share your thoughts when you’r back up again.
6. Because in slack its easy to miss important information if you’re working on a task and not actively participating in a discussion. Gitlab lets you compartmentalise our discussions into Projects, Epics and Issues.
7. Because it makes you remove shortcuts or to call a meeting.
8. When waiting for someones response you feel blocked on your only task but scheduling your work such that you can pick up other items while waiting to be unblocked can reduce this down time.
9. You can easily plan so that while you’re waiting for response you can jump into another task and move forward there.
10. Everything is in draft and subject to change. This allows colleagues to clearly see the direction you’re heading, and relieves pressure on them to reply immediately as some progress is better than none.
11. Documenting is delivering a message or series of messages in a way that does not require the recipient(s) to be available — or even awake — at the same time.
12. One way is when we schedule a meeting, we should schedule multiple instances of it that fits different timezones.

• Clear all messages
• Remind people that async is more effective
• Use accurate and unambiguous names when referring to others

Questions about Meetings

1. A good rule of thumb is that when you’ve gone back and forth on a question or topic 3 times, then it might be a good idea to call a meeting.
2. By sending a google calendar to their Google Moralis account including a pitch presentation or a google doc with agenda and other material.
3. A pitch presentation or a google doc with the agenda and other materials needed.
4. Just move the meeting in the calendar to the preferred day and time.
5. Presentations since they can be pre recorded and asynchronous.

• What is the outcome I am trying to achieve that has led to my desire to schedule a meeting?
• Can the desired outcome be broken down into smaller tasks?
• Am I trying to gather consensus? ( If so, this can be done asynchronously .)
• Am I trying to make a decision after consensus is gathered and there is a proposal to react to? (If so, a meeting may be acceptable if it cannot be agreed upon asynchronously, but remember that outcomes must still be documented in the handbook. If your outcome(s) will be documented in the end, it calls into question the efficiency of a synchronous meeting.)

7. One example is when we’re going back and forth for 3-4 times, then its better to have a sync meeting, and document the outcomes.

[Alexandra_Ionescu]

1. Both parts of the discussion are present at the same time to communicate (live meetings etc)
2. Both parts are not available at the same time to communicate (pre-recorded meetings, Notion pages where people collaborate etc)
3. It improves a lot what we do with our time - reduces distractions, allows everyone to have an independent agenda, reduces number of meetings etc
4. Pre-recorded sessions and tutorials, Notion pages where people can contribute, Gitlab, Slack for gathering ideas.
5. Especially in a remote setup, it allows people to work in their own schedule/timezone but also to take care of our own personal issues (school, fixing something in the house, taking care of kids or parents etc)
6. Slack can turn into mainly sync communication and also the history is not stored. It’s better to move to Gitlab, where everyone can have access to the information, contribute and collaborate on issues etc.
7. It removes the temptation to go into a sync communication style and the potential instinct to cut shortcuts.
8. Inside every sprint, the idea is to have small tasks, where each person can contribute individually, so you don’t have to coordinate with a lot of colleagues, it reduces also meetings and you end up delivering faster.
9. Focus on your tasks at hand, pause notifications on Slack, focus on iterating fast, not picture-perfect, document as much as possible in Gitlab.
10. It moves the project/task forward, so thus getting closer to our end-goal. We also learn faster and grow from our mistakes.
11. So people can read and still be aware and up to speed with what’s happening, even if they can’t join a sync session or such.
12. By pretending that everyone is asleep while working, so you have to work independently.
13. Reminding people about the async culture, pausing notifications, emphasis documenting in Notion/Gitlab.
14. When you have a topic to discuss that’s been going on back and forth for too many times and it can’t be solved in another way.
15. Check availability, create a structured agenda and share it with the attendees, keep the meeting short, create action points from it.
16. Agenda and a document where people can contribute too.
17. Find another available slot directly in the Google calendar and add info to this rescheduled session.
18. Come to an agreement that could of done async, a presentation that could of been async.
19. The outcome achieved from the session, if the outcome can be broken down in smaller iterations, if trying to get consensus, trying to make a decision after consensus is gathered and there is a proposal to contribute to.
20. Hiring phases, discussing with clients, evaluations and 1-2-1s.

[Aileen_Suarez]

1. Synchronous communication means paying attention together… like doing a call and everyone is listening and being attentive.
2. Asynchronous communication is not paying attention as much as the other to work on other things… at the same time providing them with materials to catch up on things that wasn’t being focused on by the other
3. It is important not to waste productive time doing meetings that isn’t as important as a task or meetings that are not really necessary
4. Recording discussions and having a git documentation of a discussion
5. It is more inclusive because it allows others to be involved even if they were not there at the time something is being discussed
6. Because Gitlab allows others to get the same information instead of having direct convos on slack about information other could use as well
7. Because it removes the temptation to take short cuts or call a meeting to gather input.
8. Because we work remotely and we want to allow everyone to be involved in any topic without compromising other people’s time
9. Scheduling work such that you can pick up other items while waiting to be unblocked to reduce downtime
10. Because at Moralis, everything is in draft and subject to change
11. Because It is delivering a message or series of messages in a way that does not require the recipient(s) to be available — or even awake — at the same time.
12. Find time to accommodate all time zones when setting meetings, document for others who can’t attend, or recording the meeting, host several instances of meetings if needed.
13. Clear all messages daily/weekly, remind people that async is more effective, and use accurate and unambiguous names when referring to others.

Questions about meetings…

1. When it is needed and during the time that is considerate of others time zone and schedule
2. With Google Calendar
3. It should have a google doc attached with all the questons and topics up for discussion
4. Move the calendar appointment instead of reaching out via other channels.
5. Doing the presentation during the session because you are taking valuable synchronous time away from the attendees, which could be asynchronous.
6. The outcome trying to achieve, can the outcome be broken down to smaller tasks, trying to gather consensus, trying to make a decision after a consensus.
7. Evaluating efficiency, client facing roles, interview external candidates

[FAmura]

Basic Questions

1. What is synchronous communication?
   It is communication that has both parties in the same place and time so they can answer each other immediately

2. What is asynchronous communication?
   It is communication that doesn’t require the involved parties to be at the same place and time as their responses can have some delay

3. Why is async communication important?
   Because it removes a lot of barries that sync communication have such as time or location constraints

4. Give some examples of where async communication can replace sync communication?
   Meeting or demos recordings. Notion pages open for contributions, etc.

5. Why is async communication more inclusive?
   Because it enables people that have other priorities, such as child care, to take care of those and then participate in the communication

6. Why should you move as many of your conversations from Slack to Gitlab?
   Because slack is more similar to sync communication, you will quickly get lost in chat history and nobody can access your dms even if they should be interested in that content

7. Why should you pretend that everyone is sleeping when communicating?
   Because it makes you think in an async way of communicating and not seek for shortcuts

8. Async communication may feel slow if you just have one task - why is it not a reason to go back to synchronous communication?
   Because you can always get another task to do while that is blocked

9. Give some ideas on how you can structure your work so that waiting time of async work is not affecting your performance?
   You can plan things to do on that wait time

10. Why should we be aiming for progress and not perfection?
    Because it takes you closer to the goal and lets you gather feedback early by learning and growing

11. Why is documentation important in async workflows?
    Because that is what will enable people to catch up and even digest information faster

12. How can we avoid time zone bias?
    By taking time to accommodate all time zones, write documents or recording meetings for people that couldn’t attend

13. Give three ways you can decrease reliance on Slack and Synchronous communication?
    Clear all messages periodically, constantly reminding about async, pausing notifications and putting focus on documentation

Questions about Meetings

1. When should you book a meeting? Provide the rule of thumb
   When it is strictly needed and will have considerable better results than sync

2. How do you invite people to a meeting?
   Using google calendar

3. What should each meeting have attached in the invite?
   Documentation that people can contribute and look ahead or afterwards

4. What to do if you want to reschedule a meeting?
   Reschedule the calendar appointment

5. What IS NOT allowed in meetings?
   Doing presentations directly as they are better done async so they persist as documentation

6. How can you judge if a meeting is really needed? What 4 questions should you be asking yourself?

• What is this meeting trying to achieve?
• Can it be broken in smaller tasks?
• Are we seeking consensus?
• After consensus, are we trying to make a decision with a proposal?
  Having answers to these questions will allow us to judge if we should be attending that meeting

7. When is a sync meetings better than async workflow?
   When we are facing the client as they might not share this methods. Interviewing external candidates

[Alexlane8]

Basic Questions

1. What is synchronous communication?

When everyone pays attention at the same time. For example, everyone is spending or using their time to attend a meeting at the same time. It is a manner in which two or more parties exert effort to be in the same place (either physically or virtually) at the same time

2. What is asynchronous communication?

When a video is made and everyone can watch it at different times and at different speeds. Collaborate on own time.

3. Why is async communication important?

Increasingly, operating asynchronously is necessary even in colocated companies which have team members on various floors or offices, especially when multiple time zones are involved.

An all-remote setting is proven to be more inclusive as it provides flexibility to child care providers to combine their work with their parental responsibilities. It also enables team members to be on equal footing as other team members globally.

4. Give some examples of where async communication can replace sync communication?

Instead of in person meetings, record video. Communicate through gitlab instead of slack.

5. Why is async communication more inclusive?

An all-remote setting is proven to be more inclusive as it provides flexibility to child care providers to combine their work with their parental responsibilities. It also enables team members to be on equal footing as other team members globally.

It includes everyone from all time zones. It puts everyone on equal footing.

6. Why should you move as many of your conversations from Slack to Gitlab?

Asynchronous workflows, where you are not expected to give an instant response, allow you to work “in the zone” without being disturbed by notifications or discussions outside your current work scope.

You can instead check your Gitlab to-do list once you are done with a task. There is a lot of research on how being taken in and out of “the zone” impacts your performance negatively. By respecting other team mates time and focus, we can increase our long term productivity by a lot.

Another big benefit is the reduction of informational siloes. When discussions and decisions are made in a call, or in Slack, anyone who wasn’t there to read it now doesn’t have the full information about the decision or why it was made. This leads to really bad consequences where multiple people who might work on the same task, but with different underlying information and assumptions. It also leads to more unnecessary messages where the outside people has to message the group to get the information. If the discussion and decision instead was made in a thread on Gitlab, everyone has the same information and the decision making progress is open for anyone to follow

Gitlab enables us to compartmentalise our discussions into Projects, Epics and Issues, and discussions are therefor easy to follow, don’t get lost over time, and open to anyone who is interested in seeing the latest status or progress of a specific project

7. Why should you pretend that everyone is sleeping when communicating?

This removes the temptation to take shortcuts, or to call a meeting to simply gather input. (After all, every meeting should be a review of a concrete proposal, and only called when it will lead to a more efficient outcome than would be possible asynchronously.)

8. Async communication may feel slow if you just have one task - why is it not a reason to go back to synchronous communication?

The advantages of asynchronous are greater and it would be easy to go back to synchronize resulting in overall lower productivity.

If you’re only working on a single project, asynchronous can feel taxing and inefficient, as you’re perpetually waiting for another party to unblock you. This creates idle time and makes synchronicity seem alluring. Scheduling your work such that you can pick up other items while waiting to be unblocked can reduce this down time.

9. Give some ideas on how you can structure your work so that waiting time of async work is not affecting your performance?

If you’re working on five ongoing projects, for example, it’s much easier to make iterative progress on one, tag a person or team within a Moralis epic, issue, or merge request for desired input or action, and switch to another ongoing project while you wait.

If you cycle through your assigned projects, making iterative improvements on each before handing off, you’re able to create minimum viable change for many more projects, while being less concerned over the immediate response to any one of the projects in particular.

10. Why should we be aiming for progress and not perfection?

Asynchronous workflows are more easily adopted when you foster a culture of progress over perfection. Move a project forward as best you can given the resources available, and if you reach a point where you’re blocked, attempt to ship what you have now, as long as it’s easily reverted.

This allows colleagues to clearly see the direction you’re heading, and relieves pressure on them to reply immediately as some progress is better than none.

11. Why is documentation important in async workflows?

At its core, asynchronous communication is documentation. It is delivering a message or series of messages in a way that does not require the recipient(s) to be available — or even awake — at the same time.

12. How can we avoid time zone bias?

For company all-hands meetings, look to rotate these to accommodate a more diverse array of time zones. Also consider recording them so that others can watch at a later time. When hosting live learning sessions, for instance, host several instances so people around the globe are able to attend one that suits their schedule.

13. Give three ways you can decrease reliance on Slack and Synchronous communication?

-Slack (or Microsoft Teams, or similar) should be used primarily for informal communication.
-Clear all messages daily/weekly
-Remind people that async is more effective
-Use accurate and unambiguous names when referring to others

Questions about Meetings

1. When should you book a meeting? Provide the rule of thumb

In general, every meeting should be a review of a concrete proposal, and only called when it will lead to a more efficient outcome than would be possible asynchronously

A good rule of thumb is that when you’ve gone back and forth on a question or topic 3 times, then it might be a good idea to call a meeting.

2. How do you invite people to a meeting?

3. send a calendar invite with Google Calendar using your Google Moralis account. It is an easier way to ensure everyone has visibility to the meeting.

4. Every scheduled meeting should either have a presentation or an agenda, including any preparation materials.

5. If you want to check if a team member is available for an outside meeting, create a calendar appointment and invite the team member only after they respond yes. Then invite outside people.

6. When scheduling a call with multiple people, invite them using a Google Calendar that is your own, or one specific to the people joining, so the calendar item doesn’t unnecessarily appear on other people’s calendars.

7. If you want to move a meeting just move the calendar appointment instead of reaching out via other channels. Note the change at the top of the description.

8. Please click ‘Guests can modify event’ so people can update the time in the calendar instead of having to reach out via other channels.

9. When scheduling a meeting we value people’s time and prefer the “speedy meetings”

10. When scheduling a meeting,have it start at :00 (hour) or :30 (mid-hour) to leave common start times available for other meetings on your attendees’ calendars. Meetings should be for the time needed, so if you need 15 minutes just book that.

11. When you need to cancel a meeting, make sure to delete/decline the meeting and choose the option

12. If you want to schedule a meeting with a person not on the team use Google appointment scheduler. Use Google Calendar directly if scheduling with a Moralis team member.

13. What should each meeting have attached in the invite?

A google doc agenda attached to the calendar invite with all the questions and topics up for discussion.

4. What to do if you want to reschedule a meeting?

If you want to move a meeting just move the calendar appointment instead of reaching out via other channels. Note the change at the top of the description.

5. What IS NOT allowed in meetings?

It is not okay to do the presentation or play a video or pre-recorded presentation during the session because you are taking valuable synchronous time away from the attendees, which could be asynchronous.

6. How can you judge if a meeting is really needed? What 4 questions should you be asking yourself?

7. What is the outcome I am trying to achieve that has led to my desire to schedule a meeting?

8. Can the desired outcome be broken down into smaller tasks?

9. Am I trying to gather consensus? ( If so, this can be done asynchronously .)

10. Am I trying to make a decision after consensus is gathered and there is a proposal to react to? (If so, a meeting may be acceptable if it cannot be agreed upon asynchronously, but remember that outcomes must still be documented in the handbook. If your outcome(s) will be documented in the end, it calls into question the efficiency of a synchronous meeting.)

11. When is a sync meetings better than async workflow?

Evaluating efficiency
when team members go back and forth three times, we look to jump on a synchronous video call (and document outcomes).

Client-facing roles
Certain roles are more tolerable of asynchronous than others. Client-facing roles, for instance, may have certain requirements for coverage during certain hours. It’s possible to layer asynchronous atop these demands by ensuring that there is no single point of failure, such that a team within an asynchronous organization can self-organize and decide who covers given time slots.

Interviewing external candidates
interview processes involve some form of synchronous communication